Post by Richie3Jack on Jul 13, 2010 10:02:46 GMT -5
The ‘Boss’ has passed away at the age of 80. I grew up a big Yankees fan since I was a child and one of my dreams in life was to be the starting pitcher for the New York Yankees and hearing Bob Sheppard call my name. Ironically, Mr. Sheppard just passed away as well.
My first MLB game I ever went to was a Yankees vs. Blue Jays game in Toronto’s old Exhibition Stadium as my family took a summer vacation to Toronto. This was the game that:
1) My favorite player at the time, Dave Winfield, hit a foul ball during batting practice and an usher grabbed the ball and handed it to me.
2) My favorite player at the time, Dave Winfield, wound up accidentally killing a seagull, which caused the entire stadium except for myself to chant ‘Winfield Sucks!’ and he was later arrested after the game (seagull is a legally protected bird in Canada).
I always get a kick out of other fans calling Yankees fans ‘bandwagon jumpers’ or people praising how great Steinbrenner was because it’s usually followed by me saying….err, yelling…’DID YOU WATCH THIS TEAM IN THE 80’S?’
Everything from the Billy Martin fiasco, to firing Yogi Berra, to the Bronx Burners, to the Ed Whitson signing to the Ken Phelps trade, to Steve freaking Balboni.
Eventually I had enough, particularly when Steinbrenner acted like a real scumbag towards my then favorite player, Dave Winfield, by hiring a low life name Howard Spira to dig up dirt on Big Dave, probably about as classy of a player the league has ever seen. So I told my friends that I would refuse to be a Yankees fan as long as ‘The Boss’ was, well…the boss.
I remember my friends chuckling at me and saying to the effect that he’s not going anywhere. But to all of our amazement, the league did the right thing and banned him from baseball.
And watching the Yankees became fun again. But eventually George came back and I wasn’t too thrilled about it. Particularly after he fired Buck Showalter and hired Joe Torre. But, George made the right move and watching the Yankees became even more fun. Not only because they were great, but they played truly great baseball. They could hit for average, hit for power, field, pitch, run the bases, etc. Just doing every facet of the game really well. And while the Yankees were known for their payroll, they should’ve been known more for their farm system during that time with guys like Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettite, Jorge Posada, and others leading the way.
Eventually, ‘The Boss’ grew on me. He usually made sound moves and allowed Brian Cashman to run things along with Joe Torre. When the team was slipping a bit or getting too cocky, he would say something out of leftfield, just to keep them on their toes. And he wasn’t afraid to take on the Red Sox higher ups, who are a bunch of hypocritical bullies. And I felt he did the right thing by passing the job of running the team over to his son, Hank, at the right time.
Not to forget, for all of the talk about how they ‘buy their players’, Steinbrenner is nowhere near being one of the richest owners in MLB. But he always did aggressively market the team and make a ton of money off of it.
Gotta say, I’ll miss you George and in the end, I am proud that you were the owner of my favorite baseball team.
3JACK
My first MLB game I ever went to was a Yankees vs. Blue Jays game in Toronto’s old Exhibition Stadium as my family took a summer vacation to Toronto. This was the game that:
1) My favorite player at the time, Dave Winfield, hit a foul ball during batting practice and an usher grabbed the ball and handed it to me.
2) My favorite player at the time, Dave Winfield, wound up accidentally killing a seagull, which caused the entire stadium except for myself to chant ‘Winfield Sucks!’ and he was later arrested after the game (seagull is a legally protected bird in Canada).
I always get a kick out of other fans calling Yankees fans ‘bandwagon jumpers’ or people praising how great Steinbrenner was because it’s usually followed by me saying….err, yelling…’DID YOU WATCH THIS TEAM IN THE 80’S?’
Everything from the Billy Martin fiasco, to firing Yogi Berra, to the Bronx Burners, to the Ed Whitson signing to the Ken Phelps trade, to Steve freaking Balboni.
Eventually I had enough, particularly when Steinbrenner acted like a real scumbag towards my then favorite player, Dave Winfield, by hiring a low life name Howard Spira to dig up dirt on Big Dave, probably about as classy of a player the league has ever seen. So I told my friends that I would refuse to be a Yankees fan as long as ‘The Boss’ was, well…the boss.
I remember my friends chuckling at me and saying to the effect that he’s not going anywhere. But to all of our amazement, the league did the right thing and banned him from baseball.
And watching the Yankees became fun again. But eventually George came back and I wasn’t too thrilled about it. Particularly after he fired Buck Showalter and hired Joe Torre. But, George made the right move and watching the Yankees became even more fun. Not only because they were great, but they played truly great baseball. They could hit for average, hit for power, field, pitch, run the bases, etc. Just doing every facet of the game really well. And while the Yankees were known for their payroll, they should’ve been known more for their farm system during that time with guys like Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettite, Jorge Posada, and others leading the way.
Eventually, ‘The Boss’ grew on me. He usually made sound moves and allowed Brian Cashman to run things along with Joe Torre. When the team was slipping a bit or getting too cocky, he would say something out of leftfield, just to keep them on their toes. And he wasn’t afraid to take on the Red Sox higher ups, who are a bunch of hypocritical bullies. And I felt he did the right thing by passing the job of running the team over to his son, Hank, at the right time.
Not to forget, for all of the talk about how they ‘buy their players’, Steinbrenner is nowhere near being one of the richest owners in MLB. But he always did aggressively market the team and make a ton of money off of it.
Gotta say, I’ll miss you George and in the end, I am proud that you were the owner of my favorite baseball team.
3JACK