The Yankees offered an unequivocal apology, the team official involved issued a categorical denial and Bronx politicians and residents expressed outrage yesterday over a magazine article in which the official reportedly used the terms "monkeys" and "colored boy" in referring to youths in the South Bronx neighborhood around Yankee Stadium.
Bronx officials said the remarks, which New York magazine attributed to Richard Kraft, the team's longtime vice president for community relations, suggested that racism was the real reason for the club's undisguised interest in moving to Manhattan or New Jersey.
"Mr. Kraft's remarks reveal to me the reason: bigotry," said Fernando Ferrer, the Bronx Borough President. "He's demonstrated his contempt for the city's fans and especially its fans of color."
Mr. Kraft, who was said by club officials to be vacationing, denied ever making the remarks. In a statement issued through a spokesman, Mr. Kraft, a college classmate of the club's owner, George Steinbrenner, said: "I categorically deny ever having said what was attributed to me. Anyone who knows me knows I would never say that."
The Yankees, who have blamed concerns about crime and limited parking in the largely minority neighborhood for what the team sees as disappointing attendance figures, had issued their own statement earlier in the afternoon apologizing for the remarks.
No Authorization
"The New York Yankees offer an unequivocal apology for the statements attributed to Mr. Kraft," the club said through its spokesman, Howard J. Rubenstein. "His comments in no way reflect the opinion of the Yankees. He was not authorized to make statements on behalf of the team."
The disputed statements are included in an article by Matt Bai published this week and based on an interview with Mr. Kraft last January. In it, Mr. Kraft is quoted as saying he did not believe the Yankees could have "a fan base here in the Bronx."
"I don't know what happens to the little colored boy who goes through school here, and goes to Kennedy High School, and goes to a Catholic college. I don't know if he loses his roots here."
Referring to young people who play basketball on the adjacent courts of Macombs Dam Park, the magazine quotes Mr. Kraft as saying: "It's like monkeys. Those guys can all go up and hang on the rim and crack the rim and bend the hoops. It's a continuous maintenance problem."
Asked why the club did not allow youngsters free admission, Mr. Kraft told the magazine: "I think this is all part of our obligation to show these less fortunate -- and I don't mean to say it that way -- to show these less fortunate individuals what it's like in a society where things are ordered on a basis of gentleman-and-womanhood."
Kurt Andersen, the editor of New York, said the magazine "sticks by our story, which was based on the voluminous notes of the reporter."
Mr. Ferrer called for the club to dismiss Mr. Kraft, who he said had "always expressed those opinions privately."
"For George Steinbrenner to have Dick Kraft as his vice president of community relations is, by itself, an eloquent statement of bigotry," the Borough President said. "It is akin to having Attila the Hun on your community's Welcome Wagon."
Mr. Kraft is not considered either a major organization figure or one of Mr. Steinbrenner's top policy officials, other baseball executives say. To the club's critics, though, the very fact that a lightly regarded executive runs the community relations program suggests a lack of interest on the part of the Yankees in truly cultivating a constructive relationship with the neighborhood's residents.
"If they don't want to be here, fine," said Grace Nickens, a social worker at nearby St. Margaret's Episcopal Church. "But don't slander us."
Other Bronx residents, from children to parents to parish priests, reacted to the reported remarks yesterday with anger, bemusement and knowing smiles. There was no surprise.
"The people that run the Yankees are always shooting themselves," said the Rev. Patrick Hennessy of Christ the King Church. "They alienate both groups when they bad-mouth the neighborhood -- the people who live here and the people from the suburbs who they want to come here."
The Yankees, who claim their attendance falls off by 30 percent for night games, wrote the city as recently as May 11 asking officials to help the team search for sites for a new stadium. A $270 million joint city and state plan to improve the stadium and the Bronx neighborhood is also being considered, and it has been endorsed by Bronx officials.
"What does ignorance come from? A lack of real knowledge," said Mike Allen, a 37-year-old native of the Bronx who was walking outside Yankee Stadium yesterday with his two daughters. "These executives go by what they see or think they see, not what they know.
"Look, I'm disgusted with the neighborhood at times, too. But there are kids and families here to work with. The 'monkeys' as often as not are the people coming out of Yankee Stadium, not the people living around it."
Muhammad Kahan, 15, walked out from under the elevated subway tracks and down 161st Street yesterday. He will be a junior at Alfred E. Smith High School in the fall and is working as a day camp counselor this summer.
He can hear the noise of Yankee Stadium from his bedroom window on 162d Street.
"You know the sound of when a home run has been hit," said Muhammad, who said he went to five games a year. "There are kids here who care. There are kids here who would miss it. The Yankees have been here in my neighborhood my whole life."
