Steinbrenner Hangs Them Up

Steinbrenner (Newsday)
This is the beginning of the end for a baseball era.

George Steinbrenner is reportedly turning over control of the New York Yankees to his two sons, Hal and Hank Steinbrenner.

Well before Bruce Springsteen was the Boss, there was Steinbrenner. Springsteen never wore the moniker very well. Even when Bruce was The Boss, he didn't act like one. Sure, he made a lot of money and sold out stadiums wherever he went, but he wasn't a Boss. Springsteen was quiet, introspective, and avoided the off-stage limelight.

Steinbrenner was just the opposite. He never shied away from the cameras. He always had something to say about something and somebody. He was a boss that cubicle minions can understand: a man that is feared, respected, loved, and loathed, often in equal amounts, sometimes all at once. He was a loudmouth Boss with a capital B. Steinbrenner knew it, and he lived the role without shame.

Fans, sportscasters, players, executives, the nation at large, everybody has something good or bad to say about The Boss. To some, he's the embodiment of sport as business, and deserves grudging respect. To others, he represents everything that is wrong with sports in general and baseball in particular.

He got his start in shipping, but no one can accuse him of not being interested in sports. He coached football at Purdue and Northwestern for a spell. His first team purchase was the Cleveland Pipers in the American Basketball Association. The Pipers foreshadowed The Boss's actions with the Yankees. By mid-season of 1961, Pipers coach John McClendon had resigned, citing Steinbrenner's interference as the reason.

The Pipers went on to win the first ABA championship later that year. That was smallfry. Steinbrenner signed basketball star Jerry Lucas, hoping that this and the championship season would leverage the Pipers into the NBA. When the NBA spurned the idea, Steinbrenner spurned them back by disbanding the team. Steinbrenner wouldn't have been interested in anything that wasn't big time. Later, he had an opportunity to purchase the Cleveland Indians but was again spurned and couldn't close the deal.

In 1972, CBS owned the Yankees and were looking to sell. They approached Yankee President Michael Burke and told him he could buy the team if he had the cash. Through a middleman, Burke was brought in touch with Steinbrenner. The two hammered out a deal. Steinbrenner gathered investors together, and Burke was slated to be a minority partner. In 1973, they bought the team from CBS for $8.7 million, about $2 million shy of what the Yankees would pay Mariano Rivera in 2007.

Looking back on Steinbrenner's statement regarding the deal, it's easy to see the man that would come to torment fans in later years.

"We plan absentee ownership as far as running the Yankees is concerned. We're not going to pretend we're something we aren't. I'll stick to building ships." - New York Times

It's an understatement to say that those were hollow words. Steinbrenner had no intention of being an "absentee owner," as Michael Burke found out within months of buying the team. Burke was still team president in January of '73, but had quit by April. He was the first to ride the Steinbrenner merry-go-round. Over the years, 20 managers would work under Steinbrenner. 11 general managers have done the Boss's bidding. The Boss fired manager Billy Martin five times alone.

Billy Martin - (AP Photo)
His history with Billy Martin is the stuff of legend. Steinbrenner once had to fire Martin for slugging a marshmallow salesman in a Minnesota elevator (Martin wasn't adverse to fighting; among others, he once duked it out with a Chicago cabbie that said soccer was better than baseball). Another time, he forced Martin out after Martin said of Reggie Jackson and The Boss, "One's a liar and the other one's convicted." He was referring to The Boss's shady donations to the Nixon campaign in '72. The Boss and Nixon eventually forgave Martin's slight. They both attended Martin's funeral.

His relationship to players and their wallets made the biggest headlines. It is his true legacy. The Boss never had a problem forking out the dough. It is this that makes him most infamous in baseball circles. He drove the price of players up so high, so fast, that the numbers seem ludicrous in their scale. In 1981, he made Dave Winfield the highest paid player in baseball history by offering him a 10-year, $23 million deal. 26 years later, Winfield's salary is chicken feed. Winfield at $23 million for 10 seasons? Try A-Rod, whose contract earns him $252 million in the same span. Though hard to compute because of signing bonuses, the Yankees' average salary now hovers around $7 million per season. The 2006 league average was less than half that, at $2,699,292.

Steinbrenner was the owner that started fans saying, "He bought the team." Or, "He bought the pennant." Or, "He bought the World Series." He bought everything. There was, after all, nothing Steinbrenner couldn't afford to buy. He's always been an incredibly rich man, and he spends like one. When the league brought in the luxury tax in 2002, Steinbrenner couldn't have cared less.

In 2003, the Yankees were the only team above the payroll threshold, and shelled out a tax bill of $10.8 million (a third of the Devil Rays 2003 payroll). In 2004, they were taxed $25 million. In 2005, they paid yet again, to a tune of $34 million. If the luxury tax was meant to be a deterrent, it didn't deter Steinbrenner (or the Red Sox, who began to play catch up but still didn't come close to being taxed the way the Yankees were).

Steinbrenner was never one to mince his words. He's called out players and managers in the press several times. He once accused Derek Jeter of partying too much and not "giving 110%." He then ended up in a credit card commercial with Jeter, partying.

His feud with Dave Winfield in the '80s was long and mean. At one point, he hired an investigator with a gambling background to dig up dirt on Winfield's life. Commissioner Faye Vincent responsed by banning Steinbrenner from day-to-day operation of the Yankees indefinitely. When Yankee fans heard the news over a PA at Yankee Stadium, they gave a standing ovation. Steinbrenner was reinstated 3 years later, and Winfield opted to go into the Hall of Fame as a Padre.

In 1985, he told the press that a bad start to the season would not affect his opinion of manager Yogi Berra. 16 games later, Berra got canned.

On April Fool's Day, 1999, pitcher Hideki Irabu dogged it on a play to first. Steinbrenner called Irabu a "fat pussy toad" in the press, then refused to let him join the team in Los Angeles. Later, he apologized for calling Irabu fat, and said that the team needed Irabu "big time." At the end of the season, Irabu was traded.

Torre (Sports Network)
Most recently, he told the press that if Joe Torre lost game 3 of the 2007 ALDS, Torre would be out of a job. When Torre arrived at Yankeee Stadium for the game, he was told the news. Said Joe, "It’s what goes with the territory. It’s really not a lot of difference than in the past. If I get caught up in that, I’m really going to have a tough time doing my job, and I don’t think that’s right.” Torre never was Billy Martin. As a testament to his skills as a manager, not to mention politician, Torre has lasted the longest as a manager in the Steinbrenner system.

So now Steinbrenner is turning the team over to his sons. The Boss dividing the office, Caesar dividing the Empire. During his tenure, the Yankees have won 6 World Series titles and 10 AL pennants. They are without doubt the most successful franchise in North American sports, with Steinbrenner the most recognizable owner of a team. According to Forbes, The Boss is worth over a billion dollars. His $8 million investment in the Yankees was an extremely good one, as they are now worth over a billion dollars on their own.

The Evil Empire may be losing its day-to-day Emperor, but make no mistake: like the Wizard of Oz, Steinbrenner will still be there behind the curtain.

Sources: Wikipedia, NY Post, MLBPA, Ohio History Central, MLB.com, SI.com, ESPN