Silly Scuffle Could Cost N.Y. Yankees Millions, Phenom Taylor His Career

BEAUFORT, N.C. - There was nothing unusual about the call to the Carteret County Sheriff's Department at 7:12 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 18. A man named Ron Wilson called to say there had been an argument and a fight. So deputy sheriff Jimmy Guthrie was dispatched to settle what sounded like a typical domestic dispute on Laurel Road.

Laurel Road is seven miles and a world away from what the local Chamber of Commerce proudly calls "Historic Beaufort." The quaint seafaring town of 4,000 on North Carolina's southeastern coast boasts 19th-century Victorian homes and relics pre-dating the Civil War.

But there is nothing quaint about Laurel Road. It is a barren two-lane highway off which the township's poorest people live. The dirt roads that twist off it are rarely longer than 50 feet. Dilapidated shacks and tiny trailers rest on cinder blocks dug into tracts of grubby land, sometimes only yards from marsh and swamp.

"It's where the least fortunate people in our community live," Sheriff Ralph Thomas said.

The most fortunate person in the community has lived here all his life. Brien Taylor grew up poor with his mother, Bettie, his father, Willie, his older brother, Brenden, and younger sisters, Wyleen and Latosha, in a mobile home two-tenths of a mile from Laurel.

Bettie, 40, is a confident, steel-willed woman who runs the family. She was a crab processor in a local fishery. Willie worked in construction. The tight-knit family lived off a dirt road that lined their land. Their trailer sat behind a small brick house where Bettie's parents lived.

"Hard-working folks," Sheriff Thomas said. "A very fine family."

At East Carteret High School in 1988 and '89, it was apparent that Brien was special. He was a left-handed pitcher who threw fastballs 90 mph. Major-league scouts started showing up to his games. By his senior year in 1991, however, only the Yankees and Atlanta Braves were still paying regular visits. It was obvious that Taylor was going to go first or second in the June amateur draft.

The Yankees picked him first overall on June 6, 1991. An acrimonious negotiation ensued, as Bettie accused the Yankees of trying to take advantage of the family's poverty with a low contract offer.

The situation reached its climax when Taylor enrolled at Louisburg (N.C.) Junior College and prepared for his freshman year. But on Aug. 26, 1991, hours before the Yankees would have lost the rights to this phenom, Taylor agreed to a record-shattering contract that paid him a $1.55 million signing bonus.

The Taylors tore down the trailer and built a handsome, two-story home approximately 150 feet behind grandma and grandpa's place. They paved the dirt road. Brien bought a new car. The Taylors got a new car.

Major-league stardom seemed three or four minor-league seasons away for Brien McKeiver Taylor until the night of Dec. 18. Eight days before his 22nd birthday, Taylor dislocated and tore the capsule and labrum of his left shoulder in the second of two fights in front of Ron Wilson's tiny mobile home.

Dr. Frank Jobe performed successful reconstructive surgery in California on Dec. 28. Taylor won't pitch in 1994. There is no guarantee he will ever be able to pitch as effectively as he did before surgery. It is possible the Yanks have squandered two years of hope and $1.55 million. It is possible Brien Taylor has squandered a major-league career worth many more million dollars.

And like most fights between friends, it was so silly.

Deputy sheriff Guthrie pulled up at 7:18 p.m. in front of the light green trailer where Ron Wilson, 19, lives with his 34-year-old mother, Patricia Smith. Guthrie was told that Brenden Taylor, 26, had gone to the hospital with cuts to his head after a scuffle that ensued after Brenden threatened Patricia and grabbed her.

"To us, there wasn't much to it," Guthrie said. "They said there was a fight. And they wanted Brenden kept out of the trailer. Of course, we advised them what they could do. They got warrants."

The squabble began about three months ago, Patricia said, soon after her younger sister, Anna Wilson, moved into a low-income apartment complex downtown with her two daughters, Tiffany, 3, and Laticia, 3 months.

The tiff was between Brenden, Laticia's father and Anna's boyfriend, and Patricia.

It somehow ended with Ron and Brien scuffling.

"Brien came towards me and kind of rushed me," Morris said. "I grabbed him by the waist. He was trying to rough me up. I fell and landed on my arm."

They rolled toward a pile of junk near the trailer. They bumped into a decrepit cane chair supporting a rusted metal brace normally used to hold an oil tank. The metal brace, which weighs 15-20 pounds, fell on Brien's shoulder.

"I don't know if that did it to his shoulder," Morris said. "It could have been that, or when we was wrestling."