Every few years, Matt Winters hears from buddies who come across his name in the New York newspapers.
Winters was one of the Yankees’ three first-round draft choices in 1978, the year the Orioles selected Cal Ripken Jr. in the second round.
“It still gets ink,” Winters said. “I probably got my scout fired.”
You can bet a bunch of Yankees people got fired. George Steinbrenner was the owner, after all.
None of that was Winters’ fault. His impressive numbers would have graduated him swiftly through most organizations. Instead, the powerful right fielder stagnated in Steinbrenner’s suppressive minor-league system, finally came up for major-league air with the Royals at 29 years old, when it was probably too late, and was reborn as a gaijin slugger in Japan.
