Is George Steinbrenner losing his marbles?
By Punch N. Judy
BaseballBigMouth.com baseball news
Ronald Reagan will go down in my memory as the jelly bean eating President who ended the cold war, played Grover Cleveland Alexander flawlessly in The Winning Team, and at the end of the day, went senile, sheltered by friends and family who couldn’t bear the sight of this once proud man appearing so fragile to an outside world in which he was so respected. Similarly, George Steinbrenner is set to go down as the peanut-butter-and-jam-eating Yankee Boss who fired Billy Martin five times, restored the franchise to its old powerful self and would ultimately pull out all the stops (and money) in pursuit of victory. He too, however, seems destined to become the out of sight, out of mind relative who figuratively gets locked in the closet until its time to recite a glowing eulogy.
Might Sheffield still be a Yank if not for a failing Boss?
Having grown up in the era in which Mt. George bubbled over two to three times every summer – invariably when the Yankees hit Motown – I started to become suspicious that something was amiss the first time PR lackey Howard Rubenstein read a statement allegedly prepared by the Boss. At the time I thought perhaps the old tyrant might be just a little under the weather, at worst slipping just a bit. Little did I know the Yankee Principle Owner was a few sandwiches short of a picnic. On the Yes Network, Michael Kay conducted an interview with Steinbrenner that soon became as uncomfortable to watch as one of those embarrassing sitcom moments. While Kay fawning over anything Yankee is a given, this interview was more than bland as Curious George started out giving yes or no responses, eventually followed by shaking his head to and fro. And that spot was two years ago, folks.
Around that time the city of New York and the Yankees announced that a new Stadium would be built in the Bronx and that eventually Steinbrenner’s son-in-law Steve Swindal would assume the mantel of General Partner. That idea has been shelved however in lieu of the recent divorce proceedings between the Boss’s daughter and the aforementioned Swindal. Now the company line is that eventually Steinbrenner’s sons will man the wheel of the sinking ship which leads me to hope that includes the one offspring who though only 12 at the time was able to convince the Boss to sign Kenny Rogers for big bucks. Though now a veteran stud for the Tigers, “The Gambler” then was but a degenerative slot player as opposed to the Johnny Chan-like character in which he has evolved.
When Gary Sheffield began running his mouth following another Yankee ouster last fall, it was mere posturing by a stand-up guy who operates his career without the benefit of a mouthpiece or, as they say in the business, an agent. When he left Atlanta for the Bronx it was an under-the-table deal brokered between Steinbrenner and Sheffield, independent of the Yankee chain of command. It was just like old times when the Boss would, as Reggie Jackson used to say, “hustle a player like a broad.” When it came time for Sheffield to seek a contract extension, it was no surprise that when shut out of a personal meeting with the Boss he was soon traded by a GM who surely didn’t appreciate being leapfrogged three years ago. During and after this whole ordeal Sheffield intimated several times that had he been able to deal with the Boss face to face, he would still be a Yankee. He seemed to think that all is not well in the head of the most domineering owner in the history of sports. We here at BaseballBigMouth.com nod our heads in agreement.
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