Missing Big Stein
Via Ken Davidoff today -
The Yankees have a number of capable people, on both the baseball-operations side and the business side, to make a 2009 world championship eminently possible. No longer is there an internal squabble for power between the New York office and the Tampa office, a rift that The Boss created and nurtured.
He sure made life difficult for everyone. Yet in virtual absentia, [George] Steinbrenner’s stature has only grown. It has become painfully apparent that for all of his flaws, he has left an immense void. One that is even more noticeable when the organization is under siege, like right now.
“Those are some big shoes to fill,” said Rich Gossage, here as a guest instructor. “There is only one George Steinbrenner, I can tell you that. The current regime, it’s going to take a while for the transition to happen.”
The Yankees finally acknowledged that transition after the ’07 season. It has been a challenge to succeed Steinbrenner, particularly for his family members here in Tampa.
New control person Hal Steinbrenner, a good man, often commutes to New York to confer with his lieutenants there. He just lacks his dad’s wingspan. When someone raises a complaint about the Tampa operation, Hal often responds, “Tell Felix.”
Felix Lopez, the husband of Steinbrenner’s daughter Jessica, has brought his unique brand of idiocy to the team. Whereas Yankees employees often loathed George Steinbrenner, they knew he had their backs. Lopez, on the other hand, is only loathed, for his mean-spiritedness and penny-pinching.
Poor Hank Steinbrenner, nicknamed “Tommy Boy” in honor of the 1995 film with the late Chris Farley, doesn’t have it in him to serve a serious role.
The result is an organization still searching for an identity. For a connection between upstairs and downstairs.
“I miss Steinbrenner. I miss him walking around,” Posada said. “I miss being able to talk to him about baseball, football. Anything.
“It was tough love. You knew that coming in. But you know what? He cared about everybody in here … You heard little stories about how he’d have them remove the whole carpet [in the clubhouse] because there was a little stain in the middle. Little things like that. He did anything to make us comfortable. He was good at it.”
Someday, it will be interesting, to compare the Yankees of “1973 through 2004″ against the Yankees of “2005 through 2036″ to see exactly how much Big Stein brought to the table. My guess is that such a study would back the notion that George had a huge impact on the Yankees success.
I agree, there are advantages to having a single–winning obsessed–tyrant running the show compared to a corporate–appearance obsessed– think tank.
open thread today?
Hopefully the Steinbrenner money turns out to be more important than Steinbrenner the man. Although that will to spend must still be there. So far though, it looks like it is.
Had George not been suspended the 2nd time, the 2nd dynasty might have been traded away for oh, I dunno, Bob Sykes, Ken Phelps, and Rick Rhoden.
Hopefully the Steinbrenner money turns out to be more important than Steinbrenner the man. Although that will to spend must still be there. So far though, it looks like it is.
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I would agree, but I think profit-sharing has certainly put a big dent in that spending power relative to the other teams…. something that no one (except sympathetic Yankees fans) seems to recognize.
Had George not been suspended the 2nd time, the 2nd dynasty might have been traded away for oh, I dunno, Bob Sykes, Ken Phelps, and Rick Rhoden.
Quote from Evan
Good call , mate. The Yankees became a Dynasty in the 90s in spite of George! Posada is a really good player BUT some of the things that come out of his mouth make little sense. Keep Joba in the pen…Hell no! This kid is big time let him pitch and become a dominanat starter. His comments about Unca/St Joe? Please stop. Now this idiocy about Steinbrenner. Georgie juiced one would probably be playing for the Nationals if it was up to George. Remember that he wanted Posada’s good buddy Pettitte traded in 1999? Dear old George my butt. Thank god other peopel are in charge. Now get rid of Cash Man and Levine, bring in Stick, Watson and someone like Gillick to run the show and things will really change for the better……
Had George not been suspended the 2nd time, the 2nd dynasty might have been traded away for oh, I dunno, Bob Sykes, Ken Phelps, and Rick Rhoden.
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Having said that, there were a number of factors that led to the Yanks’ decline from 89-92. Had Steinbrenner not been suspended, chances are you would have probably seen the same thing you’ve been seeing all these years; FA acquisitions, acquisitions driven by salary, with the occasional farm product thrown in.