By Ryan Dugan
First and foremost I am a New York Yankees Fanatic!!
Before I am a writer, reporter, blogger, technician, Stage Manager, joker, smoker, or a midnight toker, I live for the New York Yankees!
So as a combination Yankee Fanatic, and independent sports blogger, I would like to think I have a pretty good pulse on my boys in midnight blue.
That being said, something has not been quite right in Yankee land for sometime now. This feeling I have, pertains directly to the organizations leadership and ownership, more specifically to the principal owner George H. Stienbrener III.
Consider the time lines facts.
On January 3, 1973 George M. Steinbrenner III bought the New York Yankees from CBS, and the era of baseball’s most ruthless vicious owner had begun. Over the last 34 years everyone who follows the game of baseball, knows of Stienbrenner’s short fuse, demand for perfection, and his outrageous cutthroat actions.
From 1973-1995 George fired over 12 managers, hired and fired Billy Martin five times, fought publically with Reggie Jackson, Don Mattingly, Dave Windfeild, and Yogi Berra. Stories leaked from within the organization of the George’s constant vocal badger and harassment of employees, from Managers right on down to parking lot attendants.
Twice Major League Baseball has even suspended “The Boss” from the game.
A colleague of mine who does freelance lighting for ESPN and NBC told me that Stienbrenner once had his lighting cables cut, along with video cables, simply because they were hanging along the outfield wall, in a location that “The Boss” did not approve of. A normal CEO would just ask to have them moved. Not “The Boss”! He had them cut!
As a young fan I grew up with this crazy owner, who kept his team and fans on constant edge.
In 1995 when the Yankees lost the Division Series to the Seattle Mariners, I cried myself to sleep. I knew my favorite manager Buck Showater and my favorite player Don Mattingly were sure to be fired. Sure enough they were, and the 1996 New York Yankees were a completely different team (but in hindsight I shouldn’t have been so sad).
Since 1996, and over the last ten years things have been very good for the Yankees. Four World Series Championships, Six League Pennants, and Post Season appearances every year for eleven straight years to name just some of their accomplishments.
George Steinbrenner interfered with Yankees operations less and less over this time, however his presence was still very noticeable. His vocal badgering continued, but his actions became almost nonexistent.
"The Boss" interfered with the team one final notable time when he negotiated the signing of Gary Sheffield to the Yankees, after the 2003 season. Joe Torre and Brian Cashman then asked "The Boss" to stop meddling.
In 2003, his meddling came to a complete end.
December 27, 2003 while attending a memorial service in Sarasota Florida "The Boss" fell to the ground and become unconscious. He was rushed to a medical facility where further tests were done, but no results were released to the public.
May 22, 2005 The Yes Network aired the last public interview with "The Boss". As Michael Kay interviewed Steinbrenner he appeared slow to articulate himself, and mentally lost at times turning the Q and A. Since that one-hour interview on Yes, all of Steinbrenner's comments have been thru written statements as part of news releases. "The Boss" has only briefly addressed the press himself since the spring of 2005.
At the end of the 2005 season the Yankees lost to the Anaheim Angels in the Division Series, and it was expected that Brian Cashman would not return as Yankees General Manager. In a shocking move, Cashman not only came back, but he received a significant salary increase, and was given more executive power within the organization then ever before. Cashman now has final say in all office operations between New York and Tampa.
On November 1, 2006, Steinbrenner once again collapsed and was rushed to a medical facility in North Carolina. He was attending a school function of his granddaughter, when he became ill.
That brings us up to this past season. The growing urgency for the Yankees to return to the World Series became very clear to all in baseball. Steinbrenner said, thru his written statements, that he expected victory in 2006. The thing the made victory critical was the Yankees overwhelmingly huge, and league-leading payroll.
On October 1, 2006 the Yankees finished the regular season with the best record in baseball. Then they landed the reeling Detroit Tigers in the Division Series. It was expected the Yankees would sweep Detroit clean.
The Yankees lost the series 3 games to 1 and were eliminated in five days.
Just like 1995, I began preparing for the worst. I thought for sure the organization would once again be turned upside down. I expected to turn on ESPN in my Las Vegas Hotel room to hear, Joe was gone, Lou Pinella was in, and half the team had been traded to Seattle. I remember having this feeling of being in a clam before a storm.
Then something amazing happened!
The calm remained, and the storm never arrived.
For the life of me I couldn’t figure out why "The Boss" hadn’t shaken things up. I couldn’t figure out why Steinbrenner had changed his ways. I returned home from Las Vegas, and spoke to friends and family about Yankee Baseball. It was then that I heard my Uncle G.T. Steltz tell me something that made perfect sense. He told me,
“George is not running the team any more”!
My uncle told me that Steve Swindal, and Brian Cashman were probably calling the shots, most likely because of Stienbrenner's age and poor health.
It all makes perfect sense!
It has to be true!
Of course a great deal of my thoughts, as well as my uncle’s are speculation. Nothing has been officially released from the Yankees. No hard factual evidence that George Steinbrenner has lost his mental capacities or that he is no longer running the team exists. However when considering Steinbrenner's history, and considering the moves the Yankees have made the past two winters, it really removes all questions. The only thing left is actual physical proof.
Think about it!
Why else would Joe Torre and Brian Cashman still have jobs with the Yanks? Why else would the Yankees AAA organization, (which has had great ties to George’s home state of Ohio) be so easily moved to Scranton Pennsylvania. Why else would Gary Sheffield say publicly “I would have never been traded to the Detroit Tigers if I had gotten a chance to met with Steinbrenner”? And lastly why else would Steinbrenner’s Son-In-Law Steve Swindal, (the heir apparent to take over the Yankees) be seeking permission from the Commissioner’s office to own racehorses, while also owning a Major League baseball team (a taboo combination in baseball’s history).
Steinbrenner will be 77 this July fourth. By such an age, most normal CEO’s publicly step down. They hold a huge retirement parties televisied, with celebrities!
They hire a guy like Jimmy Kimmel to host a roast!
An announcement like that would remove all speculation as to who is running the Yankees. That would be the normal thing to do. However George M. Steinbrenner III is anything but normal!
Is Steinbrenner still running the show?
Not likely!
But the good news is the dysfunction of Steinbrenner’s leadership has been replaced with function and competence. The 2007 Yankees baseball season already holds more promise then either of the last two years!
