Clyde King, the professorial, multi-faceted baseball man who pitched six seasons for the Dodgers in Brooklyn as a protégé of Branch Rickey and later became George Steinbrenner's chief troubleshooter as a scout, pitching instructor, manager and general manager of the Yankees, died Tuesday from complications from a fall in Goldsboro, N.C.

King, who was 86, was still employed by the Yankees as a part-time scout, the last leg of a baseball career that had spanned more than 60 years. With the Yankees, he was Steinbrenner's man, right to the end when the two would sit together at spring training games in Tampa even though the owner was seemingly detached from the team's affairs. As Yankees GM in 1985-86, King was the principal in the most storied feud in team history when Steinbrenner ordered him to fire Yogi Berra as manager after 16games of the 1985 season. Because Steinbrenner didn't have the courtesy to call Berra himself, Yogi embarked on a self-imposed boycott of the Yankees, refusing to set foot inYankee Stadium for 14 years.

After a seven-year playing career (which was interrupted by his service in World War II) in which he compiled a 32-25 won-loss record, King served as manager of the San Francisco Giants in 1969-70 and the Atlanta Braves in '74-'75 before Steinbrenner hired him in 1976 as a scout. It didn't take long for him to impress the Boss with his knowledge of pitching mechanics and his ability to dissect reasons for pitchers' problems, and Steinbrennner, much to his managers' dismay, frequently called upon King to serve as pitching coach or co-pitching coach. For that reason, most of Steinbrenner's managers and top advisers, Billy Martin, Gene Michael and Lou Piniella in particular, regarded King with distrust.

In 1982, King began the season as a scout, only to be moved up to pitching coach by Steinbrenner on June 11, replacing Stan Williams, which did not sit well with Michael, who had replaced Bob Lemon as Yankee manager after just 14 games that year. Then, on July 19, Steinbrenner elevated King to his "special assistant" and, two weeks later, named him to take over as manager for Michael. King hoped to be brought back as manager for 1983, only to have that dashed when Martin suddenly became available after a falling-out with theOakland A's front office.

Instead, King went back to scouting for the Yankees but soon resurfaced as Steinbrenner's most turned-to aide. On April 9, 1984 he replaced Murray Cookas general manager. Besides the infamous firing of Yogi, King was also responsible for the hiring of Piniella as manager in 1986 in what became another Steinbrenner circus. Stung by criticism over his frequent manager firings, Steinbrenner vowed to "stay completely out of it" and give King a "total free hand" in hiring a successor to Martin after the 1985 season, even though it was an open secret that the Boss had promised the job to Piniella even though the former Yankee had no previous managing experience.

In his nearly two years as GM, King was able to swing a number of successful trades and signings that netted Rickey Henderson, Phil Niekro, reliever Brian Fisher and promising starter Doug Drabek. Inevitably, after King began receiving too much credit from the media, his relationship with Steinbrenner became strained. By his own choice, he relinquished the GM job after the 1986 season and went back to scouting.

King was signed by Rickey out of the U. of North Carolina - his teammates came to call him "the professor." In later years, he loved regaling the Yankee beat writers with his stories about working with his batterymate, Roy Campanella, on his "bubblegum pitch" and quick pitching, the latter trick for which he became notorious. His best season was 1951 when he was 14-7 with a 4.15 ERA.

When he hired King as Yankee GM in 1984, Steinbrenner said of him: "Over the years, Clyde has been my closest confidant. When I get upset I can talk to Clyde. He understands me. He has always stood up and told me when I'm full of it."

Clyde E King