It’s a Big Payday for Steinbrenner

George Steinbrenner, owner of the New York Yankees, made $135 million from his club’s business merger with the New Jersey Nets and will get another $40 million from junk bonds sold by the new company, Newsweek reported Sunday.

The magazine said its conclusions came from an analysis of the offering memorandum for the bonds, currently being circulated on Wall Street.

The Nets’ owners, Lewis Katz and Ray Chambers, contributed their team, valued at $150 million, to YankeeNets and paid $225 million for a 37.5% stake in the Yankees. Steinbrenner, who owned approximately 60% of the Yankees, got about 60% of the money.

In exchange, the Yankee owners contributed a 62.5% stake in their team to YankeeNets. The deal, according to Newsweek, values the Yankees at $700 million, about $600 million above the team’s debt.

Proceeds from the sale of seven-year junk bonds and the contemplated $75-million sale of a stake in YankeeNets to new investors will total of $214 million, Newsweek said.

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Scott Erickson returned to the Baltimore Orioles’ training camp after surgery to remove bone chips from his elbow Friday. Erickson, the No. 2 pitcher in the rotation, was expected to miss six to eight weeks after the procedure. It now appears he will be sidelined at least the first month of the regular season, and maybe more because he hadn’t reached maximum arm strength before undergoing the operation. He was in camp a little over a week when he realized he couldn’t move his right arm. . . . Cleveland Indian Manager Charlie Manuel was released from a hospital in Winter Haven, Fla., but there’s no word yet on when he’ll return to the club. Manuel, 56, had emergency colon surgery Feb. 28. . . . Pittsburgh first baseman Kevin Young has developed swelling in his right knee after undergoing arthroscopic surgery and also had an adverse reaction to an injection and is walking with crutches.