Yankee Owner has died

Under Steinbrenner’s guidance, the Yankees have earned seven World Series trophies since 1973. He was the longest-tenured owner in Major League Baseball, having served as principal owner since purchasing the club on January 3, 1973.

“Owning the Yankees,” Steinbrenner once said according to MLB.com, “is like owning the Mona Lisa.”

The Yankees also won 11 American League pennants in that time.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Allan “Bud” Selig said Steinbrenner was a giant in the game.

“His devotion to baseball was surpassed only by his devotion to his family and his beloved New York Yankees, ” Selig said. “He was and always will be as much of a New York Yankee as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford and all of the other Yankee legends. He was my dear friend for nearly four decades. Although we would have disagreements over the years, they never interfered with our friendship and commitment to each other.

“We will miss him, especially tonight when the baseball family will be gathered at Angel Stadium for the All-Star Game.”

Hall of Fame Yankees catcher Yogi Berra called Steinbrenner a “great friend.”

“This is a very sad day for me and Carmen [Berra's wife] and all of baseball,” he said. “George was The Boss, make no mistake. He built the Yankees into champions and that’s something nobody can ever deny. … George and I had our differences, but who didn’t? We became great friends over the last decade and I will miss him very much.”

CNN sports contributor Max Kellerman said, “Steinbrenner is the most famous owner in sports, really maybe in the history of American team sports — it’s a very big deal. He was an ongoing character on ‘Seinfeld.’ … Steinbrenner has made his way into popular culture, into the cultural consciousness.”

Hall of Famer Dave Winfield, who was signed as a free agent by Steinbrenner and played for the Yankees from 1981-90, told MLB.com that “they’re going to have to look at him as one of the top owners in the history of sports.”

Steinbrenner was born on July 4, 1930, in Rocky River, Ohio. His mother, he once said, imbued him with a compassion for the underdog.

He told The New York Times Magazine in 1978 that he “never really appreciated” his father when he was growing up but that now he “can’t give enough credit” to him. “Anything I ever accomplish I owe to him,” he said then.

Now a baseball icon, Steinbrenner began his Major League career in 1973 after he bought the Bronx Bombers from CBS for $8.7 million. Steinbrenner was chairman of the board of the American Ship Building Co., which had an estimated value of $180 million in sales in 1978. His other ventures including political fundraising, backing of Broadway plays, an interest in the Chicago Bulls basketball team, ownership of the thoroughbred Kinsman Stud Farm in Florida and an extensive holdings in banking operations and Florida real estate.

Steinbrenner was for decades the most colorful, controversial and domineering owner in baseball.

Known universally as “The Boss,” he demanded victory from his teams and managers, firing managers who didn’t deliver. Famously, he hired and fired manager Billy Martin half a dozen times in the 1970s and 1980s when the Yankees dominated baseball.

He was willing to shatter ideas about what baseball players should be paid to stack his teams with stars, starting with pitcher Catfish Hunter and slugger Reggie Jackson in the 1970s and continuing up to the present with Derek Jeter and C.C. Sabathia.

But Steinbrenner didn’t always know where to draw the line on payments, and stepped over it at least twice — with illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon in 1974, and with a $40,000 payment to a gambler for damaging information about a player.

He was suspended from baseball for the Nixon contribution and banned for life for the payment to gambler Howie Spira, according to Major League Baseball. He was reinstated three years later.

He often starred in commercials lampooning himself, including a commercial in which he chewed out Jeter for partying.

On his 80th birthday last week, Steinbrenner thanked fans, friends and family for their good wishes.

“I am very fortunate to have the love and support of a great family and many, many friends. The Yankees and their fans are a large part of what keeps me going. It means a lot,” he said.

U.S. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-New York, called Steinbrenner a champion.

“He was someone about whom you can truly say that there will never be another one like him. When he bought the Yankees in 1973 the franchise was moribund and he quickly restored them to greatness,” Schumer said in a statement.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg added, “This is a sad day not only for Yankee fans, but for our entire city, as few people have had a bigger impact on New York over the past four decades than George Steinbrenner. George was a larger-than-life New York figure whose passion and drive to succeed will forever be missed.”

Funeral arrangements will be private, the family said, adding there will be an additional public service with details to be announced at a later date.

Steinbrenner’s death marks the second loss in so many days for Yankee veterans. Announcer Bob Sheppard died Sunday. Steinbrenner called Sheppard “a good friend and fine man whose voice set the gold standard for America’s sports announcers.”