Yankees May Be Under New Management

The Yankees won’t play these final two weeks simply to save their postseason lives but, as some organizational insiders suspect, to save the Yankee careers of Manager Joe Torre and General Manager Brian Cashman.

It’s a lot to bear in a city that expects championships, beneath an owner who seeks not to relieve the burden, but to exaggerate it.

The relationship between George Steinbrenner, who paid $203 million for this particular Yankee team, and Torre, who hasn’t delivered a World Series title since 2000, has deteriorated, so much so that Steinbrenner might cover the $13 million owed Torre over the next two seasons and replace him with Lou Piniella.

One team official doubts Steinbrenner would go that far, saying, “Joe’s not quitting and he’s not being fired. That’s too much money.”

And yet, no one who works -- or has worked -- for Steinbrenner can predict the cause of his next tirade, only that it’s coming, and soon, and it’ll be ugly.

Cashman, a loyal organization man who has survived two decades, has six weeks left on his contract, with potential general manager openings in Washington, Philadelphia and Baltimore ahead. Cashman attended high school in Maryland and college in Washington, D.C. Most speculation has Damon Oppenheimer, the Yankee scouting director and a teammate of Randy Johnson’s at USC, succeeding Cashman, if indeed it comes to that.

As these final 15 games play out, one can only know that nine consecutive playoff appearances and four World Series championships will save neither Torre nor Cashman, both aware that Steinbrenner is a what-have-you-won-for-me-lately boss.

The Yankees finish with three games at Fenway Park, but play the Baltimore Orioles eight times between now and then. The Red Sox play their final seven games at home.

Class Acts

Fifty-five years ago, Roland Hemond left Sacred Heart Academy in Central Falls, R.I., for the Coast Guard, where he learned how to work a typewriter. That helped him get a $28-a-week job typing scouting reports for the Boston Braves in 1951.

Next month, Hemond, the longtime general manager of the White Sox and Orioles and now an executive advisor to White Sox General Manager Kenny Williams, will take his first college class -- in computer skills.

“I learned how to turn it on recently,” he said.

A baseball lifer, Hemond for more than 30 years has urged major and minor leaguers to attain their college degrees, a pet project that recently had a breakthrough. He aligned with the University of Phoenix Online, which specializes in Web-based educations, and already has urged hundreds of players to look into the programs.

“I tell the players, I don’t know how you’re using your computers, probably playing games or watching movies,” Hemond said. “Now you can use that time more wisely.”

Neither Major League Baseball nor the players’ union tracks player graduation rates. According to a San Francisco Chronicle poll conducted in 2004, there were only 42 college graduates on 30 major league rosters.

Eduardo Perez was not among them, having left Florida State four semesters short of graduation when he was taken by the Angels in the first round of the 1991 draft. After the Hall of Fame induction ceremony in Cooperstown this summer, Hemond found himself on an airport shuttle with Eduardo’s parents, Tony and Pituka. They got to talking and today Eduardo is enrolled in University of Phoenix Online and working toward a degree in business management.

“At that point, you’re young and you think baseball is going to take care of everything,” Eduardo Perez said. “And it has, don’t get me wrong. But, for my children, I should have my degree just for them, for the example it would set.... My wife’s on me all the time, too.”

Hemond watched firsthand as Tony La Russa earned a law degree through correspondence courses with Florida State and in 1979, in his first season as manager of the White Sox, passed the bar exam. He has seen far more players wash out of the game and have nowhere to go, nothing to do.

“I’ve cared and worried about those players for a long time,” Hemond said.

Bats and Pieces

Assuming Milton Bradley’s time is up here, and recognizing most of their approaching prospects are infielders, pitchers and a catcher, the Dodgers arrive at another winter with a shortage in the outfield.

The biggest names in free agency, should they all arrive there, are Hideki Matsui, Brian Giles and Johnny Damon.

For us, in that order.

The Yankees undoubtedly will try to retain Matsui, who is being paid $8 million in the final year of his contract, and it’s no fun bidding against Steinbrenner when his heart is set on global domination.

Given plenty of time to talk contract extension with the 31-year-old outfielder and his agent, Arn Tellem, negotiations did not follow. Though Matsui has played only three major league seasons, and wouldn’t ordinarily be a free agent, his contract stipulates he be waived if there is no extension.

Meantime, Dodger GM Paul DePodesta probably now understands the risk of relying on J.D. Drew to show up every day, especially now that Drew will arrive in Vero Beach next spring recovering from as many as three surgeries.

Matsui, who is driven, affable and popular with his teammates, has not missed a game in nearly three full seasons with the Yankees, consistently hits about .300 and takes a walk. The Yankees did find that Matsui is best left in left field.

He would be a big-ticket item for Frank McCourt, and more expensive than Giles, who will be 35 in January and still fetch about $10 million a season over three or more years. But McCourt won’t be paying Darren Dreifort, Shawn Green or, possibly, Jeff Weaver anymore, a $33-million savings over this season, and the lineup and clubhouse need serious upgrades.

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Andruw Jones, who has pushed the Braves to the brink of their 14th consecutive division title, has 50 home runs, 125 RBIs and another Gold Glove coming. He could become only the ninth non-pitcher to bat less than .280 and win an MVP award, according to STATS LLC.

The last was Johnny Bench, who hit .270 in 1972. Others: Harmon Killebrew (.276 in 1969), Zoilo Versalles (.273 in 1965), Roger Maris (.269 in 1961), Yogi Berra (.272 in 1955), Hank Sauer (.270 in 1952), Marty Marion (.267 in 1944) and Johnny Evers (.279 in 1914).

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The Giants are in no position to pass on Jason Schmidt’s $10-million option for next season, not if they have any inclination to make 2006 anything other than The Barry Bonds Show, Live from the Bottom of the NL West.

With Edgardo Alfonzo, Ray Durham, Moises Alou and Bonds together for one more season in San Francisco, GM Brian Sabean will have to take one more shot with the old guys -- and take his chances with Schmidt -- before the big rebuild comes.

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Because you asked, the potential managerial openings this winter: Dodgers, Diamondbacks, Reds, Pirates, Marlins, Nationals, A’s, Rangers, Tigers, Yankees, Orioles, Devil Rays.

The Rockies won 11 of 19 games against the Dodgers and, since Aug. 24, seven of eight, so add that to the list, Things That Kept the Dodgers From Winning the Worst Division Ever.

Colorado Manager Clint Hurdle, a gruff, flattop kind of guy, derives undue satisfaction from beating the Dodgers, and if you’re manager of the Rockies, you take your satisfaction where it randomly falls.

“I never got a hit in this ballpark as a player,” Hurdle said, smiling. “I can’t find a way to bury that. I can’t bring closure to it.... I mean, marriages come and go. Not getting a hit at Dodger Stadium, that’s what dreams are made of.

“But I only think about it when I come to Dodger Stadium. Or come to California. Then I let it go. Geez, I’m just talking about getting a hit. I’m not talking about rebuilding the [Great] Wall of China.”

The wall’s still there actually (the Berlin Wall has fallen, though), and so is Hurdle’s oh-fer. In a 10-year career, he was 0 for 11 at Dodger Stadium, 0 for 13 against the Dodgers. According to STATS, he also was hitless in the Astrodome.

On the topic of rebuilding something that really has fallen down, the Rockies are the best team in the division over the second half, which looks like will be enough to keep them from losing 100 games.

It’s something.

They’ve let a lot of young players grow up. They’ll still need to coax a few pitchers into town, which won’t be easy, and they don’t yet have a catcher who can hit. They’ll have to try harder to deal Todd Helton, no matter the public relations hit, because they owe him $115 million over the next six years, their payroll is $48 million and they’re averaging fewer than 24,000 fans a game at Coors Field.

Meantime, Helton is fairly impressed at how far the kids have come, and tries not to think about the alternative: playing out his career for an organization that can’t win, because it can’t pitch, and being part of the problem.

“I’m playing in the big leagues making a lot of money,” he said. “How can I not be happy? The only thing missing is the winning. And I truly believe that’s coming.”