It's no surprise to Scott Nielsen that the New York Yankees are once again world champions. That the Yankees swept the World Series isn't a terrible shock, either. Fact is, if you were picking the Atlanta Braves this year, there's a good chance you've never pitched in Yankee Stadium.
Nielsen, on the other hand, has. The former BYU star spent much of three seasons with the Yankees in the late 1980s. He did what few people have done--survived George Steinbrenner, without the help of a psychiatrist, valium, or even a George Foreman-sized punching bag. A decade after his retirement, he still has good things to say about his old team.Meanwhile, the Yankees themselves remain the same as when he was playing, only better. They live by their own personal credo, which goes something like this: There's baseball, and then there's the Yankees.
"It is very true that when you put on a Yankee uniform or play in the City of New York, there are certain expectations to live up to," says Nielsen. "They become defining moments in your career."
Nielsen, who now lives in Salt Lake, knows this year's World Series was as suspenseful as getting your oil changed. But that's the way Steinbrenner likes them. So if you see Nielsen nodding and going, "Yup" and "Uh-huh," don't be offended. He's not being a know-it-all, or even rubbing it in. It's just that he's lived the Yankee experience. It's like giving birth--you can't fully describe it to someone who hasn't been there.
Though he didn't play with the current crop of Yankees, Nielsen did play for Steinbrenner. So during the ALCS last week, when the camera panned to Steinbrenner, angrily throwing his hands in the air in disgust, Nielsen could only laugh.
"Exactly the same motion I remember seeing him make when I was pitching my first game there," says Nielsen.
Nielsen got a sense of Steinbrenner as a rookie in 1986. He had won two games, one of them a shutout, on the road. But his first game at Yankee Stadium was something else entirely. "There's a difference between a stadium packed with fans and a stadium packed with Yankee fans," he says. "Until you play there, you'll never know the difference."
To start with, it was Old Timers Day, so when Nielsen got to the stadium, he noticed something right off: Whitey Ford was using his locker. Next to Ford was Mickey Mantle. Not far away was Joe DiMaggio.
There he was, a few feet from a sizable chunk of the Hall of Fame. He didn't know whether to shake their hands or polish their halos.
As it turned out, it wasn't Nielsen's best day on the mound. When he walked a batter to load the bases, he was booed vigorously. But that wasn't the bad part. The bad part was that Steinbrenner--just as it did last week in the playoffs--tossed his arms in disgust.
The day wasn't a total loss, however. After starting a double play, he received a roar of approval from the crowd.
Nielsen soon realized what Donald Trump, Ed Koch, Howard Stern, Reggie Jackson and others have said all along--New York only acknowledges first place.
So it's your duty to make sure you're A-number-one, king-of-the-hill, top-of-the-heap.
Life with the Yankees is just bigger. Take Jackson, for instance. When he played there, they named a candy bar after him. As teammate Mickey Rivers observed: "It's the only candy bar in the world where, when you open it up, it tells you how good it is."
Jackson knew he was playing for the Yankees, and made sure everyone else knew, as well.
Whether it's Ruth's prodigious bellyache, Gehrig's tear-jerking speech or DiMaggio's stoic grace, everything gets bigger if it happens in New York. That's why Lou Piniella, the manager when Nielsen played, would ask players what they wanted to do, then say, "I don't care what decision you make, but it better be the right one."
Piniella suffered from the dreaded Yankee Manager Syndrome, characterized by a compulsion to look over your shoulder. "You've heard of DUI's," says Nielsen. "Well, with the Yankees there are MUI's--managing under the influence--of George."
And so as Nielsen watched this year's Series, he couldn't help but remember his crazy days with the Yankees. The first time he met Steinbrenner, the owner congratulated him on his first two outings.The next words to follow were "...and we expect a lot more out of you."
He got the message. King George was already spreadin' the news. Because when it comes to the Yankees, they aren't really expectations at all. They're orders.