COMMENTARY : A Not-So-Dandy Yankee Doodles

There was a time in the 1970s when Gabe Paul ran George Steinbrenner’s baseball operation and did such a good job of it that the Yankees won two World Series in a row. Steinbrenner helped him with two crucial buys from the Oakland A’s: First, Catfish Hunter, then Reggie Jackson. Paul did the rest. He didn’t make the flashy moves, just the right ones. Perhaps his greatest skill was being able to step in before Steinbrenner did something really stupid.

Then Paul was gone. It didn’t seem very important at the time. But the Yankees never won again.

For most of the 1980s, all we saw in the Yankee front office was Steinbrenner’s Crack Baseball Committee, known here as the CBC. He ran through team presidents and general managers and advisers the way he ran through managers.

Steinbrenner running things simply meant running good people off. Steinbrenner ran off Al Rosen, and Syd Thrift and Bob Quinn, who later would become baseball’s executive of the year when the Cincinnati Reds won the 1990 World Series. The list is much longer than that. And the Yankees did not make it back to the World Series after 1981.

Now, Steinbrenner has his best team in years. It was built with great care by a smart general manager, Gene Michael, and a gifted young field manager, Buck Showalter. Last year, the Yankees were 70-43 and good enough to win the World Series. They might be good enough to win the World Series this year. It is why this is the worst possible time for Steinbrenner to start running the Yankees by committee again.

“We’re doing this my way,” Steinbrenner keeps telling his baseball people. Only his way has not worked in nearly 20 years.

Maybe Steinbrenner thinks it is the 1970s all over again. He has always wanted everything to be the 1970s all over again, in the newspapers and in the clubhouse and on the field. He bought Catfish and Reggie then, he buys Jack McDowell and John Wetteland now. Maybe he thinks the rest of the American League East will quit because he has added those two star pitchers. It is crazy, as crazy as Steinbrenner treating Michael like a bellhop all of a sudden because Michael was arrested and charged with drunk driving a few weeks ago.

No one around the Yankees believes Michael will survive past this season, when his contract ends. But for this season, one when Steinbrenner has a chance to be back on top, he should stop acting like a vindictive idiot and let his general manager do his job.

There is no crisis behind the scenes, at least not yet. But there already are too many days when Steinbrenner acts like a nut. He will only get worse when the Yankees are into the season. In the past, Michael has at least slowed him down and kept him off Showalter. He has acquired Paul’s skill of stopping Steinbrenner from doing serious damage to the season. Michael also has a wonderful feel for what the Yankees need, and what his manager needs. He doesn’t make flashy moves, just the right ones.

But Steinbrenner sometimes goes days without talking to him. It means the Crack Baseball Committee is back. It wouldn’t matter if the Yankees were a lock. But you cannot look at the Orioles and the Blue Jays and say they are a lock. The Yankees might not need their general manager right now. They will. The only one not smart enough to figure that out is the owner.

“We’re doing this my way,” Steinbrenner snarls.

His way hasn’t worked since Jimmy Carter was president.