Minor ball hosted quite the tournament on the weekend, with thirty teams and more than 300 young players whooping it up in every direction.
It made me wonder how many of them watch major league baseball. Probably not too many; which is good, because children shouldn’t watch televised baseball games unless they’re being punished for something.
Then, I wondered how many of them knew that George Steinbrenner had died. Probably none.
George Steinbrenner, longtime owner of the New York Yankees, died last week at age 80. To some, he was a sitcom joke, to others he was a mean-edged fool, but to others he was the mad genius of baseball.
To me, Steinbrenner was to baseball what John Wayne was to westerns, what Jimi Hendrix was to guitar, and what Dolly Parton is to whatever it is that Dolly Parton is.
George Steinbrenner was baseball. He was the first owner to truly loosen the purse strings and drive up player salaries, and he loved to meddle.
In 1977, he signed Reggie Jackson away from a bunch of losers on the west coast, and put him in Yankee pinstripes for $3 million. One year later, Reggie put on one of the single greatest one day hitting displays in baseball history, and won the World Series.
In 1980, George made Dave Winfield the highest paid player in baseball with a $23 million contract. By 1985, he was deriding his high-priced superstar for not producing a championship.
George Steinbrenner liked to win, and if you weren’t playing up to his standards, you were unceremoniously shown the door. In his first 23 seasons as Yankee boss, Steinbrenner changed managers 20 times. Billy Martin alone was fired and rehired five times.
Steinbrenner wanted a winner every year, and he did whatever he could to get it. No sissy rebuilding years or excuses for big George. He went for the prize every time, and got it more often than anyone else. In his 37 years as Yankee owner, George won seven World Series and 11 pennants.
Along the way, he hired, fired, rehired and refired all kinds of players and staff. In 2007, he brought in the game’s top player, Alex Rodriguez, to shine the Big Apple for a record $275 million.
For a guy who originally bought the Yankees for less than $10 million, Steinbrenner turned the team into a juggernaut valued at more than $1 billion dollars. He was crazy, to be sure, but crazy like a fox at times.
Steinbrenner changed the game of baseball forever, and didn’t care who liked it or who didn’t. He was baseball; and if you watch the game today (even as a punishment) you’re watching the game that George Steinbrenner created.