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Appreciating a dedicated owner

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While Yankee blogs were all atwitter this weekend discussing the Steinbrenner brothers article in this quarter’s edition of The Times’ Play magazine, a different story with New York parallels caught my eye.

Joe Nocera, one of the paper’s top business columnists, explores the idea of the Bad Owner. Using two basketball owners — our Knicks’ own James Dolan and the Los Angeles Clippers owners Donald Sterling — as examples, Nocera explores how sports franchise owners get rich without really trying. Outside of real estate, he says, it really is the easiest way to free money.

“To own a franchise in any of the three major sports — football, baseball or basketball — is to enter a club in which it is nearly impossible to come away a financial loser,” he writes.

Nocera’s premise is a sound one: Each sports league has a limited number of franchises and significant barriers to entry. Namely, an interested buyer or group of investors has to come up with a lot of money and find a franchise owner who wants to cash out. Meanwhile, league officials — whether David Stern is behind the helm or Bud Selig is steering the ship — are always trying to improve the league’s image, and teams will rise to the top.

More important to a team’s bottom line than even success is geography and media market. “Certainly a good owner can do things that add value to a franchise. But far more important is whether the team is in a big media market and plays in a stadium with modern, high-priced luxury boxes,” Nocera writes.

Sterling bought the Clippers for $13.5 million in 1984. The team has been terrible since then, and now Nocera figures Sterling could command in excess of $400 million. In New York, the value of the Knicks continues to increase, and as the team struggles and more potential investors make noises about buying the team, the value of the franchise will climb even further. They don’t win on the court, but they win where it counts for the Dolans.

Baseball, of course, has its fair share of bad owners. Some — Peter Angelos comes to mind — seemingly want to win but are too meddlesome; others — Nocera cites Carl Pohlad of the Twins — don’t care to spend an iota of their own copious amounts of money to churn a better product on the field. Yet, when Carl Pohlad or his heirs decide to sell the Twins, they will more than recoup their initial $36 million investment in the team. Why bother working to win if simply owning the team is an obscene money-maker?

Enter the Steinbrenners. As Jonathan Mahler’s article notes, the Yankees have indeed been an obscene money-making venture just like any sports franchise. King George bought the team in 1973 for a pittance: approximately $10 million. Now, the team is valued at around $1 billion with a $300 million cable franchise a part of its global entertainment network. With a new stadium with those high-priced luxury suites in the world’s biggest media market, the Yankees are a money-printing machine.

As tough as it is to embrace the Steinbrenners, then, as tough as it is to overlook George’s shortcomings and his blatantly illegal activities, it’s tough to ignore the impact the family has had on the team. The Steinbrenners have a burning desire to win; mostly, as Mahler intimates, it stems from some tough love issues the men in the family seem to have with their respective fathers.

No matter though; the fans benefit from the owners’ desire to win. The Yanks would still be a very profitable franchise if the team was merely okay. The team would still be worth nearly $1 billion if they won every few years instead of every year.

In a way though, the Yankees are in a unique position in the game. Because they are so successful both on the field and on paper, because they have owners who are willing to invest and spend to win, they have emerged as the leader in baseball. For better or worse, the Yankees, through their revenue sharing contributions, are funding their opponents. They set the bar for player salaries; they set the bar for coaching salaries; they, much to the dismay of everyone else in the game, can set the agenda.

But as I look south from Yankee Stadium to Madison Square Garden and watch the 18-42 Knicks slump away another season, I wouldn’t want it any other way in the Bronx.

George Steinbrenner’s Bronx legacy

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As the Boss’ control of the Yankees has passed on to younger generations of Steinbrenner children, Yankee fans are grappling with an interesting question: How will Yankee fans remember George Steinbrenner?

When I, on Monday, wrote about George’s buying the Yankees, I got the sense that the older Yankee fans have long passed judgment on George. He was a two-faced liar who would backstab fellow front office employees and his dugout and on-field personnel. He would do whatever it took to win and eventually wound up in trouble with the baseball law. In fact, I was at the game on July 30, 1990 when George was suspended, and the Yankee fans sitting around me applauded.

But a funny thing happened on the way to 2008. New Yorkers started adopting King George’s maniacal bend on winning, and the Yankees on the field became victorious once more. Following Steinbrenner’s reinstatement in 1993, the Yankees entered a period of prosperity largely unmatched in franchise history. They’ve finished first or second every season since 1993 and have won four World Series titles and six AL championships since then.

In the eyes of the public, George became a hero. He had the money to spend to build a winning team, and unlike owners in Baltimore or Minnesota, he was more than willing to spend it. The crowds – many of them fans who had never known the losing ways of the Yankees in 1980s and 1990s, let alone the Bronx Zoo years in the 1970s – flocked to Yankee Stadium and grew to love George Steinbrenner. He was the benevolent dictator occasionally good for a quote but growing noticeably older.

Now, movements are afoot to cement the Boss’ legacy in Yankeeland. Owner for 35 years, Steinbrenner’s name is synonymous with Yankee baseball for better or worse, and the team and its fans are coming to grips with that. On the official side, the Yankees renamed Legends Field in honor of George. From now on, Spring Training happens at George M. Steinbrenner Field.

Meanwhile, the writers at the Yankee GM Blog have started a petition for George M. Steinbrenner Day. They want to see the Boss honored at Yankee Stadium before it’s too late.

All of this prehumous celebration of Steinbrenner has my mind rolling around his legacy. We can’t avoid honoring Steinbrenner, and he deserves it. But at the same time, we can’t forget the guy who would insult his business partners and fire his employees on a whim, who would flout campaign finance laws, who would hire private investigators to dig up dirt on his own players. His is a tortured legacy and one that does not fit neatly on the plaque Steinbrenner will probably get in Monument Park.

When George bought the Yanks for $10 million

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Talk about a good investment.

Thirty-five years ago, George Steinbrenner and a group of businessmen bought the then-struggling New York Yankees. They paid a pittance to CBS for the team. Each investor had to shell out $833,000 to own a piece of the Yankees.

Today, of course, no one’s buying anything from the Yanks for a mere $10 million. The team is building a $1.3-billion stadium, and with a successful team and TV station, the entire franchise operation is valued somewhere around $1 billion.

For the Yanks and Steinbrenner, it’s been a tumultuous 35 years that seems to be coming to a close. While George isn’t planning on selling the team, due to his advancing age and seemingly declining health, the men behind the scenes are now Hal and Hank, his songs who were just 4 and 15 respectively when he bought the team. The thirty-five year run is marked by intense micromanaging, scandals and an eventual return to greatness in the 1990s that has carried through to today’s team in one way or another.

But going into the 1973 season, with a new and complicated ownership group in place, no one in New York really knew what to expect. No one would guess what the next 35 years would bring.

* * *

It starts with a quote from a largely unknown Cleveland shipping magnate in 1973.

It’s January 4, 1973, and CBS has mercifully sold the Yankees to a group of interested buyers. Under CBS, as Joseph Durso fo The Times detailed, the Yanks finished no higher than third and saw their attendance dip below one million in 1972 for the first time since World War II. The Mets, meanwhile, were the darlings of New York. They drew over 2 million fans, leading the league.

But the quote. Back to the quote. At the press conference introducing the new owners, George Steinbrenner, largely unknown in New York, took the stage. “We plan absentee ownership as far as running the Yankees is concerned. We’re not going to pretend we’re something we aren’t. I’ll stick to building ships,” he said.

Famous first words if I ever I heard any, and at the time no one had any reason to doubt Steinbrenner. Head of what was generally assumed to be the largest ownership syndicate in baseball, Steinbrenner was a Cleveland native and lifelong Yankee fan.

In fact, George had a man back in New York, and this man — Michael Burke — knew New York. Burke had been at the helm of the Yanks for a while. A nine-year veteran of CBS when they bought the team, Burke, a fan of the game, slid seamlessly into his new role and toiled for the better part of the 1960s under CBS’ inept leadership. When the opportunity arose to buy the team, Burke put together a group of investors, and everyone assumed he would be the public figurehead of the team.

And who wouldn’t believe Steinbrenner? Involved in the NBA, Broadway and his own company, George kept saying the same thing. “I won’t be active in the day-to-day operations of the club at all,” he told a young Murray Chass. “I can’t spread myself so thin. I’ve got enough headaches with my shipping company.”

Of course, we know how that story ended. Burke left the team presidency in April when Gabe Paul’s involvement deepened. And George, well, we know what happened to George. He never really stayed true to his word and did become heavily involved in the day-to-day operations of the club both on the field and off for the next three decades.

As Steinbrenner’s reign nears its ends, it is very hard to imagine the Yankees without George Steinbrenner. But for a fleeting minute in 1973, imagine if George Steinbrenner had stayed true to his word. New York just wouldn’t be the same.

Steinbrenner brothers take the helm

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The New York Post reports that Hal and Hank Steinbrenner are now in charge of baseball operations for the New York Yankees.

“There’s always been a succession – and that’s myself and my brother,” Hank told The Post in an exclusive interview.

He said he and Hal will have final say on baseball decisions as well as the running of the YES Network and the construction of the new Yankee Stadium.

“I’ll pay more attention to the baseball part. The stadium, that’s more Hal. But basically everything will be decided jointly.”

This move was foreshadowed late last week when Hank announced that Joba will start in 2008. The NY Post article quotes Hank as saying “That’s something I’ll insist on,” when referring to Joba and Phil starting 2008 in the rotation. I’m beginning to grow fond of Hank Steinbrenner.

“I tend to be more volatile than my brother,” Hank said. “Hal is calmer – and that will probably be a good influence.”

Behind the scenes, the boys have impressed.

“Both Hank and Hal are extraordinarily smart, extraordinarily articulate and, like their father, very genuine people,” said Levine. “And they like each other a lot. I think the Yankees are in very good hands.”

This is starting to sound good. True, this article is probably a PR pitch. But it’s nice to know that 1) we’ll have a fiery guy at the helm in Hank, and 2) he’ll have a counterbalance in Hal. I really do think that the brothers will work well with our front office tandem of Brian Cashman and Damon Oppenheimer.

The best news of all from this is that the Yankees won’t be sold. I know it was a longshot when it was mentioned earlier in the year, but at least we’ve put it to rest.

Yanks face end of an era, but which one?

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Everyone likes to point their fingers. (Photo from Newsday/Paul J. Bereswill)

When the dust finally settles in a few days, an era of Yankee baseball will end. How this drama plays out, though, will determine which era ends, and the end result could be something of a surprise.

In one corner, we have George Steinbrenner threatening the end of the Joe Torre Era. If you take the interview with Ian O’Connor at face value, Torre’s gone. The Yanks didn’t make it past the first round of the playoffs for the third year in a row, let alone win a World Series, and King George is not happy.

For now, the going school of belief seems to be that Steinbrenner’s threats were not idle and that Torre is gone. The Yankee skipper spoke of the team not as a “we” but as a “them” during the post-game press conference last night. Peter Abraham noted a few other indications concerning the imminent departure of Joe Torre, and Bill Madden at The Daily News speculates that the Tony La Russa-Dave Duncan team may be Bronx bound.

But what if? What if George Steinbrenner’s interview featured the words of an aging and nearly deposed dictator? What if Brian Cashman enlists the help of the heir-apparent Hal Steinbrenner to push for Torre’s return? What if the rumors of Tony La Russa’s arrival in the Bronx raises too many alarm bells among the Yankee decision-makers?

If the Torre faction within the Yankees can outlast those doubting him, another era will end in the Bronx. The Era of the Boss would officially be over. We know, thanks to Portfolio magazine, that george is not well these days. If Joe Torre keeps his job, Steinbrenner’s public words and Yankee clout are all but gone.

Right now, no one really knows what should happen. Joe Torre made a few bad managing mistakes this week that cost the Yankees at least game two and maybe game four. He has a history of mismanaging the bullpen, but he knows how to handle the Yankees. Furthermore, the players – such as free agents Mariano Rivera and Jorge Posada – love him. If he goes, they may go too.

So it becomes a showdown yet again between the Boss and the only man more powerful than the Boss in the eyes of the New York sports media. In a few days or hours or minutes, someone will win and an era will end. Whatever the outcome, it will affect the Yankees for years to come.

Steinbrenner: “They will turn this around quickly.”

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No one can say it better than the Boss:

“The season is still very young, but up to now the results are clearly not acceptable to me or to Yankee fans. However, Brian Cashman our general manager, Joe Torre our manager and our players all believe that they will turn this around quickly. I believe in them. I am here to support them in any way to help them accomplish this turnaround. It is time to put excuses and talk away. It is time to see if people are ready to step up and accept their responsibilities. It is time for all of them to show me and the fans what they are made of. Let’s get going. Let’s go out and win and bring a world championship back to New York. That’s what I want.”

Phil Hughes’s first major league win would be a nice start.

King: Torre’s job in jeopardy

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So it looks like seven losses in a row — four of them to the Red Sox — were enough to bring out the ire in George Steinbrenner. George King reports today in The Post that the Boss is considering replacing Torre. Over at ESPN, Buster Olney believes this report to be coming from the mouths of influential higher-ups in the Yankee organization. In other words, the Yanks better start winning of Torre wants to stick around much past April this year.