George Steinbrenner's health is deteriorating, and that's unfortunate. Before he dies, some people would like to see the New York Yankees' owner inducted into the Hall of Fame.
That's unconscionable.
To get into the Hall of Fame, an executive better have done more than write zeroes on paychecks. Branch Rickey broke baseball's color line. Steinbrenner brought it back, making it green. He polarized the major leagues by creating the competitive imbalance that has turned the Yankees, Red Sox and Mets into the elite; the Angels, Dodgers and White Sox into annual contenders; and everyone else into underdogs. In 2006, the Yankees' $200 million payroll was more than twice as much as 25 of the other 29 teams.
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| George Steinbrenner in Cooperstown? That's a funny joke. (Getty Images) |
With Steinbrenner at the helm, salaries flew out of control. By 1981, Dave Winfield had become the game's first $2 million player.
A spoiled brat, Steinbrenner grew tired of his purchase and belittled Winfield (calling him "Mr. May") before denigrating him -- hiring a gambler named Howard Spira to search for off-field dirt. When baseball commissioner Fay Vincent discovered that, he banned Steinbrenner for life. That turned out to last just 2½ years, but it's instructive to note that when the lifetime ban was announced at Yankee Stadium on July 30, 1990, the crowd gave a standing ovation.
See, once upon a time Yankees fans loathed Steinbrenner as much as everyone else. This was the second time a commissioner had banned Steinbrenner. In 1974, Bowie Kuhn suspended him for two years -- later reduced to nine months -- after Steinbrenner was convicted of making illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon.
Steinbrenner was a bad guy and worse than that, he was bad for the game. In the first 23 years after he bought the team in 1973, Steinbrenner went through 21 managers. In 30 years, he had 10 general managers. Everyone was expendable because Steinbrenner had the biggest checkbook in the league.
Over the years, Yankees fans have rationalized Steinbrenner's irrational hirings and firings and spending sprees as an immense will to win. In truth, Steinbrenner has had only an ability to tap into New York City's immense revenue streams and spend money unavailable to anyone but the Mets and Red Sox -- who held out as long as they could. As recently as a decade ago, Boston was 12th in major league payroll and the Mets were 16th. That was 1997. By 1999, the Red Sox and Mets were fifth and sixth.
Today? The Yankees, Red Sox and Mets have been 1-2-3 in spending in two of the past three years. I don't blame the Red Sox or the Mets. I blame Steinbrenner. His teams have won more than anyone else's -- 10 pennants and six World Series titles since 1976 -- but they have done it inequitably, and in a way that has undermined the experiences in established baseball cities like Pittsburgh, Kansas City and Cincinnati.
To get into the Hall of Fame, an owner needs to have been innovative like Bill Veeck, who found new and creative ways to brings fans to the park. Steinbrenner has only found new (Hideki Irabu) and creative (Roger Clemens) ways to spend irrational amounts of money. His innovations have led to revenue sharing and the luxury tax, which his supporters say are positive legacies. Incredible. I couldn't possibly do justice to Wallace Matthews' column last week in Newsday pushing Steinbrenner for the Hall of Fame, so read this excerpt for yourself:
"And who has done more (than Steinbrenner) to help restore the competitive balance of the game than the man most often blamed, wrongheadedly, for destroying it?
"Steinbrenner's willingness to acquiesce to the revenue-sharing plan adopted as part of baseball's last collective bargaining agreement is the most important non-chemical change to hit the game in decades. In the past five years, the Yankees have thrown more than $200 million into the pot shared by the small- and middle-market teams. Almost singlehandedly, he has not only kept the Detroit Tigers, Milwaukee Brewers and Florida Marlins afloat, he has improved them. For the good of the game, he has helped teams knock off the Yankees."
