The notice of George Steinbrenner's passing, mere days after legendary Yankee public address announcer Bob Sheppard died, reminds me of something my father told me. We were watching a Yankee game on TV when the Yankees were fielding bad teams. My father, an ardent Brooklyn Dodger fan, shook his head slowly. "It's not good now. You see, baseball needs a strong New York team for financial reasons. The good Yankee teams fill the ballpark, and the New York home gate means the visitors get a lot of money. It's usually money they need."
Major League Baseball, which has the amazing knack of attracting stupid owners and incubating dumb front offices, didn't catch on to this simple fact of sports economics for a long time. It took free agency to wake them up, and the owner who immediately understood how to exploit its competitive advantages was George Steinbrenner. The Cleveland native also grasped how New York's aura and the Yankees' heritage could be leveraged into box office dynamite.
When Steinbrenner started out with the Yankees, he followed the team on the road when they were in a pennant race. A few months after I graduated from the University of Wisconsin, my former roomate and other friends went on a cold autumn night to see the Yankees play the Milwaukee Brewers. As County Stadium was nearly empty, they got to sneak into the expensive seats and, eventually, near Steinbrenner, Yankee general manager Gabe Paul, and others in the Yankee entourage. Steinbrenner rooted hard for his team, as it was fighting to win a pennant. As one of my friends recalled the story, Yankee outfielder Lou Piniella tripped over the second base bag during a Yankee rally. Steinbrenner got upset: "Fuckin' Piniella," he growled.
Yes, Steinbrenner cared. He also made sure the County Stadium ushers didn't throw my friends out of the box seats. They were Yankee fans, and for George Steinbrenner, that mattered. A lot.
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