George Steinbrenner, on his way out. I've spent twenty years hating the guy, but (naturally) I feel like there's a void in my life now that he's no longer attacking players, firing managers, and lobbing potshots at Boston fans. And I'm sure that if I owned the Red Sox, I'd probably be just as over-involved and over-the-top as Steinbrenner has always been with the Yankees. (Well, okay, hopefully not this over-the-top.) He's sabotaged as many dynasties as he's built, but unlike many owners you never doubted that he wanted to build them. In the end, there are worse qualities in an owner than being too big a fan of one's own team.
« Internal Improvements | Main | History Has Many Cunning Passages » The Lion in Winter03 Aug 2007 12:53 pm Comments (12)
Elvis, In reality Steinbrenner ain't all that good it either. He's owned the team since what '72? Since the era of Free Agency he has been able to outspend the rest of the league by astronomical amounts getting seemingly every top FA he set his sights on and has how many WS rings to show for it? It is also pretty damning to his reign that the run of 4 straight pretty much conincided with the time he was suspended and unable to be invlolved. 
Ain't all that good? I guess achieving greater success on and off the field than any other team in baseball during his tenure isn't good enough for you, huh. Can't just be the best, he needs to be better than the best.
Can't just be the best, he needs to be better than the best. On second thought, I think George would agree with that statement.
Erik K.: I am a Red Sox fan, but I have to note that Steinbrenner's suspension ran from 1990 to 1993, well before the run out of four out of five (not four straight) from 1996 to 2000. Maybe you meant that the Yankees acquired Jeter and Rivera during the 1990-1993 period, which is true, but they were far from only the key members of the team and Steinbrenner didn't mismanage their careers or trade them away after he returned.
I just posted and think I my have been caught in the spam filter for at least the fourth time in recent weeks. Perhaps it thinks I am trying to recruit people to Madonna's religion, so I am trying again with just my last initial. (The dreaded word remains in my e-mail address, however.)
Sheesh; after all that complaining I never re-posted the original comment. Erik K.: I am a Red Sox fan, but I have to note that Steinbrenner's suspension ran from 1990 to 1993, well before the run out of four out of five (not four straight) from 1996 to 2000. Maybe you meant that the Yankees acquired Jeter and Rivera during the 1990-1993 period, which is true, but they were far from only the key members of the team and Steinbrenner did not mismanage their careers or trade them away after he returned.
mlpvidaqh zsgn qhmvto xaqwkz kvibqn xapc bvyhu
I'm 46, I grew up in New York, and I was a passionate Yankees fan from the late Sixties through the mid-Eighties. Today, I'm only a tepid Yankees fan. Ron Guidry and Thurman Munson meant a lot to me; Derek Jeter and Bernie Williams, good players and (seemingly) good guys though they are, don't. Now, I'm long past hating the Red Sox, but I remember well how much fun it was to chant obscenities at Jim Rice and Pudge Fisk, so I won't try to deprive Red Sox fans of whatever enjoyment they get now from loathing the Yankees. Hating the Yankees is fun for Sox fans, good irrational fun, and I won't ask them to stop. I WOULD ask, however, that they quit pretending they occupy some kind of moral high ground! Sox fans used to whine about the Yankees "buying the pennant." Well, guess what? Theta's exactly what the Red Sox did! The Red Sox have no stars who were developed through their farm system- they're a big market team with huge revenues, and they spent a large percentage of those revenues on mercenaries. Now, that's all fine and dandy. The Sox played by the rules, and this season, they've definitely beaten the Yankees at their own game. I just wish they'd admit that they're cheering a rich, big market team that got to the top by playing Steinbrenner's game.... NOT for a bunch of scrappy little underdogs.
Erik: George Steinbrenner was suspended twice- once from 1974-1976, for making illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon, and once from 1990-1993, for hiring snoops to look for dirt on Dave Winfield (who never got out of Steinbrenner's doghouse after his weak performance in the 1981 World Series). So, NONE of the Yankees' World Series appearances came while Steinbrenner was suspended. Now, you COULD argue that Bob Watson laid the foundations for the Yankees Nineties run during the time Steinbrenner was away, but you can't claim the championships occurred while Steinbrenner was suspended.
Oops- I goofed myself on the last post. Bob Watson wasn't the Yankees GM until after Steinbrenner's suspension was lifted. Still, the point remains: it's possible that the suspension was helpful, in that the Yankees front office let young, promising players come up from the minor leagues, instead of trading them away and signing expensive free agents. MAYBE if Steinbrenner had been running things from 1990-1993, guys like Bernie Williams and Derek Jeter would've been dealt somewhere else, rather than given a chance to develop into stars in the Bronx.
Yeah, I meant that the foudnation for the WS teams was laid in the early 90s while George was suspended. The point about Geroge not being there to trade away the prospects is exactly what I meant. And to the Yankee fan bragging about the Yanks success. Again, if you spend more than twice as much as the other teams just making the playoffs is hardly success.
|
Subscribe to this blog by Email 
Grand New Party: How Republicans Can Win the Working Class and Save the American Dream 
Privilege: Harvard and the Education of the Ruling Class  Recent Posts
Monthly Archives
Categories
The Atlantic, October 2008 Is Pornography Adultery?The Atlantic, June 2008 Redeeming Dubya
|
Copyright © 2008 by The Atlantic Monthly Group. All rights reserved.
I had to stop reading this, as the writer starts describing Steinbrenner's appearance. It just seems invasive and unnecessary. I know Steinbrenner's friend was OK with it, but it just doesn't seem right.
I'm a Sox fan, so I guess I'm supposed to hate this guy forever, or something, but everybody deserves some privacy.
And as for elderly franchise-sabotaging owners of the AL East, surely Angelos deserves a mention. He tried to be a Steinbrenner, spending and interfering madly, but he isn't any good at it.
Posted by Elvis Elvisberg | August 3, 2007 2:08 PM