THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, January 18, 1995 TAG: 9501180585
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Medium: 77 lines
George Steinbrenner, conspicuously silent during major league baseball's labor strife, surfaced at Chrysler Hall on Tuesday and put a happy face on his profile as the scourge of New York.
To the patrons of The Norfolk Forum lecture series, the Yankees' principal owner and all-powerful Boss for two decades - in tuxedo and plaid bow-tie - spoke of baseball, big money, the tragedy that men can walk on the moon but kids can't walk their street at night.
He drew applause and laughs and charmed his listeners. He fired no one.
Presumably.
It was in keeping with the gentler image Steinbrenner insisted he would adopt March 1, 1993, the day he returned to baseball after a 2 1/2-year suspension by then-commissioner Fay Vincent for paying a gambler $40,000 to dig up dirt on former Yankee Dave Winfield.
The edges have remained softened, to the dismay of New York's tabloids. Steinbrenner has let his manager, Buck Showalter, do his job. He has enthusiastically supported acting commissioner Bud Selig and the owners' negotiating committee without forcing himself into the talks.
He is no less impassioned, apparently just more in control.
``Winning is very important to me,'' he said. ``In fact, it's the second-most important thing in the world to me. First is breathing.''
Considering that, and baseball's alien landscape, the temptation is to point at the 64-year-old Steinbrenner and ask what he has wrought.
Nearly 20 years ago, it was Steinbrenner who threw money at some of baseball's first big-name free agents, Catfish Hunter and Reggie Jackson, giving birth to the phrase ``buying a pennant.'' Their contracts, less than $500,000 per season but landmarks then, were the forerunners to the multimillion dollar deals that owners say have plunged baseball to the depths.
Steinbrenner, who has made noise about moving the Yankees out of New York, might be various incarnations of the devil to many New Yorkers. But he won't take the heat for leading baseball toward ruin.
``No, I won't,'' Steinbrenner said. ``I said from the start, if free agency is part of the game, if you're making it the rules of the game, I want to win for Yankee fans. If it was in the rules, I was going to use it.''
Like most owners, Steinbrenner insists salary escalation for stars didn't paint the game into a corner as much as arbitration, where journeymen become millionaires.
``That is the disease,'' Steinbrenner said. ``I said at the time, I stood up at the meeting and said don't give in on arbitration. I don't think half the people understood what was going to happen.''
Exactly when Steinbrenner will begin to throw his weight around in these negotiations remains unknown, though he hinted he is ready to enlist.
A full plate of endeavors has kept him on the sidelines, he said. Steinbrenner is vice president of the U.S. Olympic Committee, bid unsuccessfully for the NFL's Tampa Bay Buccaneers with the expressed purpose of keeping them in Tampa and is trying to save an orchestra.
But duty could soon call. Steinbrenner said he would recommend changing faces at the negotiating table because of animosities that might have built up since August.
He'll dive into the fray if Selig asks. Either way, with clubs apparently intent on starting the season with replacement players, talks must resume immediately, he said.
``I mean, like yesterday,'' Steinbrenner said. ``If they don't get back to that table, we've got serious problems.
``The most resilient thing I've ever been connected with is baseball.
``But at the same time, if it goes into this season very far, there will be irreparable harm, yes.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
JOSEPH JOHN KOTLOWSKI/Staff
``Winning is very important to me,'' George Steinbrenner said
Tuesday in Norfolk. ``In fact, it's the second-most important thing
in the world to me. First is breathing.''
by CNB