This isn't about....gasp...politics or current events. Well, maybe it could fall under current events...its about baseball. Its about the Yankee$ owner, George Steinbrenner. A man that I have professed to hate for the entire time he has owned the dreaded Yankee$. I used to say I hated the Yank$, but the reality is, I respect them greatly. The 20+ championships, the level of excellence they rise to year in and out. George ruled with an iron fist and everyone inside and outside of baseball knew it. He made sure the press knew it too, he never shrunk from a microphone or camera.
Forbes ranks them as the richest baseball team..hell, conglomerate in sports. They own their own stadium, television network and god knows what else that is associated with the team. They are the hottest selling comodity at MLB.COM for jerseys and knick knacks. They always have the highest payroll and pay dearly for that destinction.
But its about George. I got a little misty as I read the profile on him in the NYT this morning. I can't sleep, my back is killing me and my mind won't shut off. They broke ground Wednesday for the new stadium finally, the one George has been talking about for years and years. If it was the George of old, he would of been preaching and bragging and generally being a snot about the new stadium....but it wasn't the George of old..it was the Old George. He spoke all of 25 seconds. It was evident he was happy as a clam about the start of the new stadium, but he just doesn't talk in public anymore. He really doesn't talk to the press, which is so unlike Steinbrenner. he has learned the art of delagating. He trusts a small group of Yank$ executives and they are his mouthpieces. Ever since he collapsed at the funeral of his dear friend, the quarterback, Otto Graham, Steinbrenner has moved away from publicity, his fire and zest have tempered with time. He's 75 now, and although those close to him say his health is fine..he is...how to put it..distant and unsteady now. His mind is still sharp as a tack, thank god.
For a large part of my adult life I have loved to hate this man and his arrogance. But the story paints a picture that is largely sad, only in the fact that times are changing in the sport I love more than brownie icecream or most relatives. He has owned the Yank$ for 33 years and its coming down to the wire for George. He still is the Boss, but his days are numbered now.
And that makes me sad. It's hard to see a long-time adversary get old and frail. It makes you look inward as well. But the old guy still has a spark, he still likes to have someone squeeze his pectoral and that makes me smile because I know the guy I have loved to hate for so damn long, is still in there.
But I still root for the Red Sox :p
They broke ground for the Yank$ new home and the House of Ruth will be part of the past in a scant few years. Perhaps George will too. But for the beginning of the new era for the Yank$, Wednesday saw the beginning of the "House the Boss built" according to one of the executives speaking during the ceremony.
And I just wanted to say I think that is very fitting, and I hope it made the old man smile and bask in the sunlight of the team he seems to love more than anything else.
