AMERICAN LEAGUE UPDATE: NOTHING IS WORKING FOR THE YANKEES.

Byline: Gabe Lacques Staff Writer

The cantankerous owner released the scathing statement meant to fire up the lads. And that didn't work.

The captain and acknowledged heart and soul of the club called a closed-door meeting. And that didn't work.

They tried the old injection of youth trick, acting very much like the 29 other clubs by leaning on their minor-league system to call up a pair of spot starters and a young second baseman. And that didn't work.

So, mired in last place and with most every gimmick available to them already exhausted, the listing $200 million ship known as the New York Yankees must be asking themselves, if ever so quietly, this unlikely question:

What do we do now?

``There's some tension,'' manager Joe Torre said Friday, before the club kicked off a homestand with a 6-3, 10-inning loss to Oakland. ``On a scale of 1 to 10, it's probably at an eight.''

Perhaps the most alarming development for Yankees loyalists isn't so much the 12-19 record, the fourth-place standing or the stunning sight of the Bronx Bombers losing three of four games in Tampa Bay. It's still the first week of May, so some of those trends can be chalked up to early-season sogginess.

No, there are more disconcerting developments, led by the pitching staff. An offseason makeover designed to make the staff younger blew up when Jaret Wright suffered another shoulder injury.

Meanwhile, 40-year-old Kevin Brown isn't very good anymore and has a 27.00 ERA in the first inning, 4.50 after the first, and has lost seven consecutive regular-season decisions.

Wright's injury prompted the recall of youngsters Sean Henn and Chieng-Ming Wang and, not surprisingly, the Yankees lost two of their three starts.

It's startling to imagine that a $200 million club could have deficiencies, let alone glaring ones, but the Yankees finally could be paying the price for plundering their farm system to acquire higher-priced, and major-league ready, players over the years.

``You don't win with star players,'' said the captain, Derek Jeter. ``You have to have a good team and go out and play.''

Not only have they traded away the farm, but their development in the minors has been inferior, too. With both Bernie Williams and Jason Giambi becoming lineup liabilities, Torre tried dipping into the system this week by promoting young second baseman Robinson Cano.

That shifted Tony Womack from second to left, Hideki Matsui from left to center and Williams into a platoon with Giambi at designated hitter.

``We thought we wanted to inject this club with something, and Cano is probably the closest guy to that person,'' Torre said.

So they went out and scored a touchdown less than the Devil Rays that night, a minor victory for Tampa Bay senior adviser Don Zimmer, who left the Yankees in a huff after 2003. Zimmer, owner George Steinbrenner's whipping boy in `03, is safely away from the Boss's wrath now, but he feels for his former compadres.

``He's got to have a fall guy,'' Zimmer, referring to Steinbrenner, told The New York Times. ``Who it's going to be, I don't know. If someone should be the fall guy, it should be him.

``He makes all the decisions, and don't let anybody tell you he doesn't. They might all be discussed - some aren't - but there ain't nothing that goes on that he doesn't OK. When it's going good, he takes the credit. But when it's going bad, it's someone else's fault.''

At least Saturday's Kentucky Derby ensured that Steinbrenner was safely away from the Bronx to root on his Derby favorite, Bellamy Road.

``I must've had 10 people come up to me today and say, 'I hope Bellamy Road finishes last,' '' Zimmer said. ``I don't feel that way. I might bet on him.''

--Damon wants a deal: Boston Red Sox center fielder Johnny Damon, the lovable face of last year's ``Idiots,'' very gently demanded a five-year deal to stay in Boston after this season, when he's a free agent.

Oddly enough, Damon said he'd love to spend more time with his kids ... so long as there's not a lucrative multiyear deal awaiting him.

``I am so good and happy with my life, what's going to be wrong if I get to see my kids every day, get to be in warm weather, get to have the summer?'' Damon said this week. ``I've got five more years of good performances, but I also think I've done all right with money - I think I'm good - but having the chance to be around my kids and participate in that stuff, that wouldn't be a bad thing.

``The Red Sox are the No. 1 team obviously for me but I know there would be a handful of teams I would consider. It would be tough to play for the Yankees but it's not a definite 'no' but it would be tough because my heart belongs in Boston. I think all of our fans know I want to stay there.''

Uh, OK.

Gabe Lacques, [phone]

gabe.lacques(at)sgvn.com

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COMPLETE COVERAGE OF THE WEEK IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL 

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