Explosive New York Yankees Docuseries Revisits Team’s Scandal-Ridden 1990 Season

At one point did you feel you had something worthy of a docuseries? 

D.J. Caruso: Joel’s articles reminded me of a lot of things I remember hearing about but never really did a real deep dive on. I knew right away there were enough interesting characters in there that would help us form a really strong narrative where we could take this docuseries. I knew from reading that there was potential. It wasn’t like The Last Dance though where someone was documenting that season and we had all this great footage. For us, it was who was alive and who could make this work. It really started coming together when we started asking for a few interviews. It’s a period people wanted to talk about, yet a lot of people don’t know a lot of the details about this period. It’s nothing the Yankees celebrate. Once we started to get yeses for interviews I thought we could really form a good foundation of characters that would allow us to make it but make it well.

It brought up the docuseries. It’s amazing to think what would have happened if social media existed with these personalities and what unfolded. Things could have probably been even worse. 

I think so. It’s funny because I felt like I wanted to make a whole film or story on the beat reporter. The way any information got out about the teams back then was through the beat reports, whether the players were at the bar with the owners with all the stories and spins, and what we call the threads. All those happen to form the beat reports. The beat reporters would write about it, and the radio stations and TV stations in New York would pick it up. ESPN may make it national. It all started there before social media. Before social media, it was George Steinbrenner manipulating a writer for a newspaper by throwing out this story about Dave Winfield. It was interesting how things were orchestrated. It was a much different time. The way things got out was a little slower, but it was interesting to think that because you had these beat reporters for these newspapers if anything got out about the Yankees, it always came from them first.

Yes, it’s about baseball but the headlines are a portrait of the times. When it comes to Mel Hall’s story and his relationship with a high school girl. People weren’t thinking about it the way they would now. 

It is eye-opening and also hard to believe how far we’ve come. In 1990, if you listened to Howard Stern or someone else on the radio and how crude they were. The way they talk about women, even when they are in front of them. Culturally, we have made this shift thank God. I think in 1990 was one of those things there was less awareness of when a predator can manipulate a certain situation including the family of the victim.  It was such a different time that today this wouldn’t last four seconds…Chaz sat in the stands with the Yankes’ wives. She was 16 doing her math homework. How can that be? I can only say that we are in a different time.

How was it getting Chaz to sit down with you to tell her story?  

Chaz and I developed a relationship. It took a while because you’re bringing up something from 1990 that you think was way in the past and she thinks people have forgotten about. I explained to her the documentary and what we were doing. I told her it was a part of it and not just about her and Mel. We talked a few times. Eventually, over maybe six or seven months, we had a good talking relationship. We talked about what healing was and how it would be important to talk. I never wanted to force her into doing anything. I think when she decided to talk, it was a big relief for her to get it out there. It was very powerful. It took a while, but we finally got the interview with her. It went extremely well. You can see how strong and well she is doing. There is still damage. That will always be there.

You also talk to Mel from prison. What was the process for that? 

It became if you want to do it, you have to write to inmate 10765242. It took a while. He said, “Yeah, I’ll talk about the baseball in 1990. I don’t want to talk about certain things.” I said, “Great, we’ll just talk about the baseball of 1990 and the season and where the team was and led to this dynasty.” I was able to ask a few questions about Chaz. I just let him talk. There were certain things he didn’t want to talk about. As he talks, you do get a sense of who he is and was. I didn’t feel there was a lot of remorse. What I loved about this story is that Chaz used that darkness and came out stronger. The way the Yankees had their darkness and came out stronger. To me, those stories sort of paralleled each other.

What did you take from looking back at George’s problems that got him taken out of the game for a few years? 

I think at the end of the day you can also land on the part that George was so desperate to get rid of Winfield. He was blinded by logic that a guy like Howie could get in there and get underneath him and record those calls. Those are the tapes that Commissioner Fay Vincent heard. You can’t deny George is in there trying to do something. You can also hear the tape where George is like, “Dude, get away from me. You got your 40 grand. I paid you already.”

George comes back from this. The day George got kicked out of baseball and everyone at Yankee Stadium stood up and cheered in the middle of the game in 1990. I think that pierced his heart. No matter what, all George was trying to do in his mind was win and get a winning team. He did things the wrong way. When he did come back, he was slightly a new man. He rehabilitated his image. He let Seinfeld make fun of him. He had Saturday Night Live and came back a slightly different man but still this celebrity owner. Those recordings were public. They are out there so we were able to get them. He just went down the wrong road.

How was it getting Howard’s side? 

The thing about Howie is he has a lot of stories. You have to dig into what he is saying and find the nuggets of truth in there because Howie has his perspective of how things happened. It was interesting to get his story. He is still stuck in the same place he was in 1990. He has never been to Yankees Stadium since. In his mind, he is a big part, if not the biggest part, of why the Yankees dynasty rose because he felt what he did to George opened the door to the Yankees becoming a great team.

The Mel Hall story is incredibly shocking. That something like that could happen with Chaz in front of everyone else. That she was doing her homework next to the team’s wives at age 16. I do think it’s going to be shocking how you bring in the biggest superstar in baseball Dave Winfield as a free agent to sort of replace Reggie Jackson and from the day he signed that contract you want to get rid of him. Then it takes you 10 years to get rid of your superstar. Joel says it in the documentary. The day he married Dave Winfield is the day they get divorced. This story went on for 10 years. That was shocking. I had no idea that this feud happened for 10 years and happened the day Steinbrenner read the contract and realized he was duped by Winfield’s agent. That was a discovery for me.

For me, an interesting piece was when Chaz talked about having a conversation with Donald Trump back then. He told her if she needed help getting out of her relationship with Mel, he could help. 

There was a lot of irony in that. The fact he is saying, “Hey, are you okay? You need to get out of this. This isn’t working.” You never know what is going to happen. That sums up the year in a nutshell.

Bronx Zoo ‘90: Crime, Chaos and Baseball, May 16, Peacock