Photograph 1: ON THE EDGE OF THEIR SEATS: A few fans try to control their excitement at a Yankees-Red Sox replacement baseball game.
Photograph 2: Yankee manager Buck Showalter.
Photograph 3: FIRMING UP THE FLAB: The replacement Yankees try to get themselves in shape for Opening Day. Photos by Matthew Futterman.
By Matthew Futterman, Staff Reporter
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- At the Yankees' spring training camp this month, infield pop-ups that should be automatic outs are some of the most suspenseful plays in baseball. When balls sail hundreds of feet in the air, anywhere from three to six fielders begin dizzily swirling underneath, trying to figure out who's willing to take a stab at the catch.
Like the other 27 major-league baseball teams, the Yankees have pasted together a replacement team filled with big league has-beens, minor league hopefuls and semi-pro players living out their dreams.
And with no end in sight to the 228-day-old players' strike, the only things that have been automatic are sparse crowds in the stands and error-filled play on the field. Sliding runners sometimes don't quite get to their bases and catchers often make diving attempts to stop wild pitches.
This version of big-league ball will be coming to a stadium near you in a matter of days since no one, including President Bill Clinton, has been able to get the players and the owners to agree on a plan for dividing baseball's $2 billion in annual revenue.
The Yankees play their home opener on Monday, April 10, against the Minnesota Twins.
Two Saturdays ago, when the Yankees took on the Boston Red Sox at Fort Lauderdale Stadium, 800 fans decided to see for themselves what replacement baseball is all about.
They got their first hint when baserunner Matt Stark, a beefy, 265-pound Yankee first baseman, went airborne and dove head-first for second on a botched hit-and-run play in the third inning. Stark bounced off the infield dirt and stalled six feet in front of second.
He was out. A collective laugh rose up from the stands.
Stark is one of six former big-leaguers in the Yankees' camp. Outfielder Randy Kutcher might be the best of the lot. He's been working construction in Palmdale, Calif., since 1991.
Then there's Travis Burley, who walked into camp uninvited and impressed the coaches with his fastball.
This is baseball? Some say it is.
Doug Green, a Boston native, said he didn't understand why everyone was laughing at the overweight Stark when he ran down the baseline. "Mo Vaughn and Kent Hrbek are just as fat as that guy is, and they can't run either," he said, referring to the Red Sox' regular first baseman and a former all-star for the Minnesota Twins.
"It hasn't been insulting," said Green as he leaned on a rail in the stands and soaked up the Florida sun. "These guys aren't so bad."
But others weren't as enthusiastic. Ado Zando said he made the the four-hour trip from Jacksonville, Fla., because, "I'm 82, don't know if I'm going to get to 83, and this might be my last chance to see a game. These guys are pretty good but they're not top quality."
Zando, who watched the game from his wheelchair, said that in 1934 he was the varsity team's most valuable player at Clarkson University in upstate New York. The former second basemen has been following the Yankees since 1929.
If Lou Gehrig and the Yankees had gone on strike in 1935, would Zando have crossed the picket line and replaced them? "I think they would have had plenty of players to choose from," Zando said with a smile, trying to handle the question as smoothly as a sharp grounder to second.
Stephanie Waldman, a seven-year-old from Boca Chase, Fla., who wore a navy-blue Yankees T-shirt, stuck her finger down her throat when asked how she felt about the replacement players.
"I'm very upset the real ones aren't here," said Karli Singer, 6, a good friend of Stephanie's.
By the late innings though, the crowd showed no signs of leaving. Don Blatten of Boca Raton, Fla., whose bronzed skin and happy beer buzz suggested a day well spent, said he didn't care just who those pinstriped players were.
"For a guy who would pay to watch a T-ball game, does it really matter?" asked Platten, referring to the version of baseball played by the littlest Little Leaguers.
It certainly mattered to Buck Showalter, the Yankee manager. By game's end Showalter had had enough. He had broken up one fight and watched his faux-Yankees fumble throws on their way to a 5-4 loss, the team's sixth straight defeat.
Asked if he thought his real players would be back soon, a frustrated Showalter tried to remain calm. "I sure hope so," he said as he walked over to supervise his replacement team's post-game sprints and calisthenics.
It's a good bet the 6,000 fans who stayed away from the exhibition game hope so, too.
