THE BRONX BUMMER : Piniella’s Yankees Are Contending, but the Boss Is Fuming

Are those pinstripes or puncture wounds? What has George Steinbrenner said today? Whom has he stuck his fangs into this time? The New York Yankees move into Anaheim Stadium tonight struggling to (1) stay alive in the American League East, (2) survive a debilitating siege of injuries and (3) weather the latest verbal storm, of which owner Steinbrenner has been the characteristic eye.

Haven’t the Yankees built up an immunity by now?

“You never become immune to it,” says Dave Winfield, a favorite Steinbrenner target. “But the outer layer of skin has thickened considerably over the years. Mine has, at least. This year, the man is just spreading it around.”

It was two weeks ago that the man came down hard and nasty on Manager Lou Piniella. Hadn’t Piniella kept a team of uncertain pitching and rotating personnel in first place for 62 days? Didn’t the injuries to center fielder Rickey Henderson and second baseman Willie Randolph, the offensive catalysts, have a lot to do with the club’s fall from the top? Weren’t the Yankees still within two or three games of the lead with seven or eight weeks to play? The fact that the answers are all affirmative didn’t stop Steinbrenner, who has always seemed to operate on the basis of ego rather than evidence.

So now the Yankees can’t go to work without a barrage of questions about the status of their manager and the pressure it has created on the players. Steinbrenner has said that Piniella is safe for the remainder of the year, but what does that mean? He has also said that it was a mistake to hire a manager who lacked minor league experience. He has also made 14 managerial changes in 15 years as owner, not to mention the 19 times he has changed pitching coaches.

Piniella had hoped it would be different and had reason to believe it would be. But now he feels as if his “heart has been ripped out.” He is trying not to manage as if it’s a day-to-day proposition, but isn’t it always just that for a Yankee manager? Billy Martin, a Yankee manager on four different occasions, sits in the press box as a TV analyst, yearns to manage again and has Steinbrenner’s ear as a special adviser. Clyde King, a former Yankee manager and general manager, is traveling with the club as a Steinbrenner observer. Joe Altobelli, the former manager of the Baltimore Orioles and San Francisco Giants who is another of the owner’s advisers, is also traveling with the club as an observer.

No Yankee manager has survived two consecutive full seasons since Martin in 1976 and ’77. Piniella needs 46 games to match that accomplishment, but he hasn’t talked with the owner in two weeks.

Winfield shook his head. “Sometimes the toughest thing to deal with around here isn’t the opposing pitcher but the environment itself,” he said. “Sometimes it’s tough to keep your mind on the job.”

The theory has been that Steinbrenner does this to motivate the Yankees, to get them angry, to get their adrenaline pounding. Randolph, the team captain, said the Yankees shouldn’t have anything to prove to George Steinbrenner.

“I want to win for the fans, for ourselves and for Lou,” he said. “He’s supported us. He’s been behind us. I think we resent what he’s been made to go through, but you can’t let it affect what you have to do. I’ve learned that it’s better to try to not react to the type of things that happen around here.”

It had been a comparatively peaceful year for a team whose potentially potent lineup has been handicapped by a series of injuries.

Yankee players have missed more than 290 games because of injuries. Twelve players have gone on the disabled list, including Henderson twice. The leadoff man has missed more than 50 games because of a hamstring pull that continues to sideline him. Randolph, who hits behind him, has missed more than 30 games because of a tender left knee that was operated on July 17 and continues to trouble him. Henderson and Randolph have combined to score five runs since the All-Star break, a period in which the Yankees are 15-20, having lost 9 of their last 13 games to drop four games behind the Detroit Tigers. In addition, the prolific Don Mattingly has missed 23 games with back and wrist injuries, and now Wayne Tolleson, the steady shortstop, is on the disabled list, meaning the Yankees are without three-fourths of their interior defense: Henderson, Tolleson and Randolph.

Piniella, in turn, has welcomed 40 players to his roster, including 16 pitchers, 11 of whom have started as members of a rotation that even now includes only three certain starters: Rick Rhoden, Tommy John and Ron Guidry. Twenty players have performed in both New York and Columbus, Ohio, site of the Yankees’ Triple-A farm club, commuting on what is known as the Columbus Shuttle. Pitcher Pete Filson was called up and sent back even before he had pitched in a game with the Yankees. That’s often the way it is under Steinbrenner. Players have been sent out for reasons of spite, to be taught lessons. Sometimes the manager is appraised of the move and sometimes not. The injuries have helped grease the revolving door.

“I don’t know if I can make myself clear on this,” Winfield said, standing by his locker during a recent series in Seattle, “but the team we had, the team we knew we could win with, that we expected to win with, that we believed we could win with . . . well, when you lose two guys like Willie and Rickey, two of the best run producers in the league, when you change players as often as we do, the doubts creep in, the confidence and chemistry isn’t the same.

“We’ve battled, worked hard and struggled, then we get kicked and the manager questioned (by Steinbrenner). The injuries are tough enough. Then we have to ride out all of that other stuff again.”

The owner ignited it Aug. 8 when he dictated a long and rambling statement to publicity director Harvey Greene in response to what he called inaccurate newspaper accounts aimed at creating sensationalism in regard to possible roster moves and his relationship with Piniella.

The statement blasted Piniella for failing to be available for a scheduled phone call from his boss and seemed designed to undercut the manager’s clubhouse relationships. Steinbrenner said that Piniella wanted to send out catcher Mark Salas because he considered Salas “a bum;” that he had wanted to disable Henderson right away because he felt Henderson was “jaking it--his teammates were mad at him and he wanted guys who wanted to play,” and that he (Piniella) felt he “would win it all without Henderson.” Steinbrenner said he did not plan to talk with Piniella in the near future and would stay out of Yankee affairs.

“A couple of the players think I should not get involved as much as I have been all year to this point--fine,” the statement read. “That’s OK with me. I’ve got enough other things to do. We’ll just try it that way, and we’ll see how well they do. They think they can do better that way, that’s just fine. I’ll keep the whole month of October open, anxiously awaiting the World Series at Yankee Stadium. They can put up or shut up. Maybe it’s about time for it.”

The next day, Piniella released a brief statement of his own, saying he disagreed with many of Steinbrenner’s points and complimented the players on their efforts. He added: “We’ve got a chance to win a pennant, and that’s what’s on my mind--winning. Nothing more, nothing less. I don’t think the players need these distractions.”

In response to ensuing questions, Piniella said the word “bum” is not in his vocabulary, but he did not deny accusing Henderson of having “jaked it.” He has since met with Henderson in an effort to rebuild their relationship, but Henderson isn’t entirely appeased. He doesn’t expect to be 100% until Sept. 1 and said the Yankees are paying a price for having rushed him when he was first on the disabled list.

“I tried to play for them when I wasn’t ready,” he said, “and my reward is that they accuse me of jaking. Maybe they should trade me. I don’t want to be traded, but I know there are a lot of teams out there I can help.”

The Yankee players read Piniella’s statement and endorsed it.

Said Mattingly, at the time: “We’re behind Lou 100%. We’re on the same side. We all know where we stand.”

Mattingly had recently been going at Steinbrenner himself, after the owner had suggested that he (Mattingly) find a way to pursue his career elsewhere. He alluded to Steinbrenner’s statement, copies of which were reportedly burned by players in the clubhouse, and said: “The only positive thing to come out of that is that he says he’s going to butt out. We like that.”

Steinbrenner, of course, hasn’t butted out. He responded to an ensuing four-game losing streak by telling the New York Times that to tell the guy who signs the paychecks to butt out is like throwing down the gauntlet, that he refused to blame injuries for the Yankees’ recent problems, that he didn’t know what would happen with the manager but that he wouldn’t let the Yankees fall out of the race and that it was a mistake not to have demanded that Piniella manage in the minors.

Then, last Wednesday, Steinbrenner called USA Today with news that he intended to let Piniella remain for the rest of the season.

“What does that really mean?” a heated Piniella asked reporters in Seattle. “Am I safe for a week, a month, a year? I don’t feel I should have to defend myself and I’m tired of having to do it. I feel I’ve done a damn good job with what I’ve had to work with. There have been a lot of times when it’s been hard putting a lineup on the field or remembering who’s on the roster. How many injuries have we had? What’s the middle of our lineup been hitting? To compound it, we don’t have any team speed. We don’t have a way to steal a run.

“There’s never a right time for a team to go through this, but we’ll come out of it. We’re still alive, very much so. I don’t feel that I’m managing every game like it’s my last game, and the players shouldn’t feel that way either.”

The players seem to feel that they can control only their own destiny.

“Maybe we’ve all been trying so hard for Lou that we’ve ended up going backward a bit,” relief ace Dave Righetti said. “The key is that we’ve got to get healthy, that’s all there is to it. With all the injuries we’ve had, we’re fortunate to be as close as we are.”

The availability of Randolph and Henderson remains uncertain. The Yankees, however, could get well in another way. They play 24 of their last 36 games at home, where they are 38-19. In the meantime, can they live with the inevitable chaos? Tommy John said that most of it stemmed from media that have reacted like sharks to a shipwreck.

“George Steinbrenner has a perfect right to say what he wants,” John said. “He’s the owner. He wants to win. The only players it really affects are those players whose status depends on game-to-game performance. Fortunately, the Yankees are a lot like a George Allen team. We have a lot of veterans. As a team, we’re still absolutely confident we can play with anybody in baseball.”

Said Righetti: “I’ve been through this nine other times. You never like to see it, but it goes with the territory. You get upset, then let it go and do your job. We all feel badly for Lou, but he knew what it would be like. The phone in that office rings a lot, and we all know who’s calling. I mean, Lou’s been taking the heat that the players used to take. I’m sure he’s taken a lot more than anybody really knows. I tend to think he’s holding up very well.”

A coach who requested anonymity disagreed.

“He’s tough but he’s been hurt,” the coach said. “You can see the toll it’s taken on him. It’s like being hit on the head with a mallet all the time. You can’t win no matter what kind of a job you do, and he’s done a great one. The players know that. They’re behind him 100%.”

Piniella was one of them for 11 years, a pro’s pro, a hitter’s hitter. He joined the Yankees in 1974, a year after Steinbrenner, and is the only man to have worn a uniform under Steinbrenner for that entire period. The Piniella and Steinbrenner families have been Florida neighbors and friends for many years.

“I thought it might be different for me,” Piniella said, meaning different from the way it was for his predecessors. “I don’t know why, but I did. I realize now that I should have known better.”