Copyright 2004 Daily News, L.P.

Daily News (New York)
July 22, 2004 Thursday
SPORTS FINAL EDITION
SECTION: SPORTS; Pg. 66

LENGTH: 750 words

HEADLINE: NEVER HAVE ENOUGH PITCHING...& HITTING...&...

BYLINE: BY FILIP BONDY

BODY:


There are deals being made everywhere around Yankee Stadium, every single day. Mike and the Mad Dog just don't know about half of them.

A couple of weeks ago, Bald Vinny in Section 39 agreed to include the name of a Stadium employee in the ritual Bleacher Creature roll call of players during the first inning. In return, the employee delivered an autographed A-Rod baseball to Vinny from his personal stash. The deal was done, sealed with a chant.

Morality is a relative thing in the Bronx, where you follow the money through the revolving door and down the rabbit hole. George Steinbrenner's pursuit of Randy Johnson is a gambit on the grandest scale, yet it can be seen in basically the same terms as Vinny's roll-call transaction and most such covenants. The Yankees will dangle money (plus marginal prospects) at the Diamondbacks, hoping to obtain a service in exchange. Big bucks for the Big Unit. Is it outrageous, avaricious, evil? Or is it standard company business, with an interlocking N-Y?

"The Yankees, for as far back as I remember, had people shaking their heads, even before free agency," Joe Torre said yesterday, before the Yanks out-spent and whomped Toronto, 10-3. "This is the same situation. It's just the rules have changed. You work for this club, it's the same 12 months a year."

There is no doubt the Yankees require an ace at the moment. Mike Mussina can barely touch his shoulder with his hand, and Kevin Brown was last seen fighting nasty parasites and giving up five hits in four innings to Pawtucket (a Red Sox farm team!). Javier Vazquez gave up three runs and nine hits in six innings last night to Toronto. Vazquez lost his rhythm at times and walked in a run with a 5-0 lead.

"We'll be fine in two weeks," Torre figured. The Yanks look fine right now, actually, because they outscore opponents, 125-84, on most nights. It might be fun to see if they can simply crush opponents this October, the way that Anaheim did two years ago. But Torre fights a nagging suspicion that these 2004 Yankees are built very much like the Cardinals in the National League - both constructed for the six months that precede October, the only month that counts.

The Yanks surely can use Johnson. That is not even an issue. The question, for this column, is whether they can morally justify such an acquisition. That imperative, the Yankee Manifest Destiny, seems just as important sometimes to Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman as the signings themselves.

Several recent, expensive additions felt particularly gluttonous, even to Yankee fans - not because of the money, but because of heartfelt loyalties to core players. Jason Giambi replaced beloved Tino Martinez. Kenny Lofton came aboard to nudge Bernie Williams into the role of part-time center fielder. The arrival of Alex Rodriguez meant the departure of buoyant Alfonso Soriano.

In the case of Randy Johnson, this is not a problem. The Yankees' starting rotation is currently on its second or third generation of transient mercenaries. These pitchers march through here as if visiting a shopping mall. Some are likable (David Cone), some prickly (Mussina and Brown), some overzealous (Roger Clemens), some wacky (David Wells) and some just plain disappointing (Jose Contreras). Once Andy Pettitte left, there was no homegrown talent available to discard or humiliate.

Johnson would only bump Contreras, or someone of his nomadic ilk. Nothing unsettling about that. The broader issue, however, remains open for debate: Are the Yankees and their closing-in-on-$200 million payroll responsible for the decline and fall of the Selig Empire?

You're all entitled to an opinion on the matter. Cashman's old line that the Yankees are the product of their own farm system and well-researched trades is now a far-fetched notion.

The Stadium experience has been slowly corporate-ized, along with the roster. Everything is for sale, including the scoreboards and the right-field wall, where Japanese characters incongruously spell out yet another company name and embarrass Hideki Matsui.

The fans, unmindful of their crass environs, still come like crazy. The Yanks had another ridiculous crowd, 53,031 for a Wednesday night game against the last-place Blue Jays. The next four games against Toronto and Baltimore are all sold out.

So much money, so much pressure. If this is the end of baseball civilization as we know it, then it is a lucrative apocalypse. Before the flood comes, the Yanks will want one more starter aboard the ark.filipbondy@netscape.net

LOAD-DATE: July 22, 2004