Williams succeeds with pitches running just off the plate, and the Yankees refused to chase them yesterday.

Officially, the Yankees refused to utter a word about Irabu.

The Yankees refused to include him during trade talks with Seattle, Toronto and other teams in recent years.

The Yankees refuse to be impressed by any of this.

The Yankees, however, refused to die and scratched out two runs.

No team was willing to put together an offer the Yankees couldn't refuse.

So far, the Yankees have refused to deal the player they drafted as a 16 1/2-year-old and signed for $11,000.

The Yankees refused to give him a uniform until he had his Afro felled.

"When the Yankees refused, the deal was off."

During the winter before last season, the Yankees refused to trade Al Leiter.