Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, July 19, 1990 TAG: 9007190616
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE:
DATELINE: NEW YORK LENGTH: Medium
Piniella, the former Yankee manager and present Cincinnati Reds manager, joined Weidler and former Yankee Stadium manager Pat Kelly on the growing list of people the Yankees owner has dragged into the Howard Spira-Dave Winfield affair.
Steinbrenner claims that among the reasons he gave Spira $40,000 was to keep secret embarrassing information about former Yankees. Steinbrenner said Spira had told him he had information linking Piniella to sports betting and said Weidler and Kelly stole giveaway items from the team.
"I'm upset by this. I'm embarrassed. I'm hurt," Piniella said Wednesday. "George is supposed to be my friend. He's supposed to be this guy who has this love for my family . . . I don't know if there's a way to describe how I feel right now . . . I'm really devastated by this."
The baseball commissioner's office released the 372-page transcript of the two-day hearing on Wednesday after The National published excerpts. The transcript revealed that Steinbrenner was shifting his reasoning for the payment to Spira, a 31-year-old New Yorker who supplied the Yankee owner with information about Winfield and the David M. Winfield Foundation.
"This guy changes the story about what happened more often than he changes managers," David S. Greenfield, Spira's lawyer, said of Steinbrenner.
Commissioner Fay Vincent repeatedly questioned Steinbrenner about his motivation for the payment and the clandestine way the checks were issued.
At one point, Steinbrenner said he feared Spira would talk about Piniella. Just hours after the transcript was released, the commissioner issued a statement exonerating the Cincinnati manager.
"I am satisfied that Lou Piniella did not engage in any activity warranting further attention from my office," Vincent said. "I regret that the public disclosure of this testimony had unfairly insinuated Mr. Piniella into this affair. Mr. Piniella is in good standing with me and my office."
Weidler was angry and called New York radio station WFAN to tell people about it.
"I have been a loyal employee of Mr. Steinbrenner for 18 years and I am deeply hurt that Mr. Steinbrenner has used me as a scapegoat to exonorate himself," Weidler said. "I am both infuriated and sad that he felt it necessary to make false accusations against Lou Piniella, Pat Kelly and myself."
Kelly, the former Yankee Stadium manager who now works at Joe Robbie Stadium, declined comment through the Miami Dolphins.
Steinbrenner said he feared Spira and said that reporters Moss Klein of the Newark-Star Ledger and Michael Kay of the New York Daily News had received death threats from the former gambler.
Kay declined comment on Wednesday.
"It's not completely accurate. It's an exaggeration," Klein said. "I was scared of him [Spira] because he was just getting irrational. There were implied threats, but I wouldn't call it a death threat."
The transcript revealed that Steinbrenner's lawyers wrote to Vincent on June 26 and June 29 and asked that he remove himself from the case because of bias. Vincent refused and chastised the attorneys.
"Most of this material reads more like a lecture than it does anything seriously intended to bear on any legal issues of fairness," Vincent said.
Steinbrenner's lawyers said in one letter that they were reserving the right to challenge Vincent in court. Stephen E. Kaufman, the owner's lead lawyer, declined to say Wednesday whether that still was part of the strategy.
"The hearing showed, now that the transcript is available, that our defense was based on the merits and we addressed the issues which concerned the commissioner," Kaufman said.
Spira at one point sent Steinbrenner a letter saying that his mother was sick and that if anything happened to her, "George and Dave better both hire a lot of security because then I will really be out of control."
That letter is the basis of an eight-count federal indictment charging Spira with extortion.
Greenfield said he did not believe Steinbrenner's testimony about his client's alleged threats.
"As far as the story about his family being threatened, that's just another flag put up by Steinbrenner," Greenfield said. "This flag won't fly, just as no flag has flown over the stadium in the last 13 years."
by CNB