Steinbrenner might angrily demand a recital of trade possibilities, and Cashman will ignore the anger and answer the questions, calling the owner Boss. If a notable player is traded elsewhere, Steinbrenner will want to know how involved the Yankees were in the discussions and why they didn't get the player. Cashman, who joined the Yankees as an intern, doesn't think anyone should feel sorry for him. ''I knew what I was getting into,'' he says. ''I've been here for 10 years. People say, 'Oh, you've got a tough boss; he's hands-on.' Bottom line is, I want to win. Right now we're going into the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year. He's the guy who cracks the whip that makes the sled team run.''

When asked about his treatment of employees, Steinbrenner cites a former Green Bay Packer, speaking of his coach, Vince Lombardi. '''He treats us all the same, like dogs,''' Steinbrenner says. Vince said, 'Winning is a habit, but unfortunately, so is losing.' When his players were playing for him, they detested different stuff he did. But they realized, hang with him and they might get somewhere. I've made a lot of mistakes. I've made more than my share. I think many people would probably say that. But if I can be helpful from making the same mistakes I did, then I'll help. Discipline is important.

The inner halls of Yankee Stadium are kept immaculately clean, but when Steinbrenner is in town, they are swept and mopped, swept and mopped again. Even so, the cracks show in the floors and walls. Yankee Stadium is old. Access to the park is limited, the Major Deegan Expressway crowded, and Steinbrenner has made no secret of his dislike of the neighborhood. There's not much question that in a new ballpark, on a more accessible site, the Yankees could make more money. The Baltimore Orioles left ragged Memorial Stadium for brand-new Camden Yards and now they're drawing more than 3.5 million fans per year. The Cleveland Indians, a franchise left for dead 10 years ago, vacated cavernous Municipal Stadium for Jacobs Field and they began this season knowing they would sell out every game.

The Yankees have set an attendance record this season and yet they will barely reach three million, at best. The numbers in Steinbrenner's mental ledgers don't add up. Despite lucrative deals for broadcasting rights (the Yankees are nearing the end of a 12-year, $486 million contract with the MSG Network) and licensing (the team has a $95 million contract with Adidas over 10 years), Steinbrenner is about bigger and better and more and winning, and measured against the potential of a new and bigger and better park, Yankee Stadium to him probably feels like a money pit.

Steinbrenner's desire for a swanky new ballpark on the West Side of Manhattan is well known. But despite the ministrations of the Yankees' No. 1 fan, Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani, that seems a distant possibility. There are too many obstacles, and there is too much residual resentment against Steinbrenner, who has said he will announce his intentions regarding a new stadium when the season is over.

In the end, his best chance for getting a new ballpark might be brinksmanship: threatening to remove the Yankees to New Jersey. But even showing a willingness to do so would carry a severe risk. Thanks to the play of his team, Steinbrenner has come back into the good graces of New York baseball fans, something he enjoys immensely: when he appears among the crowds outside Yankee Stadium, they call out for his autograph. If Steinbrenner were to move the Yankees out of the city, he would inevitably feel the same scorn once levied upon Walter O'Malley, the Brooklyn Dodgers' owner who, even in death, is still reviled for relocating his team to Los Angeles in 1958. Would Steinbrenner, a man who has demonstrated such great interest in maintaining the legacy of the Yankees, who introduced his father to DiMaggio and Dickey, who re-established and then rebuilt the Yankees, would he be willing to risk that by moving the team? ''Reluctantly, yes,'' he says. ''If I had to, yes. If they force me to.''

There is another, perhaps more attractive option: sell the Yankees to a faceless corporation and let the corporation be the bad guy. The chairman of Cablevision, Charles Dolan, is an old friend of Steinbrenner's from Cleveland, and he has made clear his desire to buy the Yankees -- in part because the team's broadcasting agreement with MSG, which Cablevision owns, expires in two years. By buying the Yankees and perhaps paying Steinbrenner a hefty salary to oversee the Yankees, Knicks and Rangers, Dolan would lock up not only the broadcasting rights but also the ancillary rights that have made sports teams, and especially a bankable team like the Yankees, so attractive to corporate owners.