ESPN Classic - Winfield puts bad Yankee memories behind him

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Saturday, August 4, 2001
Winfield puts bad Yankee memories behind him
By Bob Klapisch
ESPN.com

It was 1984, which, as Dave Winfield remembers, was the year of living anonymously. At least it felt that way to the Yankees right fielder, engaged in a battle with teammate Don Mattingly for the American League batting title.

It should have been a sweet time in Winfield's baseball life, but some of the images that linger aren't that kind. Yes, Winfield will be inducted into the Hall of Fame this weekend -- and rightfully so, considering his 3,110 hits and 465 home runs. But those who covered Winfield in the '80s remember his hurt as he and Mattingly sprinted to the finish line.

The private tug-of-war came down to the last day, as Mattingly collected four hits to Winfield's one. Donnie Baseball finished with a .343 average, three points higher than Winfield, all but ensuring Mattingly's future legacy as a cult hero in the Bronx.

Maybe Winfield knew he'd never win a public relations war -- certainly not with Mattingly, and not with George Steinbrenner already so deeply resenting him.

That probably explains why Winfield didn't stick around after that final game in 1984, choosing not to answer questions about the batting-title race or the way the public -- in Winfield's opinion -- seemed to embrace Mattingly so warmly.

"You wonder sometimes, where was the support during the course of the year?" Winfield said, soon after his election into Cooperstown. "I made sure I packed my stuff because everybody might say, 'I was with him all year.' ... That wasn't the case. I went through a lot.

"If I had won the batting race, I probably would have talked not just about the race; I probably would have talked about a lot of other things. But Donnie won, and he deserved it. There wasn't a platform, so I wasn't going to make one."

Winfield insists the wounds have healed -- not just with Mattingly, but with the Yankees and even Steinbrenner. So he says. Truth is, Winfield is wearing the Padres hat into the Hall, getting the last word against an owner who never really appreciated him. After all, it was Steinbrenner who labeled Winfield "Mr. May" -- although not for reasons that have been historically attributed to him. The Boss soiled his right fielder's reputation because of a slump he suffered in the 1985 pennant race, not for the 1-for-22 performance in the 1981 World Series against the Dodgers.

But does the timeline really matter? Steinbrenner failed to appreciate the grace of Winfield's game: his strong, accurate throwing arm, his ability to go first-to-third on practically any base hit or any outfielder, and the athletic gifts that could've easily led Winfield to the NBA.

True, Winfield didn't hit as many home runs as Reggie and was never a postseason deity, but Winfield deserved better. He caught Steinbrenner at his dictatorial worst, in the '80s when the Yankees were being nudged off the back pages by the Mets, and when The Boss still believed firing his manager and publicly criticizing his players was the solution to every problem.

So while Winfield has had time to reflect and forgive Steinbrenner, he certainly hasn't forgotten.

When he was asked directly about the Mr. May remark, Winfield said, "It was irreverent, it was off-color, it was improper, it doesn't fit. I always rejected it. It doesn't apply. It was an inappropriate remark at the time. I didn't appreciate it then."

Of course, Winfield wasn't without his faults: his huge personality never did fit with managers Billy Martin and Yogi Berra, although Winfield had no problem with Lou Piniella. And for all his enormous skills, Winfield was never the Yankee leader that he should've been -- perhaps he was too busy defending himself against Steinbrenner's attacks against his character.

Winfield was rich and articulate, funny and engaging. He loved talking about himself, but that was the surcharge the Yankees paid for his talents. To be fair, though, Winfield's personality wasn't much louder than other stars from the '80s. Back then, everyone had an ego to match their batting average. It would have been interesting to see how Winfield assimilated with the Joe Torre-era Yankees, surrounded by such serious, focused teammates like Roger Clemens and Paul O'Neill.

The new-millennium Bombers exist in an entirely different universe than the one Winfield knew. Steinbrenner is virtually invisible these days. Joe Torre has the kind of job security that Billy Martin could only fantasize about, and the Yankees themselves are more like businessmen than their raw, outspoken predecessors.

Winfield might not have made many friends among today's Yankees, but they sure would have appreciated his love of the game. And, actually, that's what Winfield is taking to Cooperstown this weekend: not the wounds from the 1984 batting title, or the Steinbrenner scar tissue, but the smallest jewels that made baseball so precious in Winfield's life.

"Going from first to third, scoring from first on a double, for a big guy, those are things I really enjoyed," he said. "You can hit a groundball right at an outfielder and if you're busting your backside from home plate, you have a chance for a double."

Asked for one of his favorite memories, Winfield plucked this one, a moment so subtle, only he can appreciate its beauty.

"My first base hit," he said. "It was a head-first dive into first base. I was hustling from day one."

Bob Klapisch of The Record (Bergen County, New Jersey) writes a weekly "Baseball in the Big Apple" column for ESPN.com.