Legacy of a Yankee Boss

George Steinbrenner, the longtime owner of the New York Yankees, died early Tuesday at the age of 80.  Later that day, Major League Baseball played its annual All Star Game in Anaheim, California with several  million dollars worth of talent on the field.

That's just one of the many legacies Steinbrenner left behind to the Yankees and to baseball itself.  Because he stocked his team with the best players he could find, and was willing to pay them for the privilege, other teams nearly went bankrupt trying to keep up.  Not all of them could point to a stadium where legends played, money flowing from such sources as their own TV network, and one of the most important cities in the world to convince players to come play for them.

Since Steinbrenner took the Yankees off CBS' hands in 1973, the team has won 11 American League pennants and seven World Series titles.  Great players from Catfish Hunter and Reggie Jackson to Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter have passed through here.

But there was a flip side.  Steinbrenner hired and fired so many managers, most notably Billy Martin several times, that it became a national joke.  And he found that his money didn't always buy championships.

Steinbrenner's money also bought him trouble when it came to illegal contributions to President Richard Nixon's 1972 re-election campaign, and to paying a gambler for disparaging information about a player.  Both times he was suspended by Major League Baseball.

But Steinbrenner was not above having a sense of humor about himself.  Witness the beer commercials he made with Martin, and as a recurring character on "Seinfeld" as George Costanza's boss (he was actually played by Larry David and filmed from behind).

Whatever you thought of George Steinbrenner, you have to give credit to him for making the Yankees consistent winners over the years, even if the ends justified the means to the detriment of baseball.  Now that legacy will be passed on to his sons as they try to create new legends in the House That Steinbrenner Built, which is across the street from what was the House That Babe Ruth Built--And Steinbrenner Rebuilt.