King George (the Last) (1930-2010)

I have to admit I'm of mixed minds on this one -- not his death, of course, which is tragic and apparently somewhat sudden, but rather his life, specifically his life in baseball.

Owner of the NY Yankees for approximately the same time period I've been a Boston Red Sox fan, George Steinbrenner embodied everything that was despicable about the Evil Empire -- too much money, unbridled spending, unadulterated arrogance and exaggerated tiresome legends of the gloried past and amped-up tradition. You would think the Yankees invented Major League Baseball and then invited the rest of the teams to join them just so they wouldn't be stuck playing intra-squad games all season. It was once said that New Englanders saw Steinbrenner as the Darth Vader of baseball. That was probably true, up until about 15 years ago, when he began his slow devolution into Dr. Doofenshmirtz.

But credit where credit is due -- he took a tarnished baseball franchise and bankrolled 7 more championships, restoring much of the glory and fielding a contender nearly every year. After his second suspension, he finally recognized his own limitations and began to hire quality baseball people around him, culminating in Joe Torre in 1996. He was a true capitalist, a patriot, and a humanitarian, who, by all reports, never turned away those in need. This included the Red Sox charity of choice, the Jimmy Fund. His team's run of four championships from 1996-2000 was compiled by a roster that was largely home-grown, an accomplishment that even the most jaded Yankee Hater had to grudgingly admire. 2009, of course, was a different story, with the Yankees stopping just short of acquiring entire team rosters to augment their own, but the core players from the late 90's remained.

Certainly his pomposity and arrogance got him into trouble more than once -- Yogi Berra comes to mind, not to mention Richard Nixon -- and his erratic dealings with Billy Martin (who was an absolutely dreadful manager) were downright comical. I also found it odd that the Yankees trotted him out as the marquee symbol of their franchise at the 2008 All-Star Game, when it's typically a legendary player that is given this honor.

Twenty years ago, the Yankees were at their nadir, finishing dead last in the old AL East under a managerial tandem of Bucky Dent and Stump Merrill. Their only whiff of contention came in their games against the Blue Jays and Red Sox. During one such contest the announcer -- a graduate of the University of Maine and an admitted Sox fan -- conceded that "baseball needs the Yankees." It's hard to disagree -- what fun is there in hating (of beating) a team that stinks? I could have done without the obscene spending spree that they've been on the past ten years or so, but having them in contention certainly makes the season more interesting.