STEINBRENNER, George Michael, III

(b. 4 July 1930 in Rocky River, Ohio), shipbuilding executive best known as the controversial principal owner of the New York Yankees for the last quarter of the twentieth century.

Steinbrenner was one of three children, and the only son, of Rita Steinbrenner, a homemaker, and Henry Steinbrenner, the owner of the Kinsman Marine Transit Company, a Great Lakes shipping outfit based in Cleveland. He grew up in Bay Village, a suburb of Cleveland. Henry instilled in his son a competitive nature and a strong work ethic: "Always work as hard as, or harder than, anyone who works for you." To ensure that his children learned the value of work, Henry did not give them an allowance. Instead he gave his son chickens; by age nine, Steinbrenner had created a successful egg-delivery service. Henry was very demanding of his children, once publicly scolding his twelve-year-old son for finishing second at a track meet.

Steinbrenner attended Culver Military Academy in Indiana, graduating in 1948, and then Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts. Upon his college graduation in 1952, with a B.A. in English, Steinbrenner joined the U.S. Air Force, where he continued to exhibit an entrepreneurial spirit, setting up a successful sports program and food service on a base that served 16,000 military personnel. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant. Steinbrenner left the military in 1955 for a high-school football coaching position in Columbus, Ohio. He then spent one year as an assistant football coach for Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, followed by a year coaching at Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana. In 1957 he returned to Cleveland to work for his father's company. During this time he met Elizabeth Zieg; they were married on 12 May 1956 and had four children together.

While working for his father, Steinbrenner led a group of investors in purchasing an American Basketball Association charter franchise, the Cleveland Pipers. The team lasted only one season (1961–1962) and built a debt of $250,000, which nearly forced Steinbrenner to file for bankruptcy. In 1963 his father retired, and Steinbrenner took control of the family firm. He improved the company's finances, and in 1967 led a group of investors to purchase the American Ship Building Company. Steinbrenner was elected as the president and enjoyed the power and wealth that came with the position. He became a multimillionaire and was a leading fund-raiser for Democratic congressional candidates in 1968. In 1972 Steinbrenner switched parties and raised money for President Richard M. Nixon's reelection campaign. However, Steinbrenner was charged with making illegal campaign contributions under fictitious names; he eventually pleaded guilty to the charges and paid a $35,000 fine.

Although he had succeeded in business, Steinbrenner was desperate to return to his true love—sports. In 1972 he tried to purchase his hometown Cleveland Indians. In 1973 he led a group to buy the New York Yankees, the famous baseball team owned since the early 1960s by the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS). The Yankees were in great disrepair and a bargain at $10 million. Steinbrenner insisted he would focus on building ships and allow his baseball people, led by the newly hired Gabe Paul, to run the team. Steinbrenner said, "We plan absentee ownership, as far as running the Yankees is concerned. We're not going to pretend we're something we aren't. I'll stick to building ships." His claim of a hands-off mode of managing became a reality in November 1974, when the baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn suspended Steinbrenner for two years from the day-to-day operations of the club for his illegal campaign fund-raising. When Kuhn reinstated Steinbrenner in 1976, he began to micromanage the operation of the team, a practice that became his trademark. Paul made a number of good trades and brought the Yankees back to the World Series in 1976, although they were swept 4–0 by the Cincinnati Reds.

Steinbrenner's desire to win coincided with a fundamental change in the business of baseball. Starting in 1976, players could file for free agency, and owners with enough money could sign anyone. Steinbrenner dominated the early free-agent market. He signed the future Hall of Famers Catfish Hunter in the 1975 season and Reggie Jackson in 1977. Steinbrenner was rewarded with a World Series title in 1977 when the Yankees beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games. The Yankees followed suit the next year, but not before Steinbrenner fired manager Billy Martin, who had numerous conflicts with Jackson. The next manager, Bob Lemon, took the team from an improbable 14.5 games back in August 1978 to win the pennant and, eventually, the World Series.

Through the early 1980s the Yankees were always in contention for the pennant, but garnered "Boss" Steinbrenner's anger if they did not win it all. Lemon was replaced in 1979 with Martin in his second of five stints as the Yankees manager. Dick Howser, a highly respected baseball manager, was fired in 1980 after winning 103 games during the season because the team lost in the playoffs. All told, Steinbrenner went through seventeen managers during the first seventeen years of his ownership of the team. Steinbrenner's lack of patience was not only directed at managers—he routinely sent young players back to the minor leagues after bad performances, and frequently traded young prospects for established stars he believed would help the team.

In 1981 Steinbrenner approved the biggest contract in baseball history, a ten-year, $20 million contract with Dave Winfield, a multitalented athlete. Winfield had a great 1981 season with the Yankees, but batted miserably in the World Series loss to the Dodgers. Steinbrenner criticized Winfield, among others on the team, and ordered the publicity department to issue an apology to the people of New York City for the team's poor performance. Shortly afterward, Steinbrenner publicly questioned the way Winfield's foundation, established to aid poor children, was spending its money and hired Howard Spira, a known gambler, to un-earth information that could be used against Winfield. Upon learning of this association, the commissioner Fay Vincent suspended Steinbrenner from day-to-day club operations indefinitely on 30 July 1990. Nothing ever was proven that the foundation did anything wrong.

In 1994 Steinbrenner was reinstated as the Yankees general partner and took over a team that had been rebuilt through its strong minor league system and astute trades. In four years the baseball operations stabilized and the team brought up young star players such as Derek Jeter, Andy Petite, Bernie Williams, and Mario Mendoza. Steinbrenner appeared to have mellowed during his four-year suspension, paving the way for greater stability in the Yankees organization. While the Yankees still traded for established stars like Roger Clemens and signed free agents, they no longer acted with disregard for the future. While Steinbrenner ensured that money was available for these players, for the first time he listened to his staff and took their advice on baseball moves. Steinbrenner, however, still had run-ins with fans and players, and he also fired manager Buck Showalter after the Yankees lost in the 1995 playoffs. He then hired Joe Torre, who served as the manager from 1996 through the 2001 season (the longest of any of Steinbrenner's managers). Under Torre, the Yankees saw unbelievable success, winning four World Series titles (1996, 1998–2000), compiling a 114–48 record in 1998, and winning fourteen straight World Series games.

Steinbrenner's contribution to baseball should be based on the success of the teams he fielded, his desire to win at any cost, and not his controversial management style. Since he became the owner of the Yankees after the 1973 season, only one team has won as many as half the six championships that the Yankees have won.

Information on Steinbrenner is available in an officials file at the National Baseball Hall of Fame Library in Cooperstown, New York. The primary books on Steinbrenner are Dick Schaap, Steinbrenner! (1981); Bill Madden and Moss Klein, Damned Yankees: A No-Holds-Barred Account of Life with "Boss" Steinbrenner (1990); and Maury Allen, All Roads Lead to October: Boss Steinbrenner ' s Twenty-five-Year Reign over the New York Yankees (2000). Information can also be found in Sparky Lyle and Peter Golenbock, The Bronx Zoo (1979), and Dave Winfield with Tom Parker, Winfield: A Player ' s Life (1988).

Corey Seeman