TAMPA, Fla. -- The New York Yankees set an American League record with 114 regular-season victories on the way to their second World Series championship in three years.

Then they got better.

The acquisition of five-time Cy Young Award winner Roger Clemens has turned one of the greatest teams in history into an even greater team on paper, but manager Joe Torre would like to throw a body block in front of the wildly inflated expectations that are waiting to ambush the Yankees in 1999.

"Being better than last year doesn't mean you're going to win more games than last year," said Torre, whose team went on to win an unprecedented total of 125 regular and postseason games. "That was a once-in-a-lifetime situation."

Maybe so, but the Yankees still had upside potential after they ran away with the American League East race last season. Designated hitter Chili Davis was out for much of the year with an ankle injury. Second baseman Chuck Knoblauch finished well off his career averages at the plate. Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez was in the starting rotation for only half the season.

And, of course, the Yankees didn't have The Rocket yet.

No wonder everyone is assuming that the Yankees will win it all again this year.

"Certainly on paper it looks that way," said 20-game-winner David Cone, "but you have to understand that last year everything went our way. We won 60 games in the first half. Unless we can match that start, we won't ap proach those numbers, and a lot of things have to go our way for that to happen."

Team effort

The Yankees got a strong contribution from every slot in the offensive lineup last year, right down to Scott Brosius' unheard-of 98 RBIs from the final spot in the batting order. Even Knoblauch, who batted a subpar .265, scored 117 runs from the leadoff position.

The pitching staff was so deep that all five regular starters won at least 12 games and even the sixth starter -- promising Ramiro Mendoza -- won in double figures (though some of his 10 victories came in relief).

And, of course, the Yankees didn't have The Rocket yet.

Torre, forced to play the devil's advocate, ticks off the reasons why he isn't taking another banner year for granted.

"We got 20 wins out of Cone last year, but he's going to be a year older, so he'll have to be watched closely," Torre said. "We don't have that second left-hander out of the bullpen, but that was a luxury. Offensively, we might see more from Knoblauch, but he did score more than 100 runs last year, and I don't know if Brosius is going to knock in 100 runs again."

This is typical conservative manager talk, but even Torre knows there is no point in sidestepping the obvious. The Yankees were loaded last year. They are loaded this year. They're even loaded at the minor-league level.

So loaded, in fact, that the decision to trade 18-game-winner David Wells, left-handed setup man Graeme Lloyd and second-base prospect Homer Bush for Clemens raised some eyebrows around the division.

When you have the best talent and the best team chemistry, why mess with it? If it ain't broke, why fix it?

"We did it because we felt it made us better," said general manager Brian Cashman. "That was the bottom line. We just felt it was one of those old-fashioned decisions. Does this make us better? We all felt it did. Hopefully, it did."

It's tough to argue that point, but not impossible. Clemens was 20-6 last year, but his winning percentage was slightly lower than Wells' (18-4) and the Yankees also had to give up another left-hander (Lloyd) who had an impressive 1.67 ERA in setup relief. Bush was a valuable prospect, too, but he doesn't figure to be a major loss because he was stuck behind Knoblauch on the depth chart.

The loss of the two left-handers is significant, particularly for a team that plays half of its games at lefty-friendly Yankee Stadium, but the Yankees did get the American League's best pitcher in return.

"He has been that kind of player," Davis said. "He's a dominant pitcher. I think the scary thing is, he could potentially win 30 games with this lineup behind him. It's possible. If he has the kind of year he had last year, we're going to score a lot more runs for him. He could be the Denny McLain of 1999."

Dynasty in the making

More inflated expectations, and why not? The Yankees are positioned to forge the greatest dynasty of the free-agent era. If they win the World Series again this year, it would be their third in four seasons, the first mini-dynasty since Oakland won three straight (1972-1974).

In an age when players switch uniforms at the drop of a hat, that might be enough to rank them alongside the great Yankees dynasties of the past.

"It's an interesting debate what defines a dynasty," Cone said. "I don't know, but the fact that we are talking about it makes me happy. Just to be included in that discussion last year, that's enough."

Owner George Steinbrenner tried in the 1970s to create a latter-day Yankees dynasty and nearly succeeded. The club won back-to-back world titles in 1977 and '78, but could not carry it into the '80s. Perhaps that is why he was so intent on adding more star power to last year's championship club.

What do you do for an encore after you win 125 games? There was always the possibility of a letdown, but the acquisition of Clemens has raised the emotional stakes. The Rocket has never won a world championship and the Yankees will have no excuse for losing it.

The Rocket factor

Clemens alters the makeup of the team significantly. The Yankees won last year with a hero-a-day approach that kept the focus off any one player. Clemens figures to be a lightning rod for media attention this year, but no one in the Yankees' clubhouse is complaining about that.

"The day that Roger got here, there was a buzz in the clubhouse," Cone said. "He takes a lot of weight off a lot of guys. Bernie Williams signed an $87 million contract and was able to step in unnoticed. Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera won their arbitration cases, but everyone was focused on Roger. I think he has already paid dividends."

The downside risk? If Clemens gets hurt and Wells has a big year in Toronto, the Yankees' front office will be set up for the second-guess of the decade. Orioles manager Ray Miller wondered aloud recently whether the Yankees had done the rest of the division a favor by changing a team that already appeared unbeatable, but Torre remains adamant that the deal was the right thing to do.

"Clemens is that one guy," he said. "If he doesn't win a game for us and the same [situation] comes down the line again, I'd have to say you would do that. He just gets your attention. I'm not taking anything away from Boomer [Wells]. He's a great competitor. But it's not fair to compare Boomer and Roger."

The only question, it seems, is how bad the Yankees want to win again, but intensity and desire do not appear to be in short supply in their clubhouse.

"These guys want to win again," Torre said. "That drives them. If there was going to be any evidence [of complacency], it would have showed up last year when we had the big lead."

Brosius, who was the MVP of the World Series in his first year with the club, said that last year's success will make this year's team even hungrier.

"You know how if you go to dinner and you have this awesome piece of chocolate cake?" he said. "You get a taste of it and you want another taste. That's how it is. Once you've done something and you realize how fun it is, you want to do it again."

AL East

First in a four-part series on the Orioles' American League East rivals:

Tomorrow: Toronto Blue Jays

Wednesday: Boston Red Sox

Thursday: Tampa Bay Devil Rays

Pub Date: 3/08/99