here is an article that i think will get some posters mad.
washingtonpost.com Highlights
Call him what you wish, but he?s Mr. Baseball
Steinbrenner emerges as baseball's hero with A-Rod trade
COMMENTARY
By William Gildea
Updated: 11:45 p.m. ET Feb. 19, 2004A friend of mine walked through his office the other day and happened upon one of the greatest Yankees fans in the world.
"I guess you're feeling pretty smug now," he said.
"I'm not saying anything. I'm not saying anything," she replied, but with an irrepressible look of one celebrating an acquisition that, in certain quarters, already rivals that of Babe Ruth and even Manhattan itself.
The unspoken subject of this conversation, of course, was Alex Rodriguez and the Yankees' deal to bring him to New York, baseball's biggest news of this offseason and of many a year. Once more, the lordliest of franchises had struck, spending an unfathomable amount of money to obtain its player of choice, something the Yankees do regularly. But this time they topped even themselves because they added to their star-studded lineup, by general agreement, the brightest star of all, the best all-round player in baseball.
Water-cooler conversations about this deal, emotions generated by it, the head-shaking over it from boardrooms to the Bowery, the reverberations felt across all those American cities with baseball teams (and even places, like our city, without a team) would never have happened had it not been for one man and one man only, George Steinbrenner.
Steinbrenner is baseball's savior. With a scandal involving performance-enhancing drugs hovering over baseball and other sports, with no less than Barry Bonds's personal trainer indicted, to say nothing of baseball's overall disarray, the Yankees' principal owner has turned everyone's attention off the sport's problems and on to its players ? and, not incidentally, back to himself.
Was there any doubt during last weekend that the commissioner was going to sign off on this deal? If anything, there had to be a tip of the hat to Steinbrenner in Bud Selig's office. Where would the sport be if it weren't for Steinbrenner?
You might say better off, but I say be wary of holding that opinion. Without him, baseball would be hard pressed to get much attention at all. Almost anything of importance that happens in the sport connects in some way with Steinbrenner. Would the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry have turned so white-hot had it not been for him? Sure, it was great that upstart teams such as the Diamondbacks and Marlins recently won the World Series, but could those triumphs have been quite so satisfying if they weren't achieved at the expense of Steinbrenner? Didn't those Fall Classics have something to do with the classic squirming and pacing by The Boss of the big-market teams?
The Angels beat San Francisco in the 2002 World Series, but it's just as memorable how they got there: by surprising Steinbrenner's Yankees to win the pennant.
MLB The $100 million club
Baseball contract packages worth $100 million or more
Player-Club Years Total Age HR RBI Avg
Alex Rodriguez, NYY 2001-10 $252 28 47 118 .298
Derek Jeter, NYY 2001-10 $189 29 10 52 .324
Manny Ramirez, Bos 2001-08 $160 31 37 104 .325
Todd Helton, Col 2003-11 $141.5 30 33 117 .358
Jason Giambi, NYY 2002-08 $120 33 41 107 .250
Ken Griffey Jr., Cin 2000-08 $116.5 34 13 26 .247
Albert Pujols, StL 2004-10 $100 24 43 124 .359
Pitchers
Player, Club Years Total Age W L ERA
Mike Hampton, Atl 2001-08 $121 31 14 8 3.84
Kevin Brown, NYY 1999-05 $105 39 14 9 2.39
As in most sports, baseball has always needed good guys and bad guys ? and no one in any sport, maybe in the history of any sport, fills both roles as dynamically as Steinbrenner.
He is the essence of New York itself. He is the action. New Yorkers are not easily fazed, but he amazes them, and those of them who favor the pinstripes over the Mets love him.
Others, not so, even though he plays within the rules. Larry Lucchino, the Red Sox' chief executive, stands prominent in his frustration. In calling Steinbrenner and the Yankees "the Evil Empire" and actually seeming to mean it, Lucchino suffered a total loss of composure. And that occurred well before this deal for A-Rod that is all the more outrageous because Lucchino and the Red Sox could have made it themselves in December. Talk about one-upmanship, Steinbrenner beating Lucchino, et al, at their own offseason game. No telling what Lucchino said this time, though not for publication. It's what comes of being a highly competitive guy who happens to be closely engaged with Steinbrenner and the Yankees.
To his credit, Steinbrenner has people talking baseball in the dead of winter as if the Hot Stove League were still part of the American culture. To his further credit, Steinbrenner has enabled us to spring ahead in our thoughts to Opening Day in the midst of the most mind-numbing NHL and NBA seasons imaginable. The NHL is playing, to virtually no TV audience, as if it is about to close up shop, which it might. The NBA tries to pass off as entertainment a soporific product resulting from an overabundance of players lacking any familiarity with the game's fundamentals, a dreary landscape beneath the Kobe cloud under which its season unfolds.
Perhaps what is most amazing about Steinbrenner is how huge a figure he has become from when he first took over the Yankees, principally because he is smart enough, and then some, to have learned from early mistakes. Operating in the preeminent city with America's preeminent team, he has become bigger than the game's biggest stars, so many of whom he has so restlessly collected. Bigger than Reggie. Bigger than Winfield. Bigger than Giambi. Bigger than Clemens. And, yes, bigger than A-Rod.
You can say he bought his championships. You can find him brash and overbearing. You can want him gone in the name of team parity (although could anyone want to chip away at his power on behalf of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays?). He's been beaten plenty recently, no differently than the "Empire" in its early days when the teams of Ruth and Gehrig were beaten for the pennant three years in a row by Connie Mack's far less affluent Philadelphia A's. Lucchino and Red Sox Nation as a whole should bear that in mind with a certain hope, as long as they realize they're dealing with baseball's new-age Babe Ruth, the modern Sultan of Swat
washingtonpost.com Highlights
Call him what you wish, but he?s Mr. Baseball
Steinbrenner emerges as baseball's hero with A-Rod trade
COMMENTARY
By William Gildea
Updated: 11:45 p.m. ET Feb. 19, 2004A friend of mine walked through his office the other day and happened upon one of the greatest Yankees fans in the world.
"I guess you're feeling pretty smug now," he said.
"I'm not saying anything. I'm not saying anything," she replied, but with an irrepressible look of one celebrating an acquisition that, in certain quarters, already rivals that of Babe Ruth and even Manhattan itself.
The unspoken subject of this conversation, of course, was Alex Rodriguez and the Yankees' deal to bring him to New York, baseball's biggest news of this offseason and of many a year. Once more, the lordliest of franchises had struck, spending an unfathomable amount of money to obtain its player of choice, something the Yankees do regularly. But this time they topped even themselves because they added to their star-studded lineup, by general agreement, the brightest star of all, the best all-round player in baseball.
Water-cooler conversations about this deal, emotions generated by it, the head-shaking over it from boardrooms to the Bowery, the reverberations felt across all those American cities with baseball teams (and even places, like our city, without a team) would never have happened had it not been for one man and one man only, George Steinbrenner.
Steinbrenner is baseball's savior. With a scandal involving performance-enhancing drugs hovering over baseball and other sports, with no less than Barry Bonds's personal trainer indicted, to say nothing of baseball's overall disarray, the Yankees' principal owner has turned everyone's attention off the sport's problems and on to its players ? and, not incidentally, back to himself.
Was there any doubt during last weekend that the commissioner was going to sign off on this deal? If anything, there had to be a tip of the hat to Steinbrenner in Bud Selig's office. Where would the sport be if it weren't for Steinbrenner?
You might say better off, but I say be wary of holding that opinion. Without him, baseball would be hard pressed to get much attention at all. Almost anything of importance that happens in the sport connects in some way with Steinbrenner. Would the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry have turned so white-hot had it not been for him? Sure, it was great that upstart teams such as the Diamondbacks and Marlins recently won the World Series, but could those triumphs have been quite so satisfying if they weren't achieved at the expense of Steinbrenner? Didn't those Fall Classics have something to do with the classic squirming and pacing by The Boss of the big-market teams?
The Angels beat San Francisco in the 2002 World Series, but it's just as memorable how they got there: by surprising Steinbrenner's Yankees to win the pennant.
MLB The $100 million club
Baseball contract packages worth $100 million or more
Player-Club Years Total Age HR RBI Avg
Alex Rodriguez, NYY 2001-10 $252 28 47 118 .298
Derek Jeter, NYY 2001-10 $189 29 10 52 .324
Manny Ramirez, Bos 2001-08 $160 31 37 104 .325
Todd Helton, Col 2003-11 $141.5 30 33 117 .358
Jason Giambi, NYY 2002-08 $120 33 41 107 .250
Ken Griffey Jr., Cin 2000-08 $116.5 34 13 26 .247
Albert Pujols, StL 2004-10 $100 24 43 124 .359
Pitchers
Player, Club Years Total Age W L ERA
Mike Hampton, Atl 2001-08 $121 31 14 8 3.84
Kevin Brown, NYY 1999-05 $105 39 14 9 2.39
As in most sports, baseball has always needed good guys and bad guys ? and no one in any sport, maybe in the history of any sport, fills both roles as dynamically as Steinbrenner.
He is the essence of New York itself. He is the action. New Yorkers are not easily fazed, but he amazes them, and those of them who favor the pinstripes over the Mets love him.
Others, not so, even though he plays within the rules. Larry Lucchino, the Red Sox' chief executive, stands prominent in his frustration. In calling Steinbrenner and the Yankees "the Evil Empire" and actually seeming to mean it, Lucchino suffered a total loss of composure. And that occurred well before this deal for A-Rod that is all the more outrageous because Lucchino and the Red Sox could have made it themselves in December. Talk about one-upmanship, Steinbrenner beating Lucchino, et al, at their own offseason game. No telling what Lucchino said this time, though not for publication. It's what comes of being a highly competitive guy who happens to be closely engaged with Steinbrenner and the Yankees.
To his credit, Steinbrenner has people talking baseball in the dead of winter as if the Hot Stove League were still part of the American culture. To his further credit, Steinbrenner has enabled us to spring ahead in our thoughts to Opening Day in the midst of the most mind-numbing NHL and NBA seasons imaginable. The NHL is playing, to virtually no TV audience, as if it is about to close up shop, which it might. The NBA tries to pass off as entertainment a soporific product resulting from an overabundance of players lacking any familiarity with the game's fundamentals, a dreary landscape beneath the Kobe cloud under which its season unfolds.
Perhaps what is most amazing about Steinbrenner is how huge a figure he has become from when he first took over the Yankees, principally because he is smart enough, and then some, to have learned from early mistakes. Operating in the preeminent city with America's preeminent team, he has become bigger than the game's biggest stars, so many of whom he has so restlessly collected. Bigger than Reggie. Bigger than Winfield. Bigger than Giambi. Bigger than Clemens. And, yes, bigger than A-Rod.
You can say he bought his championships. You can find him brash and overbearing. You can want him gone in the name of team parity (although could anyone want to chip away at his power on behalf of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays?). He's been beaten plenty recently, no differently than the "Empire" in its early days when the teams of Ruth and Gehrig were beaten for the pennant three years in a row by Connie Mack's far less affluent Philadelphia A's. Lucchino and Red Sox Nation as a whole should bear that in mind with a certain hope, as long as they realize they're dealing with baseball's new-age Babe Ruth, the modern Sultan of Swat
