Togetherness in Fort Lauderdale

All is sweetness and light as the Yanks start training

Faithful followers of sporting soap opera will recall that, when last we saw the New York Yankees, they were flush with World Series victory but scarcely aglow with brotherly love. Catcher-Captain Thurman Munson, the man who hated Reggie Jackson's top-catting, wanted to be traded to Cleveland, a move that only an Akron, Ohio, native could cherish. Starting Pitcher Ed Figueroa, snubbed in the Series rotation, emptied his locker and departed before the champagne was uncorked. Amidst the celebration, Owner George Steinbrenner barely managed to conceal the pink slip he had prepared for Manager Billy Martin. Series Pitching Hero Mike Torrez promptly became the first free agent to leave New York, departing for the Boston Red Sox, the Yankees' deadly rivals in the American League East.

Even baseball's trial separation, the winter offseason, produced problems in the Yankees' big, unhappy family. Steinbrenner plunged once more into the free-agent market and, two megasalaries later, became the proud owner of Rich Gossage, the Pittsburgh Pirates' fireballing relief pitcher, and Rawly Eastwick of the St.,Louis Cardinals, who had an off year in 1977 but was the League's top reliever for the Reds in 1976. Since the American League's No. 1 fireman, Cy Young Winner Sparky Lyle, was already in Yankee employ, Steinbrenner's bullpen overkill brought immediate--and pained--reaction. Lyle paused between banquet speeches long enough to scream, "Trade me!"

When the Yankees convened an early, optional training camp for pitchers and catchers, Lyle was, as usual, absent; for Free Spirit Sparky spring always comes late. He needs less time to get in shape than most pitchers and has used the delay to concoct elaborate arrivals, threatening to land on the pitcher's mound in a helicopter or hobbling to camp swathed in plaster of paris casts. But this year, Steinbrenner decided to exercise his Prussian sense of humor. He castigated the pitcher to reporters on the grounds that Lyle had a contractual obligation to report to camp early. Actually, Lyle was not bound to report until March 1. When he showed up--four days ahead of the contract deadline--Steinbrenner dispatched a high school band to the airport to play Pomp and Circumstance, while majorettes high-kicked their greetings. No man to be taken aback, Lyle quickly snuggled into the chorus line.

Aside from the Lyle contretemps, this season's assembling of the cast in Fort Lauderdale has proceeded, by recent Yankee standards, like a love-in. For an entire week one and all behaved as though Norman Vincent Peale were in the locker room. Jackson reported to camp early in his silver and blue Rolls-Royce Corniche and shook hands all around with egalitarian humility. Thurman Munson managed not to insult anyone through the simple expedient of keeping his mouth shut. "I'm not talking today," he said, day after day. Expensive Benchwarmer Ken Holtzman arrived sans his cavalryman's mustache, perhaps hoping that Martin might mistake him for a fresh-faced rookie and allow him to throw a baseball. Last year Holtzman, a former 20-game winner, earned his $165,000 salary by spending 72 innings on the mound and the rest of the season in Martin's doghouse. Martin and Steinbrenner, principal antagonists in last year's psychodrama, publicly praised each other's baseball genius. Said Martin: "I don't think there's going to be much controversy this year."

The sweetness and light left Yankee newcomers somewhat bewildered. Remarked Backup First Baseman Jim Spencer: "Every day I keep looking around for someone to take a swing at someone else, and I haven't seen it. Considering what I read in the paper last year, I'm surprised." Reserve Catcher Fran Healy, last season's peacemaker, laughs off such wretched expectations: "There's not as much shooting here as in a Clint Eastwood movie, but we do our best."

Still, even Steinbrenner himself acknowledges: "It's not going to be without incident this year. I'm not a Utopian." Indeed, there are genuine seeds of discontent in his overstaffed pitching corps. The Yankees have assembled a roll call of stars; the problem will be finding room in the sky for all of them. Lyle's trade talk was prompted by the fact that he claims to need almost daily stints on the mound to maintain his effectiveness. The same is true of Gossage and Eastwick. Says Gossage: "There's enough work for Sparky and me, but I don't know if there is enough work for the three of us. I don't know what the Yankees had in mind."

What Martin has in mind is to employ the strategy pioneered by Reds' Manager Sparky Anderson: pull his starters after six innings or so in order to feed the talented bullpen. That tactic could save fragile arms, but it will prevent healthy pitchers from going the full nine innings that build stats--and egos. No less an expert than Lyle acknowledges: "Show me a starting pitcher who doesn't like to finish what he starts. They all do."

For all its potential problems, Martin's strategy could prove the wisest course. The Yankees' biggest arms were very sore last season. Catfish Hunter had shoulder problems and a 9-9 record, his worst in nearly a decade. His return could be hobbled by a new problem: he has diabetes. But team doctors stress that his condition can be controlled with medication, and other top athletes have played successfully despite the disease.* Don Gullett also struggled through last season with shoulder miseries, and newly acquired Andy Messersmith underwent offseason elbow surgery. If healthy, however, the Yankee pitchers could be awesome: together they have won 443 major league games. That should be good enough for another fun-filled and tension-packed episode of As the World Series Turns.

*Among them: Philadelphia Flyer Bobby Clarke, Tennis Star Bill Talbert and Chicago Cubs Third Baseman Ron Santo.

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