Steinbrenner George (1930-)

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Steinbrenner George (1930-)

The word "controversial" has preceded the name George Steinbrenner ever since the multimillionaire shipbuilder from Cleveland became the principal owner of the New York Yankees in 1973. Considered to have been the driving force behind baseball's escalating salary structure in the late 1970s and 1980s, Steinbrenner was loathed for his frequent criticism of his players and managers while being credited with bringing winning baseball back to New York City. Never one to shy away from the media limelight, Steinbrenner's brash personality and penchant for grabbing newspaper headlines often overshadowed his team's play on the field.

With his father's retirement from the family shipping business in 1963, George M. Steinbrenner III, a former football player for Ohio State University, was called upon to take over the company. With the millions he made in business, Steinbrenner returned to the sports world, attempting in the early 1970s to acquire the Cleveland Indians. When that deal fell through, Steinbrenner's attention turned to the floundering New York Yankees, then owned by the Columbia Broadcast System. In 1973, CBS sold the team to a syndicate headed by Steinbrenner for $10 million. Although he had vowed not to take a prominent role in running the club, the new Yankees president soon became one of the most controversial owners in the game.

After a decade of disappointing seasons, under the new ownership the Yankees quickly became competitive again, finishing a close second in 1974, followed by a pennant in 1976, and world championships in 1977 and 1978. Through a series of shrewd trades and large free-agent contracts, "Boss" Steinbrenner had brought winning baseball back to New York. On New Year's Eve 1974 he signed American League Cy Young Award winner Jim "Catfish" Hunter to a five-year contract worth an estimated (and unprecedented) $3.75 million, following this up in later years with huge contracts to sluggers Reggie Jackson, Dave Winfield, and many other players.

Although successful on the baseball diamond during his first decade with the Yankees, Steinbrenner's tenure was marred by legal battles and feuds with managers and players. In 1974, baseball's commissioner Bowie Kuhn barred Steinbrenner from serving as Yankees president for one season for having made illegal contributions to President Richard Nixon's campaign two years earlier. Steinbrenner's tempestuous relationship with his managers began with the resignation of longtime manager Ralph Houk after the 1973 season. Over the next 20 years Steinbrenner made 18 more managerial moves involving 12 different managers. His most turbulent relationship was with former Yankees second baseman Billy Martin, who was first hired as the Yankees' manager in 1975 and first fired in 1978—a sequence that was repeated four more times before Martin's last firing in 1988. After being dismissed 16 games into the 1985 season, Yankees manager (and former star catcher and fan favorite) Yogi Berra vowed never to set foot in Yankee stadium again as long as Steinbrenner continued to run the Yankees.

Despite the team's success on the field, in the late 1970s and early 1980s the Yankee clubhouse was awhirl in controversy. As Yankee third baseman Graig Nettles recalled, "When I was a little boy, I wanted to be a baseball player and join the circus. With the Yankees, I've accomplished both." Egos clashed in the Yankee clubhouse with the arrival of highly paid free agents. Outfielder Reggie Jackson, signed to a record-setting, free-agent contract in 1977, made himself unwelcome to his Yankee teammates even before his arrival when he announced, "I'm the straw that stirs the drink." Though dubbed "Mr. October" for his World Series heroics, Jack-son's five years with the Yankees were marked by a love-hate relationship with Steinbrenner and an even more acrimonious relationship with manager Billy Martin, who once said of Jackson and Steinbrenner that "One is a born liar, the other convicted." The animosity shared by many players toward the team's owner—despite all the big contracts—was partly fueled by Steinbrenner's frequent public criticisms of his players, including an apology to the city of New York after the team's poor performance in the 1981 World Series.

Steinbrenner's years with the Yankees reached an all-time low in 1990, when after a decade of steady decline the team finished in last place for the first time since 1966. That year Steinbrenner once again found himself embroiled in controversy when Commissioner Fay Vincent learned that the Yankees owner had paid a professional gambler named Howard Spira $40,000 to dig up damaging information on Dave Winfield, a player with whom Steinbrenner had feuded for nine years (Steinbrenner unfavorably compared the millionaire outfielder to Reggie Jackson by sticking Winfield with the demeaning moniker "Mr. May"). On July 30, 1990, Steinbrenner agreed to resign permanently as general managing partner of the Yankees for his violation of "the best interests of baseball" rule.

Steinbrenner's campaign to have himself reinstated brought success in July 1992, when the outgoing Vincent lifted the ban, effective March 1, 1993. The seasons that followed proved to be among the most placid—and successful—in the history of the Steinbrenner era. Steinbrenner now seemed to defer more often to the expertise of his front office staff, and Yankee field managers breathed easier. In the strike-plagued year of 1994 the Yankees finished in first place for the first time since 1981. Under the calm leadership of manager Joe Torre, in 1996 the Yankees staged an unlikely come-from-behind World Series victory over the defending champs (Atlanta Braves). However, Steinbrenner's greatest baseball success came two years later, when the Yankees astounded the baseball world by winning 114 games en route to their second world championship in three years. What made this team different from the rowdy 1970s crew was that these Yankees seemed to actually like each other, and their visibly mellowed owner appeared content to avoid controversy. For once, Steinbrenner remained silent while the accomplishments of the team itself received most of the attention.

—Kevin O'Connor