Steinbrenner Said to Fear for Family : Hearing: Transcript of meetings with Vincent reportedly tells of owner’s explanation for $40,000 payment to gambler.

George Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees, told Commissioner Fay Vincent that he paid $40,000 to gambler Howie Spira because he feared Spira would harm him or his family, the National reported in its Wednesday editions.

The paper, quoting from the transcript of Steinbrenner’s two-day hearing with Vincent July 5-6, said Steinbrenner also feared that Spira would reveal information about two employees who stole from the team and on the gambling habits of former Yankee player, manager and general manager Lou Piniella, who now manages the Cincinnati Reds.

The newspaper said Vincent repeatedly chastised Steinbrenner for failing to contact either legal authorities or the commissioner’s office despite his avowed fear of Spira and his concern about making a payment to a known gambler against the advice of his own legal advisers.

Vincent also noted that Steinbrenner accepted theft by two of his employees without going to authorities or the commissioner’s office at the same time he was involved in a legal battle with outfielder Dave Winfield.

“It doesn’t really matter,” Vincent said of Steinbrenner’s reasons for making the payment. “The real issue is, ‘What did you do? Why did you do it?’ ”

Rich Levin, a spokesman for major league baseball, said the commissioner’s office would have no comment on the story in the National.

Piniella downplayed the inclusion of his name and purported gambling habits.

“I talked to George earlier about this,” Piniella told the National on Tuesday, “about it coming up that I go to horse tracks. I’ve gone to tracks before. It has always been a source of relaxation for me. I’ve owned horses with George. . . . As for anything else, there’s no foundation. I don’t know anything about it.”

The Yankee employees referred to in the transcript are Pat Kelly, longtime stadium manager, and David Weidler, former controller and chief financial officer of the club. Steinbrenner testified that both took various giveaway items, “great bulks of them, and selling them to this fellow or giving them to him . . . at this warehouse,” the National said. Steinbrenner fired both without informing the commissioner’s office, a point that shocked Vincent.

According to the transcript, Steinbrenner was convinced that the Winfield Foundation was rife with improprieties. During the testimony, he even mentions a conversation in which then-commissioner Peter Ueberroth advised him that “we wouldn’t touch the Winfield Foundation with a 10-foot pole.” Spira, a former Winfield Foundation employee, promised to gather information on the outfielder and the foundation, an association that eventually led to the $40,000 payment.

The National also said Steinbrenner wrote a letter to the commissioner after the hearings, acknowledging that, “in hindsight, I used poor judgment in giving Spira the $40,000,” but added, “I do not believe it is fair to judge me in hindsight. . . . I do not believe my actions were contrary to the best interests of baseball.”

He concluded his letter, the paper said, by urging Vincent not to consider his suspension of 16 years ago in making his decision and offered to pay “whatever part of the investigation’s costs you deem appropriate.”

Steinbrenner was suspended in 1974 for two years by then-commissioner Bowie Kuhn for his involvement in illegal political fund-raising activities.

Steinbrenner told Vincent during the hearing he was so fearful for his family that he considered applying for a gun permit.

“He scared me and he really scared my children,” Steinbrenner said of Spira. The owner also cited “hundreds of calls to my friends and to my people that work for me,” but also said the fact that Spira said his mother had cancer motivated him to make the payment.

Vincent repeatedly questioned why Steinbrenner--who professes to have strong anti-gambling feelings--would pay $40,000 to a gambler who, from all evidence, would use the money to pay off gambling debts to bookies.

Steinbrenner said he gave Spira the money to “get out of New York, not to pay gamblers.” But he was contradicted by his own lawyer, Stephen E. Kaufman, who told Vincent, “I really think it . . . an accurate characterization to say that Mr. Steinbrenner believed the money would be used to pay gambling debts.”

“Let me clarify,” Steinbrenner then said. “It wasn’t that at all. It was to take the money and get out of town.”

Vincent, who is vacationing at his home in Harwich Port, Mass., said Tuesday he was reviewing legal papers submitted Monday by Steinbrenner’s legal team. He said he would continue his deliberations for the rest of the week and did not know how long it will take him to reach a decision, but hopes to have one in about two weeks.

“I’ve been reading the materials. I’m just about through them,” Vincent said in a telephone interview. “It was substantial.”