TOUCHE : Yankees Respond in Kind to Steinbrenner’s Criticism

George Steinbrenner made the charges Monday, they were printed in two New York newspapers Tuesday morning.

They were charges from the New York Yankee owner against his three Yankees on the American League All-Star team. They were charges that questioned pride and effort.

More than anything, they were charges that called for a response.

Tuesday night, in front of a nation, Steinbrenner got one.

In helping lead the American League to a 2-1 victory over the National League in the 59th All-Star game, Yankee outfielder Dave Winfield hit a record-tying double and scored the eventual winning run. Yankee first baseman Don Mattingly made the game-saving defensive play. And Yankee outfielder Rickey Henderson, although not playing a heroic role like the other two, went 1 for 2 and walked away with a smile.

In all, a nice evening for three players whom Steinbrenner had said, “I’m not sure if they have what it takes to win.”

Whatever that is, Tuesday night they had it.

“It’s always good to do something good after somebody has said something negative about you,” Henderson said. “It’s always nice to make a guy look bad.”

First, Steinbrenner said Mattingly was the most “unproductive .300 hitter in baseball.”

Then he chided Winfield, whose recent autobiography has been a big success, for “running around signing books.”

Then he concluded this of all three players:

“I’m not sure if they have what it takes to win . . . Our success or failure rides with the guys making $2 million a year. They’re the ones being paid to carry the team.

“It’s time for total dedication to the task. No more endorsements or running around signing books. I’m convinced we have too many me-first guys here. I think when I see Winfield going out every day promoting his book on the day of the game, he’s thinking about himself, not the team.”

The players were read the comments before Tuesday’s game. They at once frowned and chuckled.

Start with Mattingly. In the seventh inning with the AL leading, 2-1, the NL put runners on first and second with two outs and left-handed hitting Andy Van Slyke of Pittsburgh batting. Mattingly whistled over to Baltimore shortstop Cal Ripken and held open his left palm.

“That’s what everybody uses for, ‘If the ball is coming to me, I’m going to you at second base,” Mattingly explained.

Sure enough, the ball came to his side. But not to him. It was a sharp grounder between Mattingly and second baseman Harold Reynolds.

“A base hit, a tie game,” Reynolds said later. “No question.”

Except Mattingly dived, came up with it and threw to a stunned Ripken for the third out.

“It was as if before the play, he knew where it was going,” Ripken said. “That kind of play lifts him a step above everybody else.”

Said Mattingly with a shrug: “It’s happened before. I saw the ball off the bat and was lucky enough to get in front of it. It’s easier for me to go to second because I’m left-handed.”

No sooner did somebody mention Steinbrenner’s name than Mattingly shook his head.

“No, it doesn’t make it any better because somebody said something about me,” he said. “I like to make that kind of play anywhere, anytime.

“If George has a problem with me, he should come to me and we’ll lock the door behind us and have it out.”

Now for Winfield, whose fourth-inning double off Houston’s Bob Knepper gave him a seven-game All-Star hitting streak, tying him with Mickey Mantle and Joe Morgan for the record. It also was his seventh double in 12 All-Star games, extending a record he already held.

“He (Steinbrenner) has nothing to do with the way I play,” Winfield said. “He did not make me a good player, and he has done nothing to make me a better player.”

Before the game, upon hearing the comments, Winfield had said: “He (Steinbrenner) doesn’t even deserve to be at this game. People of his caliber shouldn’t be here. We are having fun, he should steal the stage. We are here with nice people.”

Winfield spent Monday afternoon promoting his book at a shop across from the all-star’s hotel here.

“I think that helped me tonight,” Winfield said late Tuesday with another grin, and what sounded very much like a last laugh.