By IAN O'CONNOR
The (Westchester, N.Y.) Journal News

TAMPA, Fla. - George Steinbrenner was standing in his Legends Field parking lot, stating his affection for Hideki Matsui, when an inquiring mind wanted to know why he hired the Japanese slugger in the first place. You scored enough runs last year, Steinbrenner was told before he stopped a reporter from reminding the old football coach of the third-and-long lessons learned across the street, where the Tampa Bay Bucs swear a good defense always beats a good offense.

"Now there you go again," Steinbrenner said. "Let me tell you about this great, big pitcher I got from Cuba. Let's talk about him. All of my people think he's going to do a tremendous job. Watch out for him."

Make no mistake: Jose Contreras could rush the quarterback for Jon Gruden. He cuts the most imposing figure in the New York Yankees' clubhouse, at least this side of Jason Giambi. Fidel Castro named him El Titan de Bronze after the relentless 19th century Cuban liberator, Antonio Maceo Grajales, for good reason: armed with a baseball, a mound and a target, Contreras could probably scare off Spain, too.

But even though they're advancing through camp with more starting pitchers than batting practice balls, the Yankees should've landed another Contreras, a Bartolo Colon or Javier Vazquez or Kevin Millwood. They should've passed on Roger Clemens, combined the $10.1 million they spent on his pursuit of history with the $21 million they guaranteed Matsui, and invested that cash in a pitcher who would've made the starting rotation younger, stronger, less likely to break down.

Replacing El Duque Hernandez with his countryman and fellow defector, Contreras, made plenty more sense than the signings of Clemens and Matsui. The Yankee staff fell apart last year at the worst possible time, and there's no mystery why. Clemens will be 41 in August. David Wells will be 40 in May. El Duque will be 61 in October.

Clemens should've followed Hernandez out the door in the wake of Anaheim's Division Series blowout, but Steinbrenner burned to make his 300th victory a part of pinstriped lore. So be it. Maybe Clemens will use his madman's conditioning regimen to plow through an injury-free season and win 18 games. Maybe not.

The risk only looks good when measured against the odds that Matsui will make a major difference. Even if his 50-homer, 107-RBI season for the Yomiuri Giants last year translates into a 30-homer, 95-RBI season in the Bronx, well, the Yankees already tried playing Arena Baseball after winning four titles with pitching, pitching and more pitching, and with left fielders who alternated at a more dizzying pace than hockey lines changing on the fly.

The Yankees scored a majors-leading 897 runs last year, 200 more than their opponents, and ended up with a diminished dynasty and an enraged boss.

"Scoring the most runs didn't win us a championship," Brian Cashman said, "but left field has been a problem for us and Matsui addresses that area of weakness. He's got plate discipline, power to all fields, and he's a humble, high-character guy. Hideki's probably the most recognized person in Japan - he's the Tom Cruise of that country - and you'd never know it."

Everyone sings the same songs about Matsui. Joe Torre raves about his desire to blend in. Williams, who played against Matsui on his All-Star tour of Japan, talked up his compact swing, his athleticism, his work habits, and his ability "to deal with all that scrutiny in Japan and here and yet let nothing ever faze him.

"And he's not hard to communicate with; he understands more English than he can speak. He's an everyday player who has to interact with us, as opposed to Hideki (Irabu), whose role on the team made him a little more isolated."

Steinbrenner called that Hideki a "fat ... toad." He won't be calling this Hideki the same, not with Matsui's Greek-god body and not with a temperament mocking his nickname, Godzilla. Just a few minutes in Matsui's company tells you this is a quiet, dignified man. A man worth cheering.

"I think the experience I gained in Japan with the fans was very valuable; the fans themselves are very valuable to me," Matsui said through an interpreter. "Hopefully I can respond to the fans' expectations here."

It would be great to watch Matsui become as big in New York as Ichiro Suzuki is in Seattle, as big as China's Yao Ming is in Houston. It would be great to watch the hundreds of journalists here from the Far East find a home, sweet home in the AL East, so they don't fly off at season's end packing all sorts of ugly American tales.

Both hopeful scenarios could unfold, and still leave Matsui as a force the Yankees didn't need. Not as much as a frontline pitcher, anyway, an arm to count on when the old men start dropping in the fall.

Millwood, 28, was dealt for a backup catcher, for goodness sake. The Yankees tried their damnedest to get Vazquez, who'll turn 27 in July, but could've done more to get Colon, who'll turn 30 in May. Montreal wanted the Yankees to send them Nick Johnson, Juan Rivera and Hernandez, and wanted them to pay Hernandez' wage. Colon was 20-8 last season, but some Yankee officials were concerned about his weight, among other things, and took a pass.

The Yankees should've made that deal and replaced Clemens with Colon. Rivera would've been hard to surrender, but El Duque was done and Nick Johnson's wrist is beginning to resemble Grant Hill's foot.

It's moot now. Steinbrenner kept his man, Clemens, and advanced his global interests in this synergy-is-everything world by landing Japan's biggest action star.

"You watch what Michael Jackson goes through here," Steinbrenner said in the parking lot, "and that's what Matsui goes through in Japan. But it's something to see him handle the pressure the way he does. He's a great young man, and he's going to do a lot of good things for us."

Across the street from the Tampa Bay Bucs, an old assistant football coach out of the Big Ten shouldn't have called this audible. George Steinbrenner should've realized Matsui will drive in runs for a team that already scored enough.