by
Sweeny Murti
Tampa, FL (WFAN) -- As the new Yankee Stadium opens, no better time to look at the life of George M. Steinbrenner III. Two definitive biographies are set for release, one later this summer from Bill Madden of the Daily News and one later this month from Peter Golenbock, well known for past collaborations with Sparky Lyle, Billy Martin, Graig Nettles, and Johnny Damon.
This week I previewed a copy of Mr. Golenbock's book, George: The Poor Little Rich Boy Who Built the Yankee Empire, available April 20th from John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Golenbock's research for this project goes back more than three decades. He collaborated in the late 1970's on the bestsellers The Bronx Zoo (Lyle) and Number 1(Martin), and it's pretty clear those books proved to be good sources. The period from 1976-1978 is unique in Yankee history for its combination of turmoil and success, a three-year period that saw the Yankees win three pennants and two World Series, and have constant back page buzz thanks to the Steinbrenner, Martin, and Reggie Jackson love triangle. Much of Mr. Golenbock's material also comes from interviews he did for a Steinbrenner bio he was preparing in the early 80's but was eventually shelved.
Most of the stories here are not new but are quite fun to read again. And you know immediately which direction the author is going because before Chapter 1 he lists the clinical traits of obsessive-compulsive disorder and narcissism. There is the familiar background on George's upbringing and his constant need to please his father. There are some frightening details of his days at Culver Military Academy (his nickname was "Hot Lips," really???). And there are all the juicy details from the beginning of the Steinbrenner Era in 1973 (before George even had official ownership he was berating team president Michael Burke about the $100,000 deal he had signed Bobby Murcer to) through his suspension for the Dave Winfield-Howie Spira debacle as the Yanks moved into the 1990's. What appears to be a recent interview with former baseball commissioner Fay Vincent gives an excellent account of the situation that led to Steinbrenner's ban.
From that point forward Yankee history has been very well documented, most notably in these books by
Buster Olney and
Joel Sherman. The mess that became the Yankees in the 80's and had Steinbrenner in the fans' crosshairs turned into the greatest Yankee dynasty since the 1950's and turned the Boss into a more loveable figure. Except for a few random episodes here and there, the crazy days of The Bronx Zoo were over. The last real look in this Golenbock book at what working for George was all about is an entertaining chapter about the formation of the YES Network, all the color provided by Leo Hindery, the first CEO of the network.
What is disappointing about the Golenbock book to me is that it lacks more significant in-depth analysis and detail about this last period in time, Steinbrenner's diminishing health and his fade from power and the transition to sons Hank and Hal. Clearly his story is built on the Bronx Zoo era (there are nearly 100 pages featuring Billy Martin but fewer than 30 with Joe Torre). Also, there are too many factual errors that should have been easy to catch (Hop Cassady won the Heisman trophy once, not twice; Roger Maris is not in the Hall of Fame; Denny McLain did not pitch for the 1984 Tigers; misspelled names of Bill Livesey, Mike DeJean, and Rick Cerone). There are others, and it doesn't show well on a book to be that sloppy.
Still, the stories about crazy old Boss George are fun to read. And yes, there are some passages that are sure to draw some attention. Here are some of my favorites:
*An unnamed executive "close to the Yankees" speaking about Hank and Hal Steinbrenner as they ascended the throne, page 329:
"I'd say there's no logical way the next generation can measure up. Did you ever hear of "Itchie and Twitchie?" Hal and Hank. If you took both kids' feet together at the same time, they couldn't fit into George's shoes."
*Former Steinbrenner son-in-law Steve Swindal dropped out of the line of succession when his marriage ended in 2007 (although the book has the date as 2006). Hindery, the former CEO of the YES Network, speaks of the differences between Swindal and the Steinbrenner sons on pages 323-324:
"Steve Swindal was a bridge between the daughters, who are very bright, but would have no direct role, and the idiot sons. Steve would have succeeded George as head of the Yankees but Steve couldn't survive that cut, because George's world is very black and white…The problem is that George's illness was coincident with Steve's problems. George became non compos mentos exactly when Steve Swindal fell into problems…We are all quite fond of Steve.
"Hank and Hal were persona non grata in the eyes of their father, and sadly, the brains of the family are in the daughters."
"So Steve got popped, and who takes over but Hal, who has fine features, very quiet, a handsome guy. Hal is virtually untalkative. He's almost mute, but instantly he was dominated by Hank, who was sweeping out the barns at the horse farm. Hank is absolutely his father's physique, and we think he is meaner than his father ever was. Hank stayed scared ****less of George until his father disappeared."
*We know from the Joe Torre/Tom Verducci book about how Torre felt that Yankees President Randy Levine was the one pushing him out the door. On page 331, Mr. Golenbock quotes an unnamed employee to describe how Levine went about it:
"The manager puts in a pinch hitter. If you want to second-guess and make yourself look good in George's eyes, you say, 'What's he doing that for?' And chances are that seven out of ten times you will be right. If you second-guess it and the guy strikes out or hits into a double play, you look good, because you're smarter than the manager. You've put the manager down, and you look good in George's eyes, and George gets all fired up, and he likes you because you're on his side. Randy would do that all the time."
*Here is a comical scene from 1984, described by Golenbock on page 228, between George and then-manager Yogi Berra:
In July, the Yankees lost a game, and afterward Steinbrenner called a meeting of the manager and the coaches in his office at the stadium. His tirade was directed mostly at Yogi. Said George, "You guys have really let me down. I gave you want (sic) you wanted. This is your team, and look at it-look what's happening."
Yogi shouted, "This isn't my ****ing team, it's your ****ing team. You make all the ****ing decisions. You make all the ****ing moves. You get all the ****ing players nobody else wants. You put this ****ing team together and then you sit back and wait for us to lose so you can blame everybody else because you're a ****ing chicken**** liar." Yogi stormed out of the room. A minute went by, and Yogi, cooled down some, returned, only to begin screaming again. Every phrase had the word "liar" in it.
George kept his cool. He said a few things calmly, and after Yogi yelled himself out, he left. "I guess the pressure of losing is getting to him, " said Steinbrenner.
*To read about George's tenure in the 1960's as owner of the ABL's Cleveland Pipers basketball team is to see into the future, a vision of what George Steinbrenner would become in just a decade's time. On page 75 Mr. Golenbock gives you an indication of why Billy Martin was always George's favorite and maybe Joe Torre not so much:
George had put together a team of talented players, but not long after he took over the Pipers, he stirred up controversy when he let it be known that although the Pipers had won everything under the sun the year before, he wanted a more famous, feistier coach than the tremendously popular John McClendon. McClendon was one of the great gentlemen of the coaching ranks. He never raised his voice, never argued with the referees. But George wanted box office. He wanted a dramatic coach like Red Auerbach. He couldn't stand that McClendon sat quietly while the referees kept making obviously bad calls.
Putting aside the factual errors that most books have in their first edition anyway, this is still an entertaining read. I never covered the truly bombastic George Steinbrenner. This spring I saw George several times as his driver took him in a golf cart down the hallway and then transferred him into a wheelchair so he could ride up the elevator to his 4th floor office at the stadium now named in his honor. There are no friendly jabs at familiar reporters, no long state-of-the-team addresses, no verbal missiles directed at managers, players, agents, or whoever was in the line of fire that day. So while there are many people who went to bed every night with a bad headache from the abuse they suffered at George Steinbrenner's will, reading these stories will make you laugh and remember how much the man wanted to win. Even if he was a little crazy, boring he was not.
Thanks for reading. Send comments and questions to
Yankees@wfan.com. Sweeny
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