# George Steinbrenner has passed !



## Jimmy 440 (Nov 17, 2007)

Fox News and AP have just reported that George Steinbrenner has just died in Tampa Fl.He apparently had a heart attack Monday night and died today.He was 80 years old.

RIP George ! : (


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## Hutchinshouse (Sep 28, 2006)

RIP Boss


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## Jimmy 440 (Nov 17, 2007)

From WABC NY

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news&id=7551966


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## redsoxfan26 (Dec 7, 2007)

ESPN is reporting this as well. For all the good things and the bad that he did for baseball, what I will remember him for is this: there will never be a more generous owner in any professional sport. Every year when the Red Sox hold their annual "Jimmy Fund" telethon to benefit the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute he was always one of the biggest contributors. For that at least I will miss him.


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

WOW - Big news for the Big Apple.

Never was a fan of his, nor his practices of throwing money at a problem...

But he did contribute to baseball in many ways, and I'm sure many will miss him as they should.


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## Msguy (May 23, 2003)

The thing I Like about George Steinbrenner is he wanted a winner and stopped at hardley nothing to please his fans and try to put the best out on the ballfield. Many mulit-million and some even Multi-Billion dollar owners in the game today only care about profit. George actually cared about winning. That's what it should be all about.


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

Love him or hate him, he certainly changed the game. Bill Madden's recent bio, _Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball_, certainly proved to be a timely book.


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## fluffybear (Jun 19, 2004)

terrible loss for baseball. 

RIP


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## MysteryMan (May 17, 2010)

He was different...RIP


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## sigma1914 (Sep 5, 2006)

George Steinbrenner...RIP. You were an awesome owner who built champions. Yanks will win number 28 for you.


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## HIGHWAY (Apr 11, 2007)

RIP Boss. baseball will miss you.


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

Msguy said:


> The thing I Like about George Steinbrenner is he wanted a winner and stopped at hardley nothing to please his fans and try to put the best out on the ballfield. Many mulit-million and some even Multi-Billion dollar owners in the game today only care about profit. George actually cared about winning. That's what it should be all about.


Exactly. Those old enough to remember how, e.g., Charlie Finley attempted to sell-off Oakland's stars to the highest bidders in the 70's can appreciate that Steinbrenner was the first owner in sports I can recall who re-invested his profits on players, instead of lining his pockets with $$$.

His main flaw, IMO, was his propensity to interfere with his GM's, and insist they somtimes acquire "trophy" free agents that were past their primes. In recent years, Kevin Brown and Randy Johnson come to mind. It's a scary thought, but the Yankees might have been even more successful had he just written the checks and let his GM's make the final decisions on personnel. Just my .02.


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

I've been listening to the CNN summary of the announcement. Sorry Yankee fans...

Other than (almost single-handedly) driving up the overall cost of pro sports today through his near-uncontrolled salary spending, encouraging "loyalty by the dollar", making a mockery of his managers and GM's, and having no people skills, he was a great guy.

But he's gone now...so RIP.


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## joshjr (Aug 2, 2008)

hdtvfan0001 said:


> I've been listening to the CNN summary of the announcement. Sorry Yankee fans...
> 
> Other than (almost single-handedly) driving up the overall cost of pro sports today through his near-uncontrolled salary spending, encouraging "loyalty by the dollar", making a mockery of his managers and GM's, and having no people skills, he was a great guy.
> 
> But he's gone now...so RIP.


+1


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## Stuart Sweet (Jun 19, 2006)

While I'm certainly no Yankee fan, I tip my hat to one of the men who made baseball a vastly better sport by being involved in it.


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## dmurphy (Sep 28, 2006)

Personally, I mourn the loss of Bob Sheppard much more than The Boss.

Having said that... The Boss changed the game, and that's a fact. Whether it's for better or worse, that's up to your personal opinion ...

And as a Yankee fan, I'm glad for the investment and the success.


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## Mavrick (Feb 1, 2006)

I think this is the fault of George Costanza feeding a man calzones everyday for lunch is a recipe for a heart attack.

On a serious note though rest in peace Mr. Steinbrenner for you helped make the game what it is today.


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## coldsteel (Mar 29, 2007)

Maybe Dish can get YES now.....


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

hdtvfan0001 said:


> I've been listening to the CNN summary of the announcement. Sorry Yankee fans...
> 
> Other than (almost single-handedly) driving up the overall cost of pro sports today through his near-uncontrolled salary spending, encouraging "loyalty by the dollar", making a mockery of his managers and GM's, and having no people skills, he was a great guy.
> 
> But he's gone now...so RIP.


Lest people forget, it was the landmark Curt Flood ruling that created free agency and loyalty to the dollar, and it's either thanks to the owners' stupidity or the brilliant union leadership of Marvin Miller and Donald Fehr that there is no salary cap in baseball today.

Had George not been the first owner to play by the post-Flood rules, someone else surely would have. I give him props for refusing to collude with baseball's "old boys club", who wanted nothing more than to continue screwing the fans and players to their own financial advantage.

Some of the greatest leaders in history were SOB's. Whether or not Steinbrenner had people skills is irrelevant to his legacy and the mark on the sport he has left behind. I never liked the guy personally, but I'm grateful he did everything humanly possible to put the best team on the field for fans of his team. His only motivation was winning, not greed.


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

Steve said:


> Lest people forget, it was the landmark Curt Flood ruling that created free agency and loyalty to the dollar, and it's either thanks to the owners' stupidity or the brilliant union leadership of Marvin Miller and Donald Fe hr that there is no salary cap in baseball today.
> 
> Had George not been the first owner to play by the post-Flood rules, someone else surely would have. I give him props for refusing to collude with baseball's "old boys club", who wanted nothing more than to continue screwing the fans and players to their own financial advantage.
> 
> Some of the greatest leaders in history were SOB's. Whether or not Steinbrenner had people skills is irrelevant to his legacy and the mark on the sport he has left behind. I never liked the guy personally, but I'm grateful he did everything humanly possible to put the best team on the field for fans of his team. His only motivation was winning, not greed.


Keeping it simple...George clearly championed (pun intended) the concept of *buying* a championship in a world without salary cap limits.

There's not exactly any form of "brilliance" in assembling your roster by opening up your checkbook. This also breeds inflation (overpayment) in salaries, which was accelerated by that methodology. It also fueled an astronomical rush to higher salaries. Few had more to do in that trend that good old George, and likely led to the kind of resentment other teams have had towards his philosophy - especialy those many others who had smaller checkbooks.


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

hdtvfan0001 said:


> Keeping it simple...George clearly championed (pun intended) the concept of *buying* a championship in a world without salary cap limits.
> 
> There's not exactly any form of "brilliance" in assembling your roster by opening up your checkbook. This also breeds inflation (overpayment) in salaries, which was accelerated by that methodology. It also fueled an astronomical rush to higher salaries. Few had more to do in that trend that good old George, and likely led to the kind of resentment other teams have had towards his philosophy - especialy those many others who had smaller checkbooks.


Say what you want, but George played by the same rules available to several teams with more money to spend than he did at the time he first purchased the Yankees. When he and his co-owners bought the team in 1973 for $8.7 million, they were a .500 team that finished 17 games out of first and barely drew a million fans. And they drew less than a million in 1972, the last year of CBS ownership.

He certainly didn't come into baseball with a silver spoon or unlimited resources, but somehow managed to build a $9 million franchise into one worth an estimated $1 billion today. If that's not "brilliant", than I don't know what is.


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

Steve said:


> He certainly didn't come into baseball with a silver spoon or unlimited resources, but somehow managed to build a $9 million franchise into one worth an estimated $1 billion today. If that's not "brilliant", than I don't know what is.


My issue is at what "real cost"....including diluting the sport by shifting players based only on money, and inflating ticket prices (and TV rights fees). Using that basis, it would seem that all baseball fans themselves contributed to his personal financial success.

Makes him a good businessman, no doubt - but not necessarily good man for the sport - that point will be debated for many years to come.

Now that he's gone...perhaps the focus should be on his franchise's accomplishments (7 World Series).

That point is pretty tough to diminish.


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

hdtvfan0001 said:


> My issue is at what "real cost"....including diluting the sport by shifting players based only on money [...]


I'd hardly consider the huge attendance and TV contracts garnered by MLB over the past 20 years "dilutive". Thanks to fans going to games in record numbers, huge TV contracts and luxury tax revenues, ML owners are all making money at a record clip.

Once again, Steinbrenner wasn't responsible for the creation of free agency or the lack of a salary cap in baseball. Thank the players' union for that. He just figured out early on that as a result of free agency, Yankee $$$ would be better invested on the field, thereby increasing attendance and a national following, much like the Dallas Cowboys did, rather than socking profits away in his own bank account. And he also rebuilt a totally neglected (by CBS) farm system into one that produced core players like Jeter, Petitte, Rivera, Williams and Posada and other prospects that he was able to trade for star players from other teams.

Apologies to the OP and others for derailing this thread. I promise to shut up now.


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## n3ntj (Dec 18, 2006)

RIP Boss


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## hdtvfan0001 (Jul 28, 2004)

The accolades for Bob Sheppard and Steinbrenner couldn't be more different.

I'm sure the Yankee nation is in mourning losting both of them in less than a week.

RIP to them both.


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## loveshockey (Feb 25, 2008)

who owns the team now? his sons?


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## Jimmy 440 (Nov 17, 2007)

Hal & Hank Steinbrenner


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## Drucifer (Feb 12, 2009)

I hope he has Bob Sheppard to announce his arrival in Heaven. 

When he gets there. 

Poor George is probably going to have to serve some time purgatory first.


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## jodyguercio (Aug 16, 2007)

Drucifer said:


> Poor George is probably going to have to serve some time purgatory first.


He already did that, it was called the Yankee teams of the 80s....


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## pez2002 (Dec 13, 2002)

will they bury him at yankee stadium ???


RIP BOSS


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## Steve (Aug 22, 2006)

Lot's of reports now surfacing of Steinbrenner's charitable contributions. Apparently he's donated millions over the years on the condition of anonymity, according to a White House statement mourning his passing. He's been especially generous to Tampa, his home for the past 35 years. So much so that they named a local high school after him. It wouldn't surprise me if he was buried there.


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## Game Fan (Sep 8, 2007)

George was a brilliant businessman and owner. He even passed in the best year possible, for his heirs, since their is no inheritance tax this year. Thanks to "The Boss" for all you've done for the Yankees and baseball.


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## djlong (Jul 8, 2002)

Being a Red Sox fan, it's tough to say nice things - but you can't savor championships (as in '04 and '07) unless there's a big hill to conquer and Steinbrenner kept that big hill a constant challenge.

My personal opinions of "King George" began to change when the debacle of the Montreal Expos (my NL team) started happening after the strike in '94. Seeing how the owners treated the fans and minority partners made me sick. Jeff Loria, years ago, supplanted Steinbrenner as the most despicable owner in baseball as far as I'm concerned. 

Say what you will about Steinbrenner but he put the money into the team. One could say it's not HIS fault that it was in New York where the most money was available (and largely untapped in 1973).


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