King George
Posted: November 28th, 2008 | Filed under: Baseball, Essays | 66 Comments »
Every city in the country, I suppose, has its own relationship with New York City — you know, much the same way that every college basketball team in the old ACC had a rivalry with North Carolina. The City is just omnipresent in American life. Everyone knows about Boston’s rivalry with New York and the friction between Philadelphia and New York and the long-distance relationship between Los Angeles and New York. Chicago calls itself “Second City†— and while technically this is because of the way it rebuilt itself after the Great Chicago Fire, I know many people in Chicago who believe it is in some way a reference to New York and its entrenched role as the First City. Kansas City* has a chip on its shoulder about New York that goes back to before the days when the Kansas City Blues were a Yankees minor league team and before the Kansas City A’s traded Roger Maris to the big city. People in towns big and small all across America have long placed their own city’s charms and ease and little town blues against the madness they caught on that vacation when they saw Cats, caught the Rockettes and nearly got killed three times in cab rides through the streets.
*One of my favorite pieces of art was a New Yorker cover from 1976 — Saul Steinberg’s view from 9th Avenue. If you click on the link, you will beginning at 9th Avenue, then there’s 10th, then the Hudson River, and then way beyond that is New Jersey and then the rest of the country — with Kansas City in the middle. Then beyond that is the Pacific Ocean and China and Russi. I’m not certain if that really is the view of all New Yorkers — but that is certainly the view Kansas Citians have of New Yorkers.
Cleveland’s relationship with New York, though, always seemed just a little bit different to me, it always seemed that of a little brother or sister who wanted to wear the same clothes. Growing up, I can remember hearing about New York every week in one way or another. Someone would mention that, for many years, the Terminal Tower was the tallest building in America* … you know, outside of New York. Playhouse Square was (and is) the second largest performance arts center … after Lincoln Center in New York. There’s a big fashion week in Cleveland, one of the biggest in the country, probably THE biggest outside of, well, New York. The Cleveland Orchestra has always been one of the best in America, right there with the New York Philharmonic. Little Italy in Cleveland had food about as good as you could find outside of Little Italy in New York. And I cannot even tell you how many times I heard growing up that the collection in the Cleveland Museum of Art was as good as anything you might see in New York City.
*It was actually the tallest buillding outside of New York until the year I was born, 1967. Then Chicago started building skyscrapers.
Yes, the New York comparisons were all-consuming, but the weird part is I just never felt the same bitterness from Cleveland toward New York. Sure, Clevelanders hate the Yankees because, well, you HAVE to hate the Yankees, it’s a law. But beyond that, Cleveland always seemed perfectly content to be sort of a little New York, to have good things that were just about New York quality, to dream about moving to New York for a business deal someday.
It’s not out of character that LeBron James, who grew up in Akron, is a Yankees fan and seems utterly fascinated by New York. There’s something very real there. I remember when I was a kid, when everything in Cleveland was going to hell, there was a semi-bizarre tourism campaign to start calling Cleveland a “Plum.†Radio and television commercials were played. Only it wasn’t bizarre really — it was another chance for the city to try and connect with New York. T-shirts were made: “New York may be the Big Apple but Cleveland’s a Plum.†I don’t recall that the T-shirts sent Cleveland tourism skyrocketing, but I’m not sure it was the point. The point might have been to have a T-shirt with New York and Cleveland on it.
And it seems to me that Cleveland-New York relationship is close to the heart of the story of George Steinbrenner. He grew up in Cleveland. And in a way I’ve always thought that defined him. He has to be the most famous New Yorker who never really lived in New York. It’s the Cleveland in him.
* * *
The story of King George is fascinating to me because, at the end of the day, the story goes wherever the narrator wants it to go. Do you want a hero? Do you want a scoundrel? Do you want a tyrant? Do you want a heart of gold? Steinbrenner is what you make him. He is the convicted felon who quietly gave millions to charity, the ruthless boss who made sure his childhood heroes and friends stayed on the payroll, the twice-suspended owner who drove the game into a new era, the sore loser who won a lot, the sore winner who lost plenty, the haunted son who longed for the respect of his father, the attention hound who could not tolerate losing the spotlight, the money-throwing blowhard who saved the New York Yankees and sent them into despair and saved them again (in part by staying out the way), the bully who demanded that his employees answer his every demand and the soft touch who would quietly pick up the phone and help some stranger he read about in the morning paper.
As Steinbrenner walks away from the New York Yankees — and as rumors about his failing health grow louder — everyone looks for his epitaph, for the few sentences that sum up his messy career. Is George Steinbrenner essentially good or bad, a Hall of Famer or a scourge on the game, a decent man who simply had to win, or a callous bully who showed a little decency in his spare time? The answer to all of that, I suspect, is “Yes.â€
He did grow up in Cleveland, son of a shipping magnate and a bit of a legend. He is George Michael Steinbrenner III, but his father was called Henry, and he was an NCAA hurdles champion while at MIT in 1927. There is something precise about hurdlers, and Henry Steinbrenner was a precise man. He demanded something like perfection from George, and George failed him time and again. He could not cut it at MIT. He could not become a world class hurdler. He was sent off at 13 to military school.
At different times in his life, George told the most famous story about his father differently — most often, the story goes that when George put together the consortium to buy the New York Yankees in 1973 (putting in $168,000 of his own money), Henry told the newspapers it was the “first smart thing he’s ever done.†At other times, though, George says it wasn’t until his Yankees actually reached the World Series in 1976 that Henry said, “It’s the first smart thing he’s ever done.†Either way, it’s clear Henry did not have much regard for his son’s intelligence.
And George never hid from the idea that he was just a son trying to prove his worth to his old man. That’s another funny part of the story: Nobody has spent more time psychoanalyzing George Steinbrenner than … George Steinbrenner. He has lived such a public life, and has come across so many opinions about himself (“If I believed half the things said about me, I wouldn’t go home with myself,†he has said), that he cannot help but develop his own theories about himself. He seems to believe that his father’s hard distance is the key to his own story, the reason he has been so driven to win, the reason he has never been able to tolerate weakness or ineptness in others — even if the weakness and ineptness were only imagined in his mind.
* * *
First, he tried to buy the Cleveland Indians. That was 1971, when the Indians were in so much trouble there were rumors that the team would begin playing roughly half its games in New Orleans, in a new domed stadium, beginning in 1974. Things were getting bad in Cleveland then, and Steinbrenner offered $6 million for a team that had been valued at about $8 million. Then he denied making any offer at all. Then when it looked like he would lose the bidding he brought in Cleveland Indians legend Al Rosen (the 1954 1953 MVP) and pushed his offer to $9 million. Already, you could see the Steinbrenner mind at work, his reluctance to lose at anything. As it turned out, his final bid still wasn’t enough — NIck Mileti, who already owned the Cleveland Cavaliers and NHL Cleveland Barons, got a group together and offered $10 million, a foolish bid. Mileti, best I can tell, was already leveraged up to his eyeballs, and the Indians were a bad investment then. There is no guessing how much different baseball would have been in the 1970s and beyond had Steinbrenner bought the Indians.
Then, it’s also true that the New York Yankees were hardly a bargain in the early 1970s. They were owned by CBS, and they were terrible in just about every way imaginable. In 1972, for the first time since the end of World War II, the Yankees drew fewer than a million. They had not won a pennant since ‘64, which was BY FAR the longest gap for the Yankees since the years before Babe Ruth. Truth is, things had become stale in the Bronx — aging Ralph Houk was the manager, Mickey Mantle was retired, the Mets had won over the city, and it just seemed like the Yankees would never again be the Yankees.
Steinbrenner, though, saw it all differently, and I feel certain this was the Cleveland in him. He still saw the Yankees as the team he remembered from his childhood, the Yankees were still the Yankees of DiMaggio and Ruth and Gehrig. To him, New York was still New York, it was all so glamorous and thrilling and, yes, big time. “Coming to New York was like a different world,†he told the New Yorker three decades later. “It was like, ‘Whoa, look at the tall buildings!â€
He and his group paid $10 million for the Yankees — though Steinbrenner has long said it was only $8.8 million because he sold some parking lots and land that came with the deal back to the city for $1.2 million — and Steinbrenner famously said that he would stay in Cleveland and not be active in the day-to-day operations. People who knew Steinbrenner understood there was no chance of this — but nobody in New York knew Steinbrenner then. They would very soon.
The Yankees were lousy again in 1973, and before that season got going, he fired president Mike Burke. At the end, he nodded when general manager Lee MacPhail became league president, he accepted Ralph Houk’s resignation and he tried to steal Oakland manager Dick Williams away from A’s owner Charlie Finley. By the end of that eventful year, he was also lying to the FBI about a scheme in his shipping company that was sending money to Richard Nixon’s “Committee to Re-elect the President,†— the famous CREEP from “All the President’s Men.â€*
*Steinbrenner would later be indicted on 14 counts of making illegal contributions and obstructing justice. The odd thing is that Steinbrenner was not a Republican nor a particularly strong supporter of Nixon — his closest political friend at that time was probably Ted Kennedy and he raised millions more for Democrats than Republicans. No, the contributions were not about politics, they were about business. He was lobbying against restrictions in the shipping business, and Nixon was obviously the man in charge. Steinbrenner pleaded guilty to one felony count of obstructing justice, was fined $15,000 and was suspended by baseball for 15 months. Because of the felony conviction, Steinbrenner was not allowed to vote until 1989, when Ronald Reagan pardoned him in exchange for Steinbrenner admitting to the crime.
Point is that by 1974, Steinbrenner was already Steinbrenner, fully formed, fully obsessed, fully determined to be a star. “Although I was born in Cleveland, I can remember as a boy how much appeal the Yankees always had,†he told Milt Richman at UPI. “They are important to New York and the whole nation.â€
He talked about how he had seen “Pride of the Yankees†at least 15 times.
In early 1975, with Steinbrenner serving his suspension, the Yankees spent millions to steal Catfish Hunter away from Oakland — a move which changed the landscape of baseball. In June, while still on suspension, Steinbrenner and Charlie Finley tried to get Bowie Kuhn thrown out of office. In August, while still on suspension, the Yankees fired manager Bill Virdon and hired a pitbull named Billy Martin, leading the great columnist Red Smith to write this classic droll lead: “A fellow can’t help wondering how George Steinbrenner will react when he comes back to the Yankees and discovers that Gabe Paul has fired his manager-of-the-year behind his back and hired somebody else’s manager-of-the-year.â€
Well, George could not help himself. He never could help himself. “George is an overbearing, arbitrary, arrogant SOB,†his longtime friend and Cleveland businessman C.L. Smythe told reporters. “There’s no denying that. But I just love him.†That from one of his best friends.
* * *
Steinbrenner never stopped telling people about the importance of the New York Yankees. It was that word: Importance. Steinbrenner always loved axioms, sayings, quotations, a few collected words that speak to the larger truth. He can quote a hundred of them — and in virtually every interview he will quote at least a half dozen. Plutarch said that the measure of a man is in the way he bears up under misfortune. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Do Not got where the path may lead; go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.†John Wesley said “Cleanliness is next to Godliness.†Shakespeare, through Hamlet Polonius (in Hamlet), said, “To Thine Own Self Be True.†And so on — Steinbrenner never tires of memorizing these quotes. It seems to be how his mind works … he sees things as IMPORTANT and SWEEPING and SIGNIFICANT and HISTORIC. It’s probably the old football coach in him — Steinbrenner for a time was a graduate assistant under Woody Hayes at Ohio State, and he served as a full-time assistant at Northwestern and Purdue in the ‘50s. And with football coaches, every game is for world domination.
Point is, Steinbrenner has never been much for the tedium of every day, no, he needed constant victories in his life, he needed perpetual action in his life, he needed to believe there was something momentous going on. He never saw the Yankees as a baseball team or even THE baseball team. No, he saw the Yankees as the American way of life. He expected his players to be clean shaven, he made sure patriotic songs like “Yankee Doodle Boy†were played at games, he had his legendary announcer Bob Sheppard talk endlessly about the “Yankee Way.†When a player turned down his money, Steinbrenner saw that as a failing in the player’s character, a sign that the player did not have the right stuff to wear the pinstripes and be a New York Yankee. To be against the Yankees, in the mind of George Steinbrenner, was to be anti-American.
That attitude seeped into everything. When the Yankees lost, Steinbrenner did not just see it as a loss, he saw it as an affront, a sign that someone was not living up to the Yankee Way, someone had failed the team, the city and, yes, America too. You better believe he had 16 managers from 1979 to 1995*. The Yankees weren’t winning. Somebody had to pay. Somebody had to suffer. “Do your job or you will be gone,†Steinbrenner said to someone pretty much every day; Steve Jacobson in his hard-hitting Newsday column reminded everyone that Steinbrenner had fired an electrician when the loudspeaker malfunctioned and fired a secretary for bringing bringing the wrong sandwiches. You live up to his impossibly perfect image of the New York Yankees or Steinbrenner would exact retritution. Joe Torre went to the playoff every year from 1996 to 2007. They won four World Series. But did they Yankees win every game? No. Did they win every World Series? No. Every year, there was tension and rumors that Torre was finally gone.
*Not 16 DIFFERENT managers — Bob Lemon, Billy Martin and Gene Michael kept reappearing in the early 1980s.
Of course, at the same time Steinbrenner punished himself too. He poured his baseball profits back into the ballclub, sometimes foolishly, sometimes recklessly, but always with the unmistakable intent of winning championships and glorifying the New York Yankees (and if he got a little credit along the way, well, why not?). Sure, it is true that the Yankees made more money than any other team — hundreds of millions per year more than some small market teams — but Steinbrenner did not have to spend so much of it on baseball. Only he did. In the 1980s, when the Yankees were floundering, he had to get every washed up Ron Kittle, Mike Easler, Jack Clark, John Candelaria, Rich Dotson, Jesse Barfield, Claudell Washington and Andy Hawkins. Then, after he was suspended by baseball for a second time and the Yankees became the most dominant team in baseball, he STILL had to get Roger Clemens and Mike Mussina and A-Rod and Jason Giambi and Hideki Matsui and Gary Sheffield and any other superstar who might help the Yankees win every game one season.
There are different theories about how much the second suspension was responsible for the 1990s Yankees dynasty. In the late 1980s, Steinbrenner paid gambler Howard Spira (usually referred to as “shifty gambler†or “scheming gambler†or “small-time gambler†in the various newspaper stories) to give up some incriminating information on outfielder Dave Winfield. Steinbrenner felt like he had been cheated by Winfield and his agent, who had put a stipulation in the contract that ended up costing Steinbrenner a lot more money than he expected. Anyway, Steinbrenner had never forgiven Winfield for going one-for-22 in the 1981 World Series. He lashed out in the most vicious way, and he got suspended. The general consensus seems to be that his suspension gave the Yankees the freedom to let their own players develop, and those young players — Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte, Bernie Williams — were the nucleus of the reborn New York Yankees.
This is true, though I don’t think it’s the whole story. King George’s money was still good around baseball. Plenty of multi-million dollar signings — David Cone, Chuck Knoblauch, David Wells, Roger Clemens, Hideki Irabu, David Justice, Jimmy Key, Kenny Rogers, John Wetteland and others — played real roles on those World Series teams. The lovable 1996 Yankees, the team that supposedly represented a new way for the Yankees to do business, still had by far the highest payroll in baseball, a payroll that was 10% more than the Baltimore Orioles, a payroll twice the league average and three times larger the bottom six or seven teams. By 2000, the last year of the World Series dominance, the Yankees had the first $100 million payroll in baseball history — and they rushed right by that to $113 million. The Yankees may have been smarter then, and they have been a bit more reserved, but the idea that George had learned restraint or that the Yankees were were somehow fundamentally different seems a bit offf. Steinbrenner was still out there, still spending, still promoting life, liberty and the Yankee Way. He still could not help himself.
* * *
There’s a wonderful three-word expression that is often used when talking about George Steinbrenner. The expression is: “Nobody can deny.†Think how often you heart those words put in front of a Steinbrenner trait. Nobody can deny that George wants to win. Or: Nobody can deny that he has done a lot of good things for people. Or: Nobody can deny that he was a terrible boss. Or: Nobody can deny that he made the Yankees the dominant team again. And so on.
I love that expression because, really, it doesn’t mean anything. If nobody can deny it, why even bring it up in the first place? You wouldn’t say, “Nobody can deny that the Magna Carta was issued in 1215†or “Nobody can deny that Jonas Salk developed the polio vaccine.†That doesn’t go anywhere. The reason it is so effective with Steinbrenner is because, honestly, every single thing about him is deniable. Good guy? Deniable. Bad guy? Deniable. Man who made the Yankees great? Deniable. Man who should have been given a lifelong ban? Deniable.
You can deny anything when it comes to George M. Steinbrenner III — even hard facts. That’s because he really has been one of a kind. You know how at the end of certain movies the screen will go blank and then words will appear, words that tell you how the story REALLY ended up — like at the end of Walk the Line, it said: †“John and June were married in 1968. In fall of 1969, John sold 250,000 copies per fomont of his Folsom Prison and San Quentin albums, more than any other artist including the Beatles … John and June shared their artistry, compassion, wisdom, humor, lives and love with the entire world.â€
Well, what words could you put at the end of George Steinbrenner’s movie? I’ve read a bunch of columns and stories about the man — some which make him out to be a hero, some which make him out to be a bum, some which make him out to be a complicated character, some which make him out to be as predictable as San Diego weather. I’ve enjoyed all of them, because it seems to me they all have truth. He IS the Seinfeld character. He IS the humanitarian. He IS the felon. He IS the driven perfectionist. He fits every theory.
My theory is simply this: Steinbrenner is a Cleveland man who wanted to be a star. Cleveland has always been filled with those people. Steinbrenner needed parades, he needed fireworks, he needed something to be remembered by. You may know the story of King Mausollos, whose reign has been somewhat forgotten, but whose large tomb was one of the seven wonders of the world (and the inspiration for the word Mausoleum). There are men and women who come along who simply need to be stars. And whatever else, Steinbrenner was a star. Nobody can deny that.
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“To thine ownself be true.”
Hamlet didn’t say that. That Polonius guy did. Time for someone to rewatch Clueless. Or Hamlet.
Magnificent.
Joe, thanks for posting this on a very slow afternoon at work the day after Thanksgiving. Nobody can deny it made for the most enjoyable 15 minutes of my work day so far.
Also, if I remember correctly, Steinbrenner’s first WS team came up against this great team from Cincinnati. Somebody should really write a book about them.
I went to Opening Day in 1993 with a friend, the last year at the old stadium, and we were coming out of the Sportsman (a pre-game tradition) and I saw a man in a trenchcoat across the street and said “That’s George Steinbrenner.” My buddy said “No way”, but as we got closer it was clear. There was George Steinbrenner walking downtown, alone, not a soul around. My buddy ran over to him, introduced himself, and explained that his Grandmother was George’s secretary for years in Cleveland. George remembered her and recounted some stories and complimented her and chatted with us for about 15 minutes. He said he still loved Cleveland and was walking to the stadium to clear his head. That encounter completely changed my view of the man.
Well, that and Seinfeld…
I love the Seinfeld episodes with Steinbrenner, especially the one with the Calzones. For 95% of this post I was afraid you were not going to mention those episodes, but you came through in the clutch. Great Post
Thanks for nailing the truth about those mid-90s Yankees teams that, some say, were built from within. Not true.
My favorite Steinbrenner moment was the SNL skit where he was the owner of a convenience store. Phil Hartman was the supervisor, and wanted Steinbrenner to fire Kevin Nealon. When Hartman tells him that an unsatisfied owner fires people, he responds thusly:
“A stupid owner! A stupid, arrogant, shortsighted owner. The kind of guy who blames everybody but himself! How would you like it everytime something went wrong, I just blamed you, the supervisor, huh? Let’s just fire the supervisor! Then I’ll hire some other guy, and something would go wrong and I’d fire him, and I’d probably rehire you! Then fire you again, bring in someone else, then fire him and rehire you again! Then fire and hire, back and forth until the whole thing’s just a big joke! Is that the kind of owner you want? Some yammering nincompoop in a fancy suit?”
King George calling himself a yammering noncompoop…classic. I personally think Steinbrenner is brilliant.
The yammering nincompoop line can be redirected to his yammering nincompoop of a son…
In paragraph two, Joe mentions Cleveland’s Terminal Tower:
“On a happier note: In 1938, Henry Helf and Frank Pytlak, members of the Cleveland Indians baseball team, each caught a baseball thrown from the top of the Tower [c. 700 feet]. The first few balls were not caught, and they landed at a speed of 202 feet per second, bouncing back up 13 stories.”
Source: The Terminal Tower Complex, Jim Toman and Dan Cook, Cleveland Landmarks Press, Inc.
Joe, what a great read, thanks for educating a lot of us to stories and facts that we knew nothing of (Steinbrenner was born in Cleveland, how had I not known that?)
Hey Cody, a guy writes a great 5,000 word essay and you want to nitpik a Shakesphere quote? Come on people, lets enjoy a great writer and give him a little slack.
My favorite George story comes from some friends that produced a play with him in the 70’s. Big, famous American Playwright, famous actors, and a huge-budget production for Broadway (back then, anyway). George came to opening night and approached my friends during intermission. “I don’t get it,” he said, “where is the #$%&# music?” The play was not a musical. This has always summed up some integral part of Mr. Steinbrenner, to me. Thanks for another great post, Joe.
Fantastic.
I think what makes your stories about various sport’s personalities so great is that you are always able to breath life into people that we normally only see one dimension of.
You always seem able to paint the whole picture and you do so beautifully.
I think Joe wasn’t making a mistake, he was making a clever reference to this anecdote about Earl Weaver…
Though often gruff, Weaver was more than capable of holding his own in a battle of wits. One day in spring training, while berating former umpire Ron Luciano for inaccuracies in his recent book of memoirs, he told Luciano, “Like it says in Hamlet, Ron, ‘This above all else: to thine own self be true.’” When Miami Herald writer Edwin Pope reported the story the next day with Weaver saying “Like Horatio says in Hamlet…”, Weaver sought out Pope and yelled, “Edwin, if Polonius didn’t f***ing say it, I’ve lived the last 35 years of my life backwards.”
Joe, re: your poll – you left off the correct choice – c) No one.
And even if Joe was making a mistake, who the f***k cares?
I’ve been reading political blogs the last five or six years, waiting for the sky to turn blue again. Now, out of the blue clear sky, I find this Joe Posnanski character. I feel like Forrest Gump, only better.
Ambiguity. No one writes about it like Joe Posnanski.
Cody–wasn’t Clueless a take off on “Taming of the Shrew,” not Hamlet? I think that was some other movie.
Nate
It is interesting that George is such an important name in baseball. George S., George Harmon “Babe” Ruth, and George Brett. I know around the country George Brett is not that famous, but as a KC boy, he was everything.
Certainly, if George S had not been banned from baseball, we would have seen Atlanta and/or Cleveland win a few more titles. Joe is correct that George’s spending of money helped make the Yankees great again, but that core was invaluable. You have to develop your core and just buy a few free agents.
Another reason that my argument has legs is because look at how well that the Yankees have been after that core got a little older. George’s way is not going to win another championship even though he is spending money like a drunken sailor (pun intended). Look at the Cowboys. Are they going to win another Super Bowl? I doubt it.
Ralph Houk was born Aug. 9, 1919, which means he was 52 during most of the 1972 baseball season and 53 the last couple months — not exactly ready for the old folks’ home, as Posnanski implies with his aging label. At last check, Houk was alive at age 89
Al Rosen won the MVP in ‘53, not ‘54.
And I think you know that Joe, and made the mistake intentionally to see the quality of the “you’re wrong” comments.
Anyhow, great piece on one of my least-favorite human beings. Well-done.
Clueless=Emma.
10 Things I Hate About You=Taming of the Shrew
Two contradictory moments in my memory of George Steinbrenner, good and bad.
In 2003, after that brutal game 7 loss to the Yankees off Aaron Boone’s homerun, Steinbrenner stood in the parking lot of Yankee Stadium and taunting the departing Red Sox bus. The paper described him waving bye-bye and had him saying something like “toodle-loo boys. See you next year in Boston.”
Totally classless.
The following year, when the Red Sox beat the Yankees in Game 7 and held this extended celebration on the infield, some of the Yankee front office wanted to shut off the lights and basically kick them off the field. George said “Leave the lights on for as long as they want. They earned it.”
Only one of the classiest things ever.
Man, he is what you want to see him as. That’s for sure.
To add to Big George’s ambiguity – when 6 Astro’s pitchers no-hit the Yanks in Yankee stadium, there was a case of champagne waiting for the Stros in the lockerroom…
In many ways you are talking about someone who might have been bi-polar.
George is one of the most unique people around. As a Yankee fan he could be frustrating when he would sometimes force a move that really wasn’t all that great, but the bottom line is I’m not sure of another baseball owner who would go to the extent Steinbrenner would go to for his team. I think Joe is right as well…you can’t put Steinbrenner into one category and say “That’s who he is”. He’s all of it. He’s the guy who’ll scream at an employee and fire them over something insanely stupid, and then turn around and keep someone on the payroll who really has no purpose just because he doesn’t have the heart to get rid of them. He’s something else and there might never be another George Steinbrenner in baseball.
thank you sir.
a fine article.
Great article, Joe, and yes, I do think George Steinbrenner should make it into the Hall of Fame in 2010 (or is it 2012), alongside Marvin Miller and Doug Harvey.
With all the jobs you are juggling how do you write something like this in your free time? Good stuff.
I thought George Steinbrenner was the devil. Then, one lazy summer weekend, Boston sports radio station WEEI was having a 2 day Jimmy Fund fundraiser. Celebrities and joe sixpacks were calling in to donate. It might’ve been 2003, maybe 04, or even 06. I’m really not sure. Anyway, celebrities donated a couple hundred thousand, joe sixpacks donated 20 bucks, it was all for a good cause. George Steinbrenner calls into the Red Sox radio flagship station, and donated one million dollars to the Jimmy Fund. Regardless of his ‘ruining’ of baseball, as many may say, imagine the significance of one million dollars to a organization to fight cancer; as a human, there is nothing but respect from this Red Sox fan to George Steinbrenner. I hope his ride into the sunset is as comfortable and pleasant as possible.
Great, great article Joe.
[...] King George Steinbrenner needed parades, he needed fireworks, he needed something to be remembered by. You may know the story of King Mausollos, whose reign has been somewhat forgotten, but whose large tomb was one of the seven wonders of the world … [...]
[...] King George He never saw the Yankees as a baseball team or even THE baseball team. No, he saw the Yankees as the American way of life. He expected his players to be clean shaven, he made sure patriotic songs like “Yankee Doodle Boy†were played at … [...]
“The Yankees were lousy again in 1973, and by the end of the year, he fired president Mike Burke…”
Joe…Michael Burke, after being stabbed in the back and twisted like a Hank Ballard non-ballad…was fired on April 19, 1973.
[...] King George Every city in the country, I suppose, has its own relationship with New York City — you know, much the same way that every college basketball team in the old ACC had a rivalry with North Carolina. The City is just omnipresent in … [...]
There is a wonderful story about Phog Allen and New York’s parochial view of the rest of the world. I don’t remember where I heard it, and it may be apocryphal.
Phog Allen was an honored guest at a New York Sportwriters dinner in the late 1950s. The MC closed his introduction of the retired coach in a slightly condescending tone, with the following:
“Dr. Allen, just where is Lawrence Kansas?”
Allen responded without hesitation, and with a twinkle in his eye:
“Why, it’s only about 14 miles from Tonganoxie!”
[...] King George Then, it’s also true that the New York Yankees were hardly a bargain in the early 1970s. They were owned by CBS, and they were terrible in just about every way imaginable. In 1972, for the first time since the end of World War II, … [...]
[...] Posnanski offers 3,908 words on Big Stein at his blog. Click here to read it. November 29, 2008 | Filed Under Trap Door [...]
I copied this from an SI article, but It’s my favorte story about Brett, the Yankess, and Steinbrenner:
******************
Brett caught a glimpse of Steinbrenner’s intensity at a small dinner party a few years ago. Though not a close personal friend of his, Brett ended up sitting across the table from the Boss, politely trying to carry on a conversation.
“A flower arrangement was directly in our view, so we were doing the old Caddyshack routine, bending our heads back and forth around the lamp, but we were doing it around the flowers,” recalls Brett, laughing at the memory. “So I got up and I moved the flower arrangement over just a little bit and we continued our conversation. And when the conversation was over, he moved the flower thing back. So then we do the Caddyshack deal again, bobbing heads, trying to talk.
“And I said, ‘Why did you move the flower pot back?’ And he said, ‘Well, I don’t want to look at you.’ I said, ‘What are you talking about, you don’t want to look at me.’ He says, ‘You beat the Yankees too many times.’ I said, ‘George, wait a second, let me ask you a question. You guys won in ‘76. You guys won in ‘77. You guys won in ‘78. We won in 1980. That is one out of four. I think if anybody should have moved them back it should have been me.’ And he said, ‘No, you beating us one time is one time too many.’
“He was serious. And then that was it. That is the way he is. It is win at all costs.”
Joe Posnanski writes far too well to worry about a few factual details.
Bluto: Over? Did you say “over”? Nothing is over until we decide it is! Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no!
Otter: Germans?
Boon: Forget it, he’s rolling.
What’s interesting to me is that New York really went on its Championship tear shortly after the league adopted the Wild Card. Yes, George got his two rings in the 70’s but then NADA until expansion and the wild card. I haven’t done all the research that I’m sure these brilliant readers know by rote but it sure seems clear that the money advantage has been much more so since league dilution and expansion. (Plucking the best pitchers and hitters from free agency really devalues lesser teams in your division when the talent pool is so diluted?)
I for one miss the ruthless and unforgiving old days of 162 Games, top 2 teams in each league. Winner take all. But I’m sure that’s a minority position.
When I was a kid in the mid 70’s, my brother and I were at a game in Cleveland. THey were playing the Yankees. The stadium was pretty empty, so we snuck down to the box seats section. My bother was even bolder and went down to the front row. He waved me down.
Turned out we had snuck into the owners box. There was George with Gabe Paul. He looked at us and said “Take it easy with those seats.” An usher came to kick us out, but George let us stay.
He could be a nice guy.
To be fair, half the non-homegrown talent you mentioned were acquired in trades, meaning it took homegrown talent to get them. Not quite the same as just throwing the money around.
Not sure how the Steinbrenner movie would end, but I know who I’d want to make it: Oliver Stone.
GO MIZZOU! Hang in there! Plenty of time left guys!
Had to get away from the game. I can barely watch. Sorry for off topic post…
Mike
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[...] Great read on George M. Steinbrenner IIIÂ / WW: Yanks: Great Stealing Team That No One Noticed? [...]
I know personally I didn’t know a lot of this stuff until I read Buster Olney’s book 4 or 5 years ago. It really kind of made me change my view of the guy, though not all for the positive. He really does sound like a fascinating guy. Oh, and Rock Chalk everyone!
“Hamlet didn’t say that. That Polonius guy did.”
That was an actual line from Clueless, given by Alicia Silverstone (Cher) when Paul Rudd’s college friend gave a line from Hamlet to try to sound sophistocated. The only reason Cher knew this is because she watched the Mel Gibson version of Hamlet.
I think Cody was just trying to give a reference, not be a jack-ass.
And I feel that Joe, being the enormous Paul Rudd fan we all know he is, understood this…
I suspect many New Yorkers have the Steinberg 9th Avenue view and I suspect Steinbrenner developed that view to an extreme. His salt the earth win at all costs style endeared him to Yankee fans and made everyone else hate him, but I’m not sure he really cares about everyone else.
I love it in Seinfeld when he trades Costanza to Arkansas for chicken.
well written. your very consistent. i remember your article about Around the Horn. You mentioned that you dont like that show because it forces people to take sides. they would have to make the segment “stienbrenner. good or bad?” but you always take the other route. ambiguity is better
You know, I think the Yankee exec referenced in the story in comment 20 was Randy Levine, who is IMO a jackass and embodies Yankee pomposity.
But maybe the commenter has seen a different story. I know there was some pathetic, no-class taunting of the Red Sox after the 2003 Game 7 but I had not heard that Georgie was involved.
A good friend of mine worked for George for many years and has some classic stories, which I don’t think I should post because they’re his stories, not mine. I only mention them because they jibe completely with Joe’s portrait of Steinbrenner as overbearing, contradictory, at times ridiculous, but ultimately kind of irresistible.
My favorite Steinbrenner moment came when the Yankees won the 1999 World Series and George tearfully said (paraphrasing) “this is a mentally tough team, and New York is a mentally tough town”
That really got me, because I thought it was true. Those Yankee teams, like NYC itself, had all the wealth and all the advantages, but to me they were still likable because they really were mentally tough and so was roaring-nineties New York.
Mick – George Steinbrenner calls into the Red Sox radio flagship station, and donated one million dollars to the Jimmy Fund.
The Jimmy Fund Radiothon is an annual event, and George called in a major donation every year. So that’s awfully nice of him.
But among the many other episodes that made me dislike him was how, after the Fenway crowd threw stuff on the field after a series of bad calls in game 4(?) of the ‘99 ALCS, he spouted off about things being thrown at his players – no, you dolt, things were being thrown at the umps!
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The thing is, even though I’m no fan of Steinbrenner, I wish the Dodgers were owned by him. Manny would have a long term contract, and Furcal and Sabathia would be in Dodger blue, and the payroll would be upwards of $150M, but the Dodgers would be sure of making it to the playoffs next year instead of needing to sign or replace their top two starting pitchers, maybe their closer, the left side of their infield, and the best hitter they’ve had since Piazza left. And that’s another thing: no way does Steinbrenner trade Piazza. He knew that the value of a good player goes up the longer he stays in the same city, because when the player isn’t as good any more (i.e. Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter) the fans appreciate the loyalty: in their memories, those guys are still the guys who brought home those World Series championships.
It’s clear to me that Steinbrenner’s desire to win is enormous, and when it might make a difference, it often caused him to make some bad decisions. But it’s also clear to me that once the season was over, Steinbrenner had humanity, wanted to do the right thing, maybe even regretted some of his hasty decisions made in the heat of the pursuit of victory. I think Steinbrenner deserves to go into the HoF as much as any non-player during his tenure, and I hope it happens while he’s still alive and able to enjoy it. Love him or hate him, Steinbrenner redefined what ownership means, and the NFL and NBA learned a lot more from what he did than did MLB.
If Rose can’t get in, why should a convicted felon?
Joe, as i often say to myself-”To my own self be True”, and Yes, you may quote me on that. LMAO Great Read!
> If Rose can’t get in, why should a convicted felon?
There is no sign in MLB clubhouses to the effect that making illegal campaign contributions will lead to permanent banishment from the game.
My favorite memory of George S. was seeing the images on tv of him stewing towards the end of game 2 of the 1980 ALCS, which the Royals eventually won. Willie Randolph (I believe) was thrown out at home plate late in the game after he was sent from third base by Dick Howser. A few days after the series concluded (after Brett’s dramatic homer off of Goose Gossage) Howser was fired.
I used to think of Steinbrenner as simple and bad. Then I stopped thinking of things as simple and bad, but I didn’t know what to think about King George. After reading this, I get him a little better, and, more than that, I feel I understand Cleveland better.
[...] Great read on George M. Steinbrenner III / WW: Yanks: Great Stealing Team That No One Noticed? [...]
As a Mets fan, I feel I must add to Don’s list of Essential Baseball Georges:
George Thomas Seaver — the only man who made being a 70s Met fan palatable. Pity I didn’t understand the significance of having an all-time great on the club till M. Donald Grant knifed him (and the rest of us) in the back.
King George has always been a great source of entertainment. (On a related note, I never understood the resistance to Cuban owning the Cubs…how could that not be entertaining?) I always thought sports teams should be viewed as similar to the old patronage system, i.e a way for rich people to express the fact that they are rich. Anyway, Hank Steinbrenner seems to be suitable replacement in the entertainment realm at least.
In the early 2000s before George’s mind began to go poorly, I used to argue with friends telling them that Steinbrenner was one of the most reliable and genuine owners in MLB. He has seen so much in his 30+ years owning the Yankees. I always appreciate that he did not strongly oppose the fairly new MLB rule that makes teams spending so much over a certain amount had to be taxed and that money was then to be spread to the lesser teams. I remember him saying that he was fine with it as long as those lesser teams still attempted to remain competitive. He pointed out that the teams with remarkable MLB history (and he pointed to the Pirates, A’s as examples) needed some additional capital to maintain teams in their cities.
I don’t think owners should be put in the Hall of Fame. Rewarding a position where a prerequisite is being a billionaire doesn’t strike me well. Maybe if an owner made substantial contributions to the game (helped break the social barriers, literally changed the way the game was played, etc.) they could be inducted in the same way that Marvin Miller should be – however, it’s usually the owners who are the ones standing in the way of progress. Simply enshrining someone for making/spending money for a lot of years is a bit silly.
Jim- Hank can (and undoubtedly will) shoot off his mouth regularly, and will have countless reporters following him around to record his utterances.
But Hank has little say in the business operations of the Yankees. His more sensible brother Hal is running the show.
Does anyone have a link to the SNL sketch that Bellweather Johnson mentions above (where he is running a convenience store)?
I’m a pretty avid Seinfeld watcher, and I’d never seen this episode, but just came across it on Youtube:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8FUgN4xYoc
“You dance, don’t you?”
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