Decline of the Yankees Was No Accident, by George

Amid urban rubble, Yankee Stadium stands as a majestic monument to baseball. Within the walls of this palace, however, some of the seediness of the exterior surroundings has seeped through. The Yankees, once the mightiest of sports franchises, have decayed.

How it happened that the Yankees went from an annual contender to a club with the worst record in the major leagues is no great surprise. Instability in the front office and the dugout has led them to these circumstances. It is as simple as that.

All signs point to the impatience of principal owner George Steinbrenner. That, in itself, is nothing new. Even in prosperous years, Steinbrenner hired and fired general managers and managers with reckless abandon, which convinced him the approach could produce positive results.

The constant turmoil (18 managers, 12 general managers, 23 pitching coaches) has finally caught up with the Yankees, who no longer attract the top executives and players in the game. For the second time in their history, the Yankees had merely one representative -- Steve Sax -- on the American League All-Star team. The franchise is being run by career minor league executive George Bradley out of an office in Tampa, Fla., also the site of Steinbrenner’s corporate headquarters.

Is this any way to run a franchise? Yes, as far as Steinbrenner is concerned. He defends the Yankees operation with the tiresome recounting that the Yankees had the best record in the 1980s.

There is no denying that. The Yankees’ .547 winning percentage (854 victories and 708 losses) was the finest of the decade. Then again, it was the first decade since the one preceding Babe Ruth’s arrival in 1920 the Yankees did not win a World Series. In fact, they only played in one, and that was at the end of the strike-interrupted 1981 season in which the Yankees made postseason play solely on the basis of having won more games in their division in the 56 games before the walkout.

The Yankees began the ‘80s with 103 victories, their most in 13 years, and finished with 87 losses, their most in 23 seasons. Their last World Series championship came in 1978, a remarkable season, but, again, Steinbrenner had a prepared defense.

“The Indians haven’t been to the World Series since 1954 and haven’t won one since 1948,” says Steinbrenner, a Cleveland native. “Nobody says anything about them.”

Sure they do. The Indians have been a laughingstock for 30 years.

“So when’s the last time the Boston Red Sox won a World Series,” Steinbrenner continues, persistently, “1918?”

But even the fate-smitten Red Sox have been more competitive than the Yankees in recent years. The Red Sox made it to the Series in 1986, won another American League East title two years ago and are in the hunt again this season.

Meanwhile, the Yankees are drawing tiny crowds to watch second-rate baseball and losing the fence-sitting New York fans to the crosstown Mets. And former Steinbrenner employees are succeeding elsewhere.

Lou Piniella, the former Yankees player, coach, general manager and two-time manager, has the Cincinnati Reds running away with the National League West. Bob Quinn, a two-time Yankees GM, is an Executive of the Year candidate in Cincinnati. Jeff Torborg, a longtime Yankees coach, is probably a lock as Manager of the Year for keeping the Chicago White Sox in close range of the Oakland Athletics in the American League West. Woody Woodward, another former Yankees GM, is running the Seattle Mariners, who may finish above .500 for the first time in the 14-season history of that franchise.

All were dismissed or discarded by Steinbrenner, whose club is now run by a two-headed monster, Bradley and general manager Pete Peterson, already in the doghouse for botching up the paperwork on the Dave Winfield trade, which cost the Yankees $265,000 in fines.

Money, of course, is no object for the Yankees. Steinbrenner’s vault is full, thanks to a $490 million cable-TV deal from the Madison Square Garden Network. But whereas once Steinbrenner could put together the best team money can buy, his dollars are no match against other clubs that attract big-name free agents who want nothing to do with the hectic scene in the Bronx.

Steinbrenner rejects the theory the Yankees can’t get quality free agents, using the signings of Jack Clark in ’88 and Sax last year as examples. But the owner eventually had to trade Clark at the player’s request, and the signings that most illustrate the club’s recent moves were those of such career .500 pitchers as Andy Hawkins, Dave LaPoint and Pascual Perez.

“George’s problem,” Piniella says, “is that he’s always trying to patch a tire when the car needs an overhaul.”

And so, that’s where the Yankees are now, a team that needs to rebuild. The owner says he is committed to that, but in the next breath says, “I don’t know if I could stand three or four losing seasons in a row.”

Perhaps the best thing that has happened to the Yankees this year is being hopelessly out of contention. Last year and the year before, the weakness of the Anerican League East convinced them they could steal a division title, which led to moves that put the club in its current state.

The first blunder was June 21, 1988, when they acquired Ken Phelps from the Mariners. Not that Jay Buhner, who was surrendered in the exchange, has set the world on fire, but Phelps became a fifth wheel on a crumbling vehicle.

Says one former manager, “By getting Phelps, George moved Clark closer to the door. Jack liked it here and would have stayed, but there was no way to get the two of them in the same lineup. One had to go.”

Clark decided it would be him. He had the option to request a trade and asked the Yankees to send him to a National League team in Southern California, of which there are only two. The Yankees chose San Diego and settled for pitchers Jimmy Jones and Lance McCullers and outfielder Stanley Jefferson. Only Jones is still with the team, and he was just bounced from the rotation.

“The Yankees have needed a catcher for years,” one former GM said. “They had one of the most marketable players in the game and made a deal without getting Benito Santiago or Sandy Alomar Jr. in return. There’s no way you give up Clark without getting one of those guys.”

Last year with Syd Thrift and Dallas Green in charge, the organization felt Rickey Henderson was not worth the $3 million-a-year contract extension he sought and decided to trade him. One hitch. Henderson had a no-trade clause and told the Yankees Oakland was the only place he’d go. They complied and dealt him for pitchers Greg Cadaret and Eric Plunk and outfielder Luis Polonia. None raised the Yankees’ level of play as Henderson ignited the A’s to a World Series championship.

“They pulled the trigger too quickly on that deal,” one scout says. “Rickey had them under the gun, but the A’s were desperate to get him. The Yankees had to hold out for better players, a Todd Burns and a Felix Jose. You can’t trade a Rickey Henderson for players the A’s didn’t want in the first place.”

In yielding two productive offensive forces without getting an every-day player or a quality pitcher in return, the Yankees stripped themselves to the point it may take years to recover.

“George will tell you the decisions are made by his baseball people,” a scout says. “Don’t let him kid you. He always has the final word. If he doesn’t think a move should be made, it doesn’t get done.”

Now fans are told a youth movement is in place, but the organization is thin in talent after years of squandering amateur draft choices for free agents. The Yankees have had a first-round draft choice only twice the past 12 years.

But there may be hope. Steinbrenner is under investigation by commissioner Fay Vincent and faces the possibility of a suspension. A prolonged absence could be just what the Yankees need to turn the franchise around.