Winfield Plays Down News of Spira Ruling

“It means nothing to me,” Dave Winfield said, but his smile and his desire for details said something else.

Howard Spira, the admitted gambler whose association with George Steinbrenner led to the New York Yankee owner’s ouster from baseball, was convicted by a federal jury Wednesday of trying to extort money from Steinbrenner.

“I wasn’t there,” Winfield said, claiming unfamiliarity with the details of the case because of his distance from New York. “I don’t know what people are talking about between all of them--all of those conspirators. All I know is there are a lot of conspirators back there.”

Spira, 32, was convicted of five of six counts in his dealings with Steinbrenner, including using the mail and telephone to make extortion demands.

Spira said a $40,000 payment from Steinbrenner was a legitimate payment for allegedly discrediting information about Winfield, with whom Steinbrenner was feuding.

Steinbrenner said he paid Spira for a variety of reasons that included fear and charity for Spira’s parents.

The conviction was seen as a victory for Steinbrenner, but to Winfield, all those involved in the case are his opponents.

“I have a lot of thoughts and opinions and all that kind of thing, but it’s not the right time or setting,” Winfield said. “It’s not really appropriate to talk about it. I don’t feel like it.”

Spira was convicted of one count of trying to extort an unspecified amount of money from Earle Lilly, a Houston attorney involved in a Texas matrimonial lawsuit against Winfield, and acquitted of a second count involving the lawyer.

“You’re dealing with a lot of people conspiring to do harm to me in one way or another,” Winfield said. “This kid, Spira, this Earle Lilly, they’ve all been pulled into the same situation.”

Winfield’s perspective stems from what he feels became a flogging of his own public image.

“I don’t remember when it was, the date, but Spira was on television, in the newspapers, on the radio for an entire week, making all kinds of ludicrous claims and associations in an attempt to implicate my name, to try to ruin or destroy somebody,” Winfield said. “He was casting all kinds of aspersions and saying all kinds of things. You wonder where this comes from.”

People may later hear that the accusations were unfounded, but Winfield believes they often remember the lie.

“I had to deal with it a lot in New York. Because you survive or do well, people say, ‘Way to go, Winfield.’ I had to endure it from a lot of sources. A lot of people.

“That kind of thing in New York distracted me for the longest time. It’s outside the game. I don’t want to get into that soap opera.”

With the Yankees at Anaheim Stadium Wednesday for a game against the Angels, Winfield had little choice, facing the press before the game, as reporters sought his reaction. They are called the notorious New York press, but mostly they are a friendly, bantering group.

“Anything else?” Winfield asked, jovially. “What about that drive to left? What about that hit to right?”

“We take it one day at a time,” one of the New York writers told Winfield. “That was yesterday.”

Times wire services contributed to this story.