illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon<\/a>, and a lifetime ban in 1990 for paying gambler Howard Spira in an attempt to discredit Yankees star Dave Winfield. Each time, Steinbrenner ultimately navigated his way back into baseball. Yet throughout his ownership, he displayed a notably combative approach \u2013 hiring, firing and sometimes rehiring in his quest for another championship. Exhibit A was Martin, who served five separate spells as Yankees manager and, according to Vaccaro, was in line for a sixth stint before his untimely death in a Christmas Day car crash in 1989.<\/p>\n\u201cBoth of them hated losing even more than they liked winning,\u201d Vaccaro says. \u201cIt was sort of their driving fossil fuel. They were also incredibly stubborn. I don\u2019t think Billy could ever quite wrap his head around the fact George was the boss. From day one, George referred to himself as \u2018The Boss.\u2019 It drove Billy crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
In tackling this complex overall narrative, Vaccaro credits his book\u2019s editor with some good advice about making each chapter like one of his newspaper columns: \u201cMake them conversational, make them interesting, make them fun, not like a textbook, \u2018on that day, this happened.\u2019 Play all the hits \u2013 and the stories behind the stories, that may not be quite so well-known.\u201d<\/p>\n
Did you know, for instance, that George Steinbrenner spotted promise in Hal early on, due to his son\u2019s response to a Burger King promo in the 1980s? According to the book, Burger King offered Yankees cards with a Whopper, fries and shake, and 12-year-old Hal noted that the lineup omitted popular Yankee Lou Piniella. The fast-food chain was notified, the Piniella card became a prized collector\u2019s item, and Steinbrenner Sr noted his adolescent son\u2019s business acumen.<\/p>\n
The book also explores the contributions of two Yankees executives who played notable roles during Steinbrenner\u2019s periods of exile: Gabe Paul in the 1970s and Gene \u201cStick\u201d Michael in the 1990s. Paul, a former Cleveland Indians general manager, took over in a similar role at the Yankees early in Steinbrenner\u2019s tenure. When Steinbrenner was suspended for his contributions to Nixon during the Watergate investigation, Paul got more leeway to make franchise-altering moves; according to the book, he did receive clearance from then-baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn to get Steinbrenner\u2019s approval before successfully courting free agent Catfish Hunter.<\/p>\n
George Steinbrenner gives some advice to first baseman Don Mattingly before a game. Photograph: New York Daily News Archive\/NY Daily News\/Getty Images<\/p>\n
Years later, in 1993, with Steinbrenner again out of baseball, it was a new GM \u2013 Michael \u2013 who got credit for a deal he didn\u2019t make. The Yankees were looking to reunite with one of their exes, Rickey Henderson, but the Blue Jays swooped in first. Michael was thinking longer-term, and Vaccaro explains that the Oakland A\u2019s demands for Henderson included a list of Yankees prospects at the time: not only Jeter, but also on future stars Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Bernie Williams.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor two and a half years Michael could protect the crown jewels without fear of the Boss going behind his back to ransom them,\u201d Vaccaro writes in the book.<\/p>\n
It all ended up working out quite well for Steinbrenner and the Yankees: The Boss returned in 1995. A year later, under new manager Joe Torre, the Yankees returned to the World Series, which they won, starting a string of four titles in five years. On the business side, the team entered into a short-lived cross-sport partnership with the New Jersey Nets and New Jersey Devils, and into the lucrative world of TV with the regional sports titan YES Network. Vaccaro estimates the Yankees\u2019 current value at $7bn-$10bn, and he believes their fairly new stadium has quashed any fears of a move to New Jersey.<\/p>\n
There have been some fissures in the firmament in recent decades though. The Yankees\u2019 long-time foes, the Boston Red Sox, got the better of the rivalry in Steinbrenner\u2019s last years \u2013 notably in 2004, when Boston came back from a 3-0 deficit to stun the Yankees in the ALCS en route to ending an 86-year World Series drought and an almost-as-long run of humiliation against the Pinstripes. The Yankees have not won a championship since 2009, and according to the book, some fans worry about Hal Steinbrenner\u2019s leadership compared to his father, muttering that current GM Brian Cashman and manager Aaron Boone might have faced more pressure to win \u201cif only George were still alive.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYankees fans are passionate \u2013 spoiled, maybe, too used to success,\u201d Vaccaro says. \u201cThey really have a serious belief about what the Yankees should be \u2013 which Hal does have.\u201d<\/p>\n
These days, he adds, \u201cit\u2019s not quite as easy \u2026 the Dodgers are supposed to be invulnerable \u2026 [yet] they should have lost the World Series three different times last year. It\u2019s something of a crapshoot when you get your team into a playoff series.\u201d Wryly, he adds, \u201cYankees fans \u2013 and George Steinbrenner \u2013 would not like to hear that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Steinbrenner could be quite the pitchman \u2013 whether selling New York to free agents or starring in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":605948,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[558],"tags":[64,63,591,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-605947","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mlb","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-mlb","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605947","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=605947"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/605947\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/605948"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=605947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=605947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=605947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}