BASEBALL / ROSS NEWHAN : Steinbrenner’s Moves Have Hurt Yankees

The numbers that indict the New York Yankees’ George Steinbrenner for failing to act in the best interest of baseball aren’t those on the $40,000 check he gave alleged gambler Howard Spira, whom New York Times columnist Dave Anderson recently referred to in print as the principal owner’s principal sleaze.

The critical numbers are those that help explain how the absence of continuity and consistency during the reign of King George has turned one of sports’ most famous and successful franchises into a decayed and dormant dynasty.

“One of George’s problems,” Cincinnati Reds Manager Lou Piniella said in his office the other day, “is that he is always trying to patch a tire when the car needs an overhaul.”

The patches reflect the turnover and turmoil, of which Piniella was a part. He was fired twice as manager. It is there that a brief examination of the numbers starts:

--There have been 18 managerial changes, 12 general managers and 23 pitching coaches since the coronation in 1973. Steinbrenner likes to say that his “baseball people” call the shots, but only Steinbrenner survives. The madcap operation now includes co-general managers, Pete Pederson in New York and George Bradley in Tampa. The result: often contradictory statements on the same subject, with Steinbrenner still calling the shots.

--The patchwork signings of .500 (or below) pitchers such as Andy Hawkins, Pascual Perez and Dave LaPoint reflect a pattern. The Yankees, through the All-Star break, had used 62 starting pitchers since 1983 and 157 players. Of the 50 starting pitchers they had used since ‘84, only 26 remain in the major leagues. And only Don Mattingly and Dave Righetti remain from the ’86 spring roster.

--Signing free agents has deprived the Yankees of a first-round selection in 10 of the last 12 amateur drafts. Steinbrenner went through 10 scouting directors in 10 years before Brian Sabean began to sort out the mess four years ago. How bad was it in the bushes? At least 20 Yankee scouts quit between 1983 and ’87. Steinbrenner was so angry that he refused to release the names of Yankee scouts in 1988 and ’89.

And there’s more, of course. The Yankees have nothing to show for trading Fred McGriff, Jim Deshaies, Doug Drabek, Willie McGee, Keith Miller, Greg Gagne, Mike Pagliarulo and many others. What do they have to show for trading Rickey Henderson and Jack Clark? Three middle relievers--Greg Cadaret, Eric Plunk and Jimmy Jones.

Steinbrenner is quick to say that the Yankees had baseball’s best record in the ‘80s, but it was also the first decade since Babe Ruth’s acquisition in 1920 that the Yankees didn’t win a World Series.

The erosion has left the 1990 team with baseball’s worst record. It is last or close to it in virtually every statistical category in the American League and headed for 100 or more losses for the first time since 1912.

Commissioner Fay Vincent is expected to rule on Steinbrenner’s status late this week. “George Must Go” banners wave at Yankee Stadium, but all of the above is not enough for Vincent to order his permanent expulsion or a sale of the Yankees.

If the commissioner could act strictly on the basis of the standings--on hirings, firings and mismanagement--he would be turning over owners faster than even Steinbrenner turns over his personnel.

Vincent can order a suspension, but he can’t prevent a father from calling his son to check on how things are going. Hank Steinbrenner, 32, has been reorganizing his dad’s Florida horse farm, but he’s scheduled to take a new and stronger role in the operation of the Yankees, starting in August.

Joe Morgan will be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Aug. 5. Another cog in Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine of the 1970s will enter a correctional facility in Marion, Ill., five days later, his own Hall of Fame candidacy clouded by a conviction for tax evasion and a ban from baseball for gambling.

What will life be like for Pete Rose during his five months at Marion? According to authorities, it will be as follows: wakeup call at 6:30 a.m., breakfast at 7, report to work (mopping floors, washing dishes, making furniture, etc.) at 7:30, lunch at noon, off at 3:30 p.m., call to bunks at 9:30, lights out by 11:30.

No golf, Porsche, satellite dish or personal appearances. The restrictions will ease during his next three months in a Cincinnati halfway house, but Rose will still have a 9 p.m. curfew and be required to sign out, sign in and verify his whereabouts any time he leaves.

So much for the lifestyle known as La Vie en Rose.

If anything, Detroit’s interest in Kirk Gibson is intensifying, principally because the absence of a No. 5 hitter is finally taking a toll on Cecil Fielder, who had 43 strikeouts and 23 hits in his last 115 at-bats through Saturday. Pitchers are working around the Tigers’ clean-up hitter, daring him to swing at pitches he can’t reach.

“You go up there aggressive, and when the ball’s all over the place, you’re going to swing at bad pitches,” said Fielder, who has been reluctant to criticize the lack of production behind him. “But I’m going to stay aggressive. When you go up there passive, that’s when good pitches get by you.”

Jose Canseco is closing in on Fielder in the American League home run derby. Fielder has 31 homers, Canseco 28 despite missing 20 games with wrist and back injuries.

“If I had played that month, I’d be way ahead of Cecil Fielder,” the right fielder of the Oakland Athletics said.

The losses mount for Greg Riddoch--five pounds and six games through his first seven games at the helm of the San Diego Padres.

In addition, faced by erratic and lackluster play by Roberto Alomar in Alomar’s reluctant move to shortstop, Riddoch has benched the All-Star second baseman.

“It just looks to me like he’s tired, and tired takes in a whole lot of definitions,” Riddoch said. Garry Templeton, the former shortstop who has been working with Alomar, said: “If his head isn’t in it, it’s not going to happen for him, and sometimes I don’t know where his head is.”

The Atlanta Braves, rejected for a second consecutive year by the player they wanted to select in the first round of the amateur draft, are talking about seeking changes in the system.

Last year, the Braves wanted to pick John Olerud, who had a year of eligibility left at Washington State. Olerud, however, said he wouldn’t sign with the Braves, and was left to be taken by the Toronto Blue Jays, for whom he is already paying dividends as a designated hitter.

This year, the Braves had the No. 1 pick and wanted everyone’s No. 1, high school pitcher Todd Van Poppel of Arlington, Tex. Van Poppel, however, told the Braves he was committed to the University of Texas and determined to play in the 1992 Olympic Games.

A negotiating ploy? The A’s, who drafted 14th and had seven picks in the first two rounds, were willing to risk their first one, fearing that Van Poppel’s hometown Texas Rangers, who drafted 16th, would do it if they didn’t.

The risk paid off--at least in getting Van Poppel under contract. He spurned the Longhorns in favor of a three-year, $1.3-million deal with the A’s, a draft record.

“This is a unique player who has a unique contract he signed with us under unique circumstances,” A’s General Manager Sandy Alderson said.

The spurned Braves, who drafted and signed shortstop Chipper Jones as their No. 1 pick, will lobby for a change that would be a spinoff of the NBA draft, in which any player who commits to the draft would forfeit his college eligibility (and alternatives), an unlikely proposition considering the large number of high school players in the baseball draft.

Said Brave President Stan Kasten, alluding to Van Poppel: “What are you going to do if a young man looks you in the eye and says he won’t sign? Given our position, to have gone ahead and drafted him wasn’t an acceptable risk.”