Top 5 George Steinbrenner Moments

THE BOSS

The Boss, George Steinbrenner, is dead. It’s a sad time for baseball fans and sports observers alike. There were few with the fire and charm of Steinbrenner. It’s not every day you buy the most successful baseball team of all time and make them more successful than they had ever known. So in honor of George were are going to take a closer look at his top 5 moments in baseball and in American culture.

5. Steinbrenner on Seinfeld- One of the most iconic shows of the 1990’s featured George Steinbrenner…from the back of the head anyway. When George Costanza went to work for the Yankees we got to see the brilliant Larry David take on the role of Steinbrenner and turn his big thinking and business savvy into one of the most insane and animated impressions of all time. He traded George for chicken, had an obsession with Calzones and embraced wiping food on the jersey of The Babe. They took Steinbrenner and made him larger than life…like he already wasn’t?

4. The Countless Firings of Billy Martin – There is something to be said about a manager who can make a decision…even if that decision happens over and over again. George Steinbrenner knew Billy Martin was a good manager and so he kept hiring him back. The interesting thing was that the joke of it became more important than the firings themselves. For decades later people were still teasing that Billy Martin would be the next manager of the New York Yankees. But this was Steinbrenner: constantly unhappy with less than perfection, but always willing to admit when a mistake was made.

3. Joe Torre – It takes a brave man and a visionary to hire a manager who wasn’t very good as a manager and then telling him he could take over one of the most storied franchises in all of baseball. But this is what happened when the Yankees hired Joe Torre and all ole’ Joe did was bring the city of New York, and Steinbrenner, 4 World Series rings in the first six years. You could make the argument that the firing of Torre was one of the worst moves of his Yankee tenure but he certainly got mileage and results from Joe.

2. The YES Network – During Steinbrenners time he made one of the smartest business decisions: give the New York Yankees their own network. It was a move that hadn’t been done before and it has paved the way for networks now. It made the Yankees a brand once and for all and brought in more money than you could count. But it was a testament to the way Steinbrenner operated the Yankees. He thought they were larger than life and he approached it that way by having the arrogance to think the Yankees deserved their own network. They did.

1. Reggie Jackson – This move was a huge move at the time. The Yankees wooed one of the great hitters in the game away from a team where he was having success for the bright lights of New York City and one more important factor…money. This was important because it was the way the Yankees would operate up till and including current day. The Yankees have become the great purchasers of talent and it started back in the mid 70’s when free agency was just starting. Free agency would become the most important part of the Yankees blue print and allow Steinbrenner to show off the Big Apple swagger by taking what he wanted and never saying “please.” That’s the George Steinbrenner we will remember.

Mike Cahill
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THE BOSS July 16, 2010 – Michael Cahill The Boss, George Steinbrenner, is dead. It’s a sad time for baseball fans and sports observers alike. There were few with the fire and charm of Steinbrenner. It’s not every day you buy the most successful baseball team of all time and make them more successful than [...]