The first step in Yankees rebirth

Joel Sherman’s series of stories tells how the failure of the Yankees in 1990 laid the foundation for a dynasty.

The Yankees won fewer matches each year from their 97 in 1985 to 85 in 1988. But if you want to believe there are still strong competitors, of course, you can believe that.

Rickey Henderson, Don Mattingly, and Dave Winfield led the violations. Henderson stole 93 bases in ’88, Mattingly reached an average of .300 for the fifth consecutive year and Winfield finished fourth in the AL MVP vote. Ron Guidry and Willie Randolph linger from the Yankees, champions in the late 1970s. Jack Clark was one of the most feared designated hitters in the sport and Claudell Washington hit .308. John Candelaria and Rick Rhoden who led the rotation, Dave Righetti proved to be closer and Cecilio Guante was among those who had the highest arrangements in the department.

But offseason Randolph, Washington, Candelaria, Rhoden and Guante went to free agents. Clark was exchanged for two inconspicuous pitchers and backup outsiders, the same return that Yanks would receive in June 1989 for Henderson. Winfield would hurt his back, never playing in 1989 and traded in May 1990. The ragged Guidry arm did not allow him to return to majors in 1989. As with the Clark and Henderson trades, Yanks did not add talents and / or characters with each other’s replacements. They become a toy island that is not appropriate.

George Steinbrenner likes to point out that despite being a decade without a title, the Yankees won most of the majors in the 1980s. But from 1989-92, only Indians lost more than Yankees. This was a crater in 1990, when the Yankees produced their worst winning percentage (0.414) since 1913 (0.377). It was their first year to become Yankees after being known as Highland people.

“We dropped so many people from 1988, Pags [Mike Pagliarulo], Rickey, Willie, “Mattingly recalled.” And that didn’t work in ’89 and got worse after that. You do not want to follow it. When you deal with Willie Randolph, Ron Guidry, [Graig] Nettles, the people who were there when I came in, they have a different mentality than the others. That’s where I learn. Times change. Different player levels entered. We just don’t have the same team anymore. “

Trade done. This is the memory of the person involved who asked not to be identified. It was October 1988. What was lost from time and memory was whether the agreement was canceled because the mass was found in Dave Dravecky’s arm and he could not be in the package or because the mass turned to cancer and the Giants could not give up more with Dravecky’s sudden status uncertain. But before the revelation, Mattingly was being handled to San Francisco with Rhoden for Will Clark and two jugs.

This is the most vengeful George Steinbrenner. He has photographed his most popular players for years. At the 1988 All-Star break, for example, Bos described Mattingly as “the most unproductive .300 hitter in baseball.” A month later, carnations for the first time in his career retaliated, stating, “You come here and play, and they give you money but don’t respect.” He said without respect he did not want to play there and that the atmosphere was without joy.

“If you embarrass him, he will make you angry,” Mattingly recalled. “He doesn’t care about the consequences, he’ll move you. It’s different from the current owner. If he doesn’t want you there, you leave.”

But once the Giants agreement fell apart, Steinbrenner and Mattingly slowly thawed their relationship. Mattingly survived, and in the Yankee season that was lost in 1989, drove in 113 runs – 50 more than anyone in the team.

On January 22, 1990 – the same day Milli Vanilli won three American Music Awards – Clark signed a four-year, $ 15 million agreement to live in San Francisco. An average of $ 3.75 million is a record and moves Steinbrenner to complain, “How can you pay a soccer player 3,3½ million a year when the chief of staff earns only $ 77,000?”

He has his agenda with his first baseman himself. Mattingly will enter the current year and has made the Opening Day a deadline for entering into an agreement or he will not sign before the agency is free. Steinbrenner succumbed to no trade provisions, but it was enough to delay announcing the signing of his star to try to oversee the Opening Day and Game 3 Mets of the Islanders-Rangers playoff series. Mattingly was awarded five years with $ 19.3 million – trading instead of a team, but placing above the highest paid player with Clark.

“I think if I take care of business in the field, everything else will work,” Mattingly recalls. “It’s stress free for me.”

Except it will never be as successful on the field as before for Mattingly, again.

Mattingly has a bad back and a great work ethic, a combination that keeps him from Cooperstown. He has degenerative disk problems and a mentality that the answer to any problem – from pain to deterioration – is more work. He had survived the discomforts of previous years, but not in 1990. The coordination of his hand-eye was as special, but the ferocious torque from his swing was lost and so was his strength. His back won’t leave it free or vicious.

“The Kevin Maas problem is quite special. We don’t have a very good team, but we have very good players. “- Dave LaPoint, one of the Yankee beginners in 1990

“You keep getting back up because you’re young,” Mattingly said now. “But this one won’t disappear.”

Mattingly tried familiar fortitude and new techniques, but a 0.323 hitter career was only 0.262 with five homers through 70 matches on June 28.

That day, A signed Jose Canseco on a five-year contract worth $ 23.5 million, surpassing Mattingly for the largest. And the Yankees took down Deion Sanders and raised a left-handed hitter with a daytime idol appearance that looked for several weeks as though he might eclipse Mattingly.

“The Kevin Maas problem is very special,” remembers Dave LaPoint, one of the Yankee beginners in 1990 ,. “We don’t have a very good team, but we have very good players.”

And no one saw him coming.

Maas was the 22nd round choice in 1986 which had a steady and successful rise through the organization and may actually have reached the majors in 1989, but in July, circling the first base while hitting .320 in Triple-A, he heard his right knee pop . Lying on the ground, waiting for the coach, he began to wonder what he could do with a Cal-Berkeley engineer degree.

Maas actually returned to finish school after surgery, was taken from a 40-person list and in spring 1990 training did not leave a calling card with a coach or player – Jim Leyritz was the first hitter Yanks was called to try to revive the offense that season. While in Triple-A in early 1990, Maas visited the Louisville Slugger factory which needed bats. They do not have it. But they have the specifications – 34 inches, 33 ounces – and give him a model of the player who started his first full season with the Cubs. They are Joe Girardi bats.

However, upon entering the department, everyone quickly became aware of Maas’s bat and appearance. Maas is a slugger from central casting. He has broad shoulders, a chiseled jaw, an open head of black hair that doesn’t come out of the wind. He not only has a left-handed launch swing, but has decided to go up on the plate and concentrate on pulling more balls, a combination that allows him to pull even off the field. He also has plate discipline. Kevin Maas has the appearance of a soap opera and swing of the Yankee Stadium.

In early July, Mattingly finally admitted his back was not good and did not play the last seven games before the break, then missed the All-Star Game for the first time since 1983. On July 4 – Steinbrenner’s 60th birthday – Maas first played Base for second his first time majoring in and hitting his first homer, from Bret Saberhagen Kansas City. At the end of July, Maas had eight homers, one in Texas from Nolan Ryan to help keep the future Hall of Famer from winning his 300th match. (Ryan was allowed to throw 139 pitches despite allowing seven runs when his manager tried to get a milestone. That manager was Bobby Valentine.)

At the end of July, Mattingly was in the middle of a deactivated eight-week list assignment. On August 11, Maas had set a major league record for bats reaching at least 10, 13 and 15 homers. The Yankees suggest a Wally Pipp situation might occur and Matting when healthy might have to move to the field. Mattingly doesn’t blink. He likes Maas, thinking he is a humble child and can help the Yankees win. Mattingly tired and frustrated with defeat and will do what is necessary to stop it.

But Mattingly didn’t have to move from first base. As it turns out, the most important service Mattingly and Maas will carry out after 1990 has nothing to do with left-handed forces in the middle of the line.

Maybe lost time, but Mattingly’s popularity was Jeter-esque before Derek Jeter. LaPoint recalls that basically he had to smuggle Mattingly out of the team hotel on the road so he could avoid fans and join teammates to drink beer, arrows, gather “just to be one of them.” And he is one of them, good at taking it out and taking it. That helped him become a beloved teammate, along with his work ethic, professionalism, and humility.

So the back pain felt by the whole team. Likewise, the absence of his career since the playoffs. Players who will come in the following years – perhaps no more than Jeter and especially Paul O’Neill – see Mattingly as a wise person about how to become a Yankee.

“I try to be the best player I can and work hard,” recalls Mattingly. “I still want to be great. I take it seriously. Who knows what the effect is? “

Lots. The Yanks continued to improve in Mattingly’s fading, less effective season and rose to take it to October in 1995, the first Yankees playoff team since 1981.

“Don will not shout or shout, but there is no question who the leader is,” recalled Steve Sax, Yankees’ second baseman in 1990. “When he spoke, when he whispered, people listened. Rightfully so. He carries that influence. Talk about someone who gives their heart and soul to the game.

Maas, who finished second for AL Rookie of the Year 1990, opened 1991 as DH. There are 23 homers, but only an average of 0.220. He lost his grip on the full-time DH role the following year, and immediately asked to run away from the Yankees. Theory? He is too robotic and does not adapt and pitchers are adapted to him. Bill Livesey, who designed Maas for the Yankees, said now that Maas reacted badly because he was criticized for being selective and suddenly losing his plate discipline.

In many ways, Maas is a player ahead of his time. “He is a Moneyball player,” Bob Geren said now. He hit homers, walked and attacked. Squint and you can see a lot of Kyle Schwarber in him.

But what Maas did for the Yankees that lasted longer than its effectiveness was to remind the organization that the players can come from the system and have success and excite the host fans. So when Bernie Williams arrived in 1991, was praised but not fully formed, there was little patience to see if homegrown could work. As Livesey said now, “Before Kevin, we were reluctant to do that.”

Mattingly performed after 1995. Maas, after touring with the Reds, Padres and Twins organizations, returned to Columbus in 1995 to play with Jeter and Mariano Rivera. Maas, at 31, tried to make the Yankees again in 1996, but was released on March 22 and never played in the department again.

The Yankees of Jeter, O’Neill and Williams won the World Series in 1996.