COMMENTARY : Now, Yankees Can Challenge Indians

The Yankees did not just make moves to try to win the American League East title. They made big, tough moves that will level the field against the Indians, if they end up playing Cleveland for the pennant.

David Cone is a Yankee now, a couple of years later than he thought he would be. Better late than never. Ruben Sierra is a Yankee. This is the way the season was supposed to feel all along. Maybe the real fight for the American League championship starts now.

The Mets also made a move. They traded Bobby Bonilla to the Orioles for a couple of young outfielders, one of whom--Alex Ochoa--is supposed to be very big in the future. The Mets always are trading for the future. Three years ago, at this time of year, they traded Cone for Ryan Thompson and Jeff Kent, who were supposed to be the future. Maybe this turns out to be the deal that helps the Mets fight the Yankees someday, for the championship of baseball New York. But not now.

Because for now, baseball New York belongs to the Yankees. They only are concerned with the present. Cone and Sierra are Yankees and Darryl Strawberry is supposed to show up one of these days.

It would have been a wonderful thing for the Yankees to even get a warm body for Danny Tartabull. In Sierra, the Yankees get a hothead instead, but one who can switch hit and do that with some pop. Cone matters more. The Yankees needed starting pitching more than they needed hitting. Three years ago, Cone left New York and helped pitch the Blue Jays all the way to the World Series. Now he returns to New York and tries to do the same for the Yankees.

I asked Gene Michael, the Yankee general manager, about Cone and Sierra. “If you get them both, do you think you could beat the Indians?”

There was a long pause and finally Michael said, “I’d like our chances.”

“Why?”

“Because we’ve beaten them in the past,” Michael said.

At the time, Michael said he was spending half of his phone time talking about Cone, the other half talking about Sierra. This week there was a payoff. Michael gave up three minor league kids--Marty Janzen, Jason Jarvis, Mike Gordon--for Cone. Getting Sierra for Tartabull was the same as getting him for nothing. These were deals that had to be made, even if all three pitchers the Yankees gave up for Cone become stars. It has been too many years for the Yankees since they have played big games in October.