To me, George Steinbrenner never “got it.” He would constantly trade young players for washed up players or he would bring free agents in every year thinking, “that’s the way you run a ball club.” He acted like the biggest moron in all of sports. He was acting so dumb and so stupid that he kept repeating the same mistake year in and year out. He was the definition of Albert Einstein’s Definition of Insanity where you repeat the same thing over and over again expecting different results. I was always like, “Why is he doing this?” “Hasn’t he figured out it just doesn’t work?” “Is he that dumb?”
I became very frustrated with George Steinbrenner. I became so frustrated with him that I started rooting against the Yankees just to spite him. I became conflicted because I had a hard time rooting against my team.
I don’t give George any credit for the World Series wins during the 96-2000 era. That was all Gene Michael. George came and ripped that team apart and started bringing in every free agent to mankind and ruined the “team” concept. After 2000, we went back to the 80′s where he would try to buy championships instead of building from within. I hated it because I’m a big prospect guy and grew even more frustrated that I wouldn’t be able to watch players develop in our system.
If you look at the Championship roster the Yankees had last year, it was a good one. It wouldn’t of been the same if George was still running things however. George would of traded all the young talent away. You know he would of. The roster in 2010 is just as strong if not stronger.
If George never had a stroke and was still running this team, we would not have had Francisco Cervelli, Robinson Cano, Brett Gardner, Phil Hughes or Joba Chamberlain on the roster. All of those players would of been traded for veterans who wouldn’t of helped the team last year or this year.
When Steinbrenner turned the team over to his sons, or son, they won. They won because they kept the players I just mentioned who all played a key part in the championship and will play an even bigger role this year. The only move I didn’t like that the brothers made thus far was trading Austin Jackson for Curtis Granderson. That was a George move.
So, as a GM, I thought that George Steinbrenner sucked. I thought he was one of the worst GM’s in the history of sports. As a Yankee fan, I didn’t appreciate the moves he made.
As a human being however is a different story….
George Steinbrenner believed in America and was a big time patriot, just like I am. He gave money to the USOC with goals on winning medals after a poor performance by the United States in the 1988 Winter Games. I believed George has used his money very wisely this time. He used his money for the development and training of our US Athletes and financed jobs for our olympic athletes. The 1989 Steinbrenner Commission report insisted that the USOC’s previously vague primary mission should be to win medals and backed it by beginning athlete-funding programs that eventually led to the record-breaking medal totals at the 2010 Olympics.
He even paid for an olympic athlete’s medical schooling after this person’s father died and couldn’t pay the bills any more. That to me says patriot like no other. That is when George won me over and I forgave him for all the blunders he made with the Yankees. Any bad move he made with the Yankees didn’t hurt anymore and was washed away with his commitment to America. Any human being that pays another human being’s bills so “they” can become a better human being will always have my heart. R.I.P
