Broken Chairs, Broken Dreams

Spring Training, 1995.

Ah, Spring Training! That wonderful time of year when regular players warm up and get loose, while veteran players compete with hungry rookies with a ferocious intensity to grasp at whatever roster spots are available.

This year, it's a little different. 55 men are wearing the white jerseys with navy blue pinstripes in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.  But can anyone truly call them the Yankees?

Four years and 40 pounds before joining the "Yankees."

"Some of these players, "I've never seen," said Yankees General Manager Gene Michael. "To give you an evaluation, I wouldn't do that."

The Major League Baseball Restoration Act is dead. It officially died on February 26, 1995. The Kansas City Royals were in striking distance of making the postseason for the first time in nearly decade, but the baseball strike struck out that possibility, and newly christened Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole has no interest in making any sort of compromise with Ted Kennedy, Bill Clinton, or anybody else for that matter. Not with House Speaker Gingrich threatening to shut down the U.S. Government.

Two out of three branches of the Federal Government have failed to end the one of the worst work stoppages in labor history. For a combination of baseball has-beens and never-will bees, the closed door on labor negotiations is an open window.

Randy Kutcher owns a .228 lifetime batting average and hasn't played a single major league game since 1990. To his credit, he insists he's not a replacement player.

"When this opportunity came up," said Kutcher, "I jumped at it."

At least Kutcher can still realistically talk athleticism. Matt Stark hasn't played professional baseball in five years. He has gained at least 50 pounds in the time since. After batting and fielding practice, Stark sits on a chair and answers questions from the press. The chair breaks.

Dramatization: Jason Jones sits on a chair assembled by non-union labor.

"Go easy," says Dave Pavlas. "We only got 60 of them,"

Dave Pavlas has pitched for many teams over the last four seasons, but calling him a journeyman is understatement. After pitching all of 14 games for the Chicago Cubs over the course of two seasons, Pavlas has spent the last two years pitching in Italy and Mexico. At least he can boast recent organized competitive baseball on his resume. Others are not so lucky, including former construction worker Tony Brown.

"I don't owe the union anything," says Brown, who last played AAA baseball in 1989. Whether he is referring the Major League Baseball Players Union--or whichever union construction job he ditched in order to make spring training--is unclear. But Brown makes it clear that he is certain about his athletic talent.

"Now its my opportunity to get on T.V." he says. "And be a star."

Technically, the Yankees do have one Major Leaguer in their midst, but he wears a suit and tie instead of a ballplayer's uniform. The Yankees are paying Steve Howe $772 a week for "administrative" work.

"This is a condition of my probation," says Howe, who is required to be employed as a result of pleading guilty to attempted cocaine possession in 1992. "Yeah, I could have gone out and flipped burgers at Denny's. The important thing is that I needed to be somewhere where I could do what I needed to do and train."

Steve Howe reluctantly watches spring training from the sidelines.

Gene Michael is shaking his head in disbelief. It wasn't supposed to be this way. In December, he engineered a major trade with the Chicago White Sox. In exchange for 1993 Cy Young Award winner Jack McDowell, the Yankees surrendered Keith Heberling and Lyle Moutan. Heberling was 1-3 with a 5.66 ERA for the Yankees AA affiliate. Moutan played for the Columbus Clippers along with Derek Jeter last year. Since he wasn't Derek Jeter, he was clearly expendable.

In essence, Gene Michael turned lead into gold: Two minor-league dead-weights for a 20 game winner. The hard-throwing right-hander McDowell was supposed to join the crafty lefty Jimmy Key at the top of the rotation. The result would have been a lethal 1-2 sucker punch that would leave the competition gasping for air while the Yankees coasted to their first World Series in nearly 20 years.

The McDowell trade was a good deal, but it raised a serious question. The White Sox were in first place at the end of the 1994 season. Why would they let go of their best pitcher in exchange for minor league prospects?

The 1994 season ended abruptly, The Stark reality is that 1995 season may not start at all.


Sources:

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/02/21/sports/baseball-yankees-introduce-a-cast-of-strangers.html

http://articles.courant.com/1994-12-15/sports/9412150262_1_yankee-stadium-yankees-general-manager-service-time

http://articles.courant.com/1995-02-26/sports/9502260343_1_howe-s-career-steve-howe-manager-buck-showalter


http://m.spokesman.com/stories/1995/feb/26/yankees-put-howe-to-work-front-office-duties-will/