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George Steinbrenner -- The End of An Era

November 21, 2008 12:15 PM

ABC's Stu Schutzman from New York:

Last night on the program, we marked the end of an era. George Steinbrenner stepped down as the principal owner of what is often referred to as the most storied franchise in sportsdom. For most of his 35 years at the helm, there was never any doubt "the boss" was the boss.

Steinbrenner, silver spoon in mouth, was heir to a Midwestern ship building empire. But young Steinbrenner was a pretty good athlete in his own right and actually coached football for a time at Ohio State and Northwestern before building ships full time. In 1973, the opportunity and the allure of the New York Yankees was to good to turn down -- why not start at the top? His turbulent relationship with the city, the team, the players, the fans, the management, even the overnight cleaning staff is now legend. No one paid more than George and no one demanded more than George. In one 17 year stretch he hired and fired 17 managers. Steinbrenner and mercurial Billy Martin alone married and divorced 5 times.

Virtually everyone knew "George." When it came to manipulating the media, nobody did it better. Steinbrenner took advantage of every lull the sports calender offered to monopolize the back pages of New York's tabloids often at the expense of the hated cross-Town rival New York Mets. And everything he did, he did...big!

"Winning is the most important thing in my life," he once said, "after breathing." And breathe new life into the Yankees he did. With a big wallet and even bigger ego, George lured the likes of Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, Alex Rodriguez and a host of baseball's preeminent stars to the Bronx. But 10 American League pennants and 6 world championships later, George has, in baseball parlance, lost a little off his fastball. Short of Shakespearean intrigue, but no less a family feud ensued in recent years for control of the prized Yankees. Yesterday, younger son Hal Steinbrenner emerged as the new principal owner.

But there'll only be one "boss" -- the one who took an albatross off the books of media giant CBS for a paltry $10 million dollars and turned the Yankees into a $1.3 billion dollar behemoth. Not a bad deal…….by George.

November 21, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (1)

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Posted by: tcb | Nov 21, 2008 2:21:36 PM

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