jetdawgg
07-13-10, 10:10 AM
Steinbrenner, whose outsized personality and win-at-all-costs mentality earned him the nickname "The Boss," reestablished the Yankees as baseball's premier franchise and changed the economics of the sport.
http://mburgan.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/george-steinbrenner011.jpg
George Steinbrenner, who made his name synonymous with the revival of the New York Yankees as a dominant baseball team and leveraged multiple championships into business ventures that forever changed the economics of the sport, has died. He was 80.
Steinbrenner died Tuesday morning in Tampa Fla., according to a statement released by his family.
"He was a visionary and a giant in the world of sports. He took a great but struggling franchise and turned it into a champion again," the family said.
The death comes as Major League Baseball prepared to hold its All-Star game in Anaheim. It also comes days after Bob Sheppard, the Yankees' longtime public address announcer, died at 99.
Steinbrenner ceded control of the team in 2008 to his sons Hank and Hal after a period of declining health. He attended only three games during the 2009 regular season — including two in Tampa, Fla., where he lived — but was present at the new Yankee Stadium for two games of the team's World Series victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.
In New York and beyond, Steinbrenner in his prime was "The Boss," with an outsized personality and win-at-any-cost mentality, firing managers and haranguing players at will. He parlayed a $168,000 investment in 1973 into control of a team now worth more than $1 billion, flush with cash for the 21st century after launching the Yankees' own television station and replacing iconic Yankee Stadium with a money-making duplicate across the street.
The Yankees won six World Series championships during his 37 years of ownership, three more than any other club won during that time, reclaiming their stature as the most storied team in American sports and redefining themselves as a brand marketed around the world.
Steinbrenner restored the Yankees to glory by embracing free agency at a time when most owners still despised it. He ultimately milked so much money out of his team that rival owners voted to institute a luxury tax that targeted the Yankees' spiraling payroll and split the proceeds among the league's less successful franchises.
He employed the biggest stars in baseball — Reggie Jackson, Thurman Munson, Don Mattingly, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Mariano Rivera, among many others — but could draw more attention than his players. The television comedy "Seinfeld" lampooned him on a regular basis, he poked fun at himself as a guest host on "Saturday Night Live," and he was portrayed with broad brushstrokes in the 2007 ESPN miniseries "The Bronx is Burning." His trademark white turtleneck and blue blazer became costume shorthand for a boss full of bluster.
He hired Billy Martin as manager five times and fired him five times. He raged at a secretary for mixing up a plane reservation, fired her, then called the next day and arranged to pay for her child's college education.
"Have I made mistakes? Yes," Steinbrenner told The Times in 1998. "Are there things I would do differently? Yes.
"I'm human, and I have an ego. I'll admit that. But, if the goal is to win, I'll stand on my record."
In an era when other owners trotted out talking points such as corporate synergy, competitive balance and fan experience, Steinbrenner unapologetically demanded to win. He compared owning the Yankees to owning the Mona Lisa and shot back at infielder Graig Nettles' now-legendary quote: "When I was a little boy, I wanted to be a baseball player and join the circus. With the Yankees, I have accomplished both."
Said Steinbrenner: "The Yankees are no circus. They are tradition. They are the greatest and most famous sports team in the world."
He spent lavishly on players and demanded victory in return, defining any season that did not end in a championship as a failure. He portrayed himself as a populist, the owner who bellowed at every error on behalf of the construction workers and cab drivers who devoted their summers to the Yankees.
"I'm like Archie Bunker," Steinbrenner told the New York Times in 1981, referring to the blue-collar and sometimes boorish father in the television comedy " All in the Family."
"I get mad as hell when my team blows one. ... I want this team to win. I'm obsessed with winning, with discipline, with achieving. That's what this country is all about. That's what New York is all about, fighting for everything — a cab in the rain, a table in a restaurant at lunchtime — and that's what the Yankees are all about and always have been."
For Steinbrenner, the populist image was a facade.
George Michael Steinbrenner III was born, as he loved to note, on the Fourth of July — in 1930, in an Ohio town just outside Cleveland called Rocky River. His father, Henry, had graduated at the top of his class at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in naval architecture, won a national college championship in the hurdles and risen through the executive ranks of the family's shipping company, Kinsman Marine.
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-george-steinbrenner-20100714,0,5609798.story
http://mburgan.files.wordpress.com/2008/12/george-steinbrenner011.jpg
George Steinbrenner, who made his name synonymous with the revival of the New York Yankees as a dominant baseball team and leveraged multiple championships into business ventures that forever changed the economics of the sport, has died. He was 80.
Steinbrenner died Tuesday morning in Tampa Fla., according to a statement released by his family.
"He was a visionary and a giant in the world of sports. He took a great but struggling franchise and turned it into a champion again," the family said.
The death comes as Major League Baseball prepared to hold its All-Star game in Anaheim. It also comes days after Bob Sheppard, the Yankees' longtime public address announcer, died at 99.
Steinbrenner ceded control of the team in 2008 to his sons Hank and Hal after a period of declining health. He attended only three games during the 2009 regular season — including two in Tampa, Fla., where he lived — but was present at the new Yankee Stadium for two games of the team's World Series victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.
In New York and beyond, Steinbrenner in his prime was "The Boss," with an outsized personality and win-at-any-cost mentality, firing managers and haranguing players at will. He parlayed a $168,000 investment in 1973 into control of a team now worth more than $1 billion, flush with cash for the 21st century after launching the Yankees' own television station and replacing iconic Yankee Stadium with a money-making duplicate across the street.
The Yankees won six World Series championships during his 37 years of ownership, three more than any other club won during that time, reclaiming their stature as the most storied team in American sports and redefining themselves as a brand marketed around the world.
Steinbrenner restored the Yankees to glory by embracing free agency at a time when most owners still despised it. He ultimately milked so much money out of his team that rival owners voted to institute a luxury tax that targeted the Yankees' spiraling payroll and split the proceeds among the league's less successful franchises.
He employed the biggest stars in baseball — Reggie Jackson, Thurman Munson, Don Mattingly, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Mariano Rivera, among many others — but could draw more attention than his players. The television comedy "Seinfeld" lampooned him on a regular basis, he poked fun at himself as a guest host on "Saturday Night Live," and he was portrayed with broad brushstrokes in the 2007 ESPN miniseries "The Bronx is Burning." His trademark white turtleneck and blue blazer became costume shorthand for a boss full of bluster.
He hired Billy Martin as manager five times and fired him five times. He raged at a secretary for mixing up a plane reservation, fired her, then called the next day and arranged to pay for her child's college education.
"Have I made mistakes? Yes," Steinbrenner told The Times in 1998. "Are there things I would do differently? Yes.
"I'm human, and I have an ego. I'll admit that. But, if the goal is to win, I'll stand on my record."
In an era when other owners trotted out talking points such as corporate synergy, competitive balance and fan experience, Steinbrenner unapologetically demanded to win. He compared owning the Yankees to owning the Mona Lisa and shot back at infielder Graig Nettles' now-legendary quote: "When I was a little boy, I wanted to be a baseball player and join the circus. With the Yankees, I have accomplished both."
Said Steinbrenner: "The Yankees are no circus. They are tradition. They are the greatest and most famous sports team in the world."
He spent lavishly on players and demanded victory in return, defining any season that did not end in a championship as a failure. He portrayed himself as a populist, the owner who bellowed at every error on behalf of the construction workers and cab drivers who devoted their summers to the Yankees.
"I'm like Archie Bunker," Steinbrenner told the New York Times in 1981, referring to the blue-collar and sometimes boorish father in the television comedy " All in the Family."
"I get mad as hell when my team blows one. ... I want this team to win. I'm obsessed with winning, with discipline, with achieving. That's what this country is all about. That's what New York is all about, fighting for everything — a cab in the rain, a table in a restaurant at lunchtime — and that's what the Yankees are all about and always have been."
For Steinbrenner, the populist image was a facade.
George Michael Steinbrenner III was born, as he loved to note, on the Fourth of July — in 1930, in an Ohio town just outside Cleveland called Rocky River. His father, Henry, had graduated at the top of his class at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in naval architecture, won a national college championship in the hurdles and risen through the executive ranks of the family's shipping company, Kinsman Marine.
http://www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-george-steinbrenner-20100714,0,5609798.story