It is rare in professional sports for a coach to become a bigger star than any of the players he coaches. Indeed, it is arguable that only Vince Lombardi achieved such stardom as coach of the Green Bay Packers from 1959 to 1967. But it is rarer still for an owner to become a bigger star than any of the players he owns, especially when those players include such superstars as Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter, Dave Winfield, Derek Jeter, Roger Clemens, and Alex Rodriguez.
Yet there’s no denying that George Steinbrenner achieved such stardom as owner of the New York Yankees from 1973 to the day he died.
He was and always will be as much of a New York Yankee as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford and all of the other Yankee legends.
(Baseball commissioner Bud Selig, New York Daily News, July 13, 2010)
Ironically, though, Steinbrenner became a media sensation as much for acting like one of the prima donnas on his roster as for the unparalleled success the Yankees enjoyed under his ownership. Tales are legend about what an irascible, dogmatic, and unscrupulous boss he was; but two of them epitomize his character in this respect:
- His hiring and firing his equally irascible, temperamental, and dogmatic manager Billy Martin five times; and
- His hiring a two-bit gambler to dig up dirt on Dave Winfield when they got into a contract dispute. (This prompted then Commissioner Fay Vincent to ban Steinbrenner from baseball for life – a ban, alas, which lasted only three years from 1990 to 1993)
In fact, Steinbrenner’s procrustean ownership style became such tabloid fodder that it became a running gag on Seinfeld, one of the most popular sitcoms in the history of television.
Yet there’s also no denying that it was Steinbrenner who was laughing all the way to the bank. And that the team he bought in 1973 for $8.7 million is now valued at $1.6 billion is testament to this fact. In this respect, he was to professional team owners what Tiger Woods is to professional golf players: a man who infused the game with so much cash that it made them all rich beyond their wildest dreams.
But I was never a Yankees fan. And I thought even less of Steinbrenner for singlehandedly ushering in the era in professional sports, namely free agency, that reduced (or elevated depending on your perspective) players to little more than hired guns. He really acted as if the Yankees’ mission statement was, win at all costs. I can remember him saying on many occasions with unbridled bravado:
Winning is the most important thing in my life. Breathing first, winning next.
And he won a lot – with seven World Series championships, 11 American League pennants, and 16 AL East titles during his 37 years at the helm. By comparison the team with the next-best record over this period is the Oakland Athletics – with three World Series championships, five American League pennants, and 12 West titles.
But always having the best team money could buy also set him up for many spectacular failures – as I have duly noted over the years:
The serial saga of Steinbrenner hiring and firing players and coaches has become a soap opera as popular (especially among New Yorkers) as any that airs on daytime TV. And no storyline in this As-the-Yankees-Turn drama is more fascinating than watching him spend obscene amounts of money each year to lure the best players to New York only to have them play – during the critical October pennant race and World Series – as if they were bought with phony two-dollar bills.
(Yankees, the worst team money could buy, The iPINIONS Journals, October 12, 2006)
Nevertheless, for pure entertainment value, no one in baseball (or any professional sport) was a bigger star. Steinbrenner died on Tuesday from a massive heart attack. He was 80.
Related commentaries:
Yankees, the worst team money could buy
Yankees finally win (another) World Series
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