George Steinbrenner is dead

[BrySmalls]

God's baseball team must be building a new stadium up there in heaven. First the Yankees PA announcer, and now the Yankees Owner.

Rest In Peace, Mr. Steinbrenner.

[MDC]

Its probably from all those Calzones he had with George Costanza.

In all seriousness, pretty sad news

[DelayedPenalty]

Its probably from all those Calzones he had with George Costanza.

In all seriousness, pretty sad news

I give it a C+ on the sadness scale.

[MC Buffalo]

I think you'll find the majority of fans of the Royals, Pirates, Brewers, and the other Major League Development League teams are probably not shedding many tears at the passing of George.

Not to derail from Steinbrenner's passing anymore, but I hate this kind of ignorance. The plights of these woebegone franchises are just as much (if not more) due to their own spendthrift owners than they are any other cause. The teams you've listed here don't even belong in the same group together. Milwaukee's payroll this year is ~$81 million, more than the Rays, Reds, and Rangers. The Reds and Rangers are both division leaders, and the Rays are the second best team in the majors. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh's team payroll clocks in at a pitiful $35 million. To put that in perspective, the Penguins are dishing out and additional $21 million in team salary for the coming year. I don't care what city you're in- if the hockey team outspends the baseball team, it's your own fault. If the Pirates' owner would invest the insane amounts of luxury tax he has collected from Steinbrenner over the years into the team in addition to some of his own funds, that team would have no problem being competitive. Or, you know, sell the thing to Lemieux like Super Mario has inquired about.

Now, that said, I am fiercely pro-Steinbrenner. No other sports owner has ever been so strongly committed to winning. Like I have talked about in other threads (see: the airline one) I believe that the key to a successful business is making your customers happy. George did that better than anyone else. His steadfast refusal to field anything less than a championship-capable team every season has made the Yankees the most valuable baseball property in the world.

Someone can't have an opinion that differs without being "ignorant"? It's what I love about discussion boards, everyone is so quick to get nasty since it's an anonymous discussion rather than a face to fact dialogue....

Don't call someone else ignorant than quote incorrect info...

Yes the Brewers have been spending more the past few years and are around $80 million in payroll

But you're pretty low on the Pirates, their payroll is around $50 million

the Yankees payroll is OVER $200 million.

I don't even think Yankee fans wouldn't agree that this is an unfair advantage, as a Yankee fan they're cetainly happy this advantage is in their favor, but my goodness they must be able to recognize it.

Could the owners of these smaller markets have done something over the past 30 years to keep the playing field more level? of course, but it's not for the owners of these teams that I feel bad. It's the fans of these teams.

As far as the Rangers, Reds and Rays leading their divisions (or being close), this is one of those anomalies that happens every few years where a team has some really good young talent and they make a run (the Twins are usually good for a run like that every 9 years or so). We all know what will happen though, contracts will expire and the Big Market teams will end up snapping up this young talent pushing these teams back to the bottom of the barrel.

My intention was not to get into a back and forth dialogue I was just going to state my opinion, but I just hate when these boards get hijacked with posts that are personal and rude like people calling others ignorant. This board has too many intelligent, opinionated members who want to discuss and be heard to let meanspirited discussion become the norm. I meant no disrespect to the Steinbrenner family and all those who truly mourn his passing, nor do I think my original post should be taken that way. I just did not want to see the "Steinbrenner is a Genius" dialogue to just roll on without a different point of view being heard.

[TopCat]

I never liked him. I'm not sad that he died. But there are people sad about his death, so I feel bad for them.

[MDC]

Its probably from all those Calzones he had with George Costanza.

In all seriousness, pretty sad news

I give it a C+ on the sadness scale.

Personally, no, it isnt sad at all for me. But I find it very news for baseball, and all the yankees fans, bandwagoners included

[ElwoodCuse]

Not to derail from Steinbrenner's passing anymore, but I hate this kind of ignorance. The plights of these woebegone franchises are just as much (if not more) due to their own spendthrift owners than they are any other cause. The teams you've listed here don't even belong in the same group together. Milwaukee's payroll this year is ~$81 million, more than the Rays, Reds, and Rangers. The Reds and Rangers are both division leaders, and the Rays are the second best team in the majors. Meanwhile, Pittsburgh's team payroll clocks in at a pitiful $35 million. To put that in perspective, the Penguins are dishing out and additional $21 million in team salary for the coming year. I don't care what city you're in- if the hockey team outspends the baseball team, it's your own fault. If the Pirates' owner would invest the insane amounts of luxury tax he has collected from Steinbrenner over the years into the team in addition to some of his own funds, that team would have no problem being competitive. Or, you know, sell the thing to Lemieux like Super Mario has inquired about.

Do you know why the Penguins are able to spend that money? Because of the NHL's salary cap and revenue sharing. Before that was in place, they were just as screwed as the Pirates, maybe more since they didn't have the benefit of a top-notch stadium. They had to trade away Jaromir Jagr and others for nothing because they couldn't afford them.

"Just spend more money" is not a viable solution. Milwaukee spends twice as much as the Pirates, a fat (har!) lot of good that did them when CC Sabathia became a free agent. Those teams will never ever be able to compete financially with the Yankees and Red Sox and other big-market, big-money teams because you simply can't make enough money in Pittsburgh or Milwaukee or Kansas City to support a $150 million payroll.

[IceCap]

My first thought when I heard it this morning was, "You damn selfish bastard! You couldn't wait a day to die and have it all to yourself? NO!!!" So now it will be an All-Star Game that becomes a Steinbrenner love fest. I don't have a problem with him spending the money, and it's not his fault that teams such as KC, and Pittsburgh don't, but let's be honest here, he was the most selfish and insecure a-hole there ever was. It wasn't about the Yankees winning, it was about George owning the Yankees who won. Go to Hell George where you belong right next to Georgia Frontiere! You two bastards deserve each other's company! Stop kissing his ass as he doesn't deserve a love fest.

George Steinbrenner is nothing to me. I didn't know the man, and thus I'm not saddened by his death. Still, he was someone to someone else, and that's enough for me to have a little human decency regarding his passing. The man's "transgression" against you is in the realm of baseball. Gain some perspective.

You must be a rather sad person to gain pleasure from the death of someone else and the pain their loved ones are going through.

[oddball]

My first thought when I heard it this morning was, "You damn selfish bastard! You couldn't wait a day to die and have it all to yourself? NO!!!" So now it will be an All-Star Game that becomes a Steinbrenner love fest. I don't have a problem with him spending the money, and it's not his fault that teams such as KC, and Pittsburgh don't, but let's be honest here, he was the most selfish and insecure a-hole there ever was. It wasn't about the Yankees winning, it was about George owning the Yankees who won. Go to Hell George where you belong right next to Georgia Frontiere! You two bastards deserve each other's company! Stop kissing his ass as he doesn't deserve a love fest.

George Steinbrenner is nothing to me. I didn't know the man, and thus I'm not saddened by his death. Still, he was someone to someone else, and that's enough for me to have a little human decency regarding his passing. The man's "transgression" against you is in the realm of baseball. Gain some perspective.

You must be a rather sad person to gain pleasure from the death of someone else and the pain their loved ones are going through.

Where did I say that I gained pleasure from his death, please quote that. Because a man was mean, I should be happy about his life and the way he treated people poorly? George Steinbrenner by all accounts except those in his own family was a feared man, because he was just mean. He was a mean and cruel individual. I have nothing against what he did as a baseball owner, for that I applaud the man, but he only succeeded when he had managers who weren't afraid of him. He ran his team by fear. He treated his players and people within the organization like crap. There are many documented cases of it, too many to ignore. Want a recent one on how mean and selfish George was? Read Joe Torre's book. Research the crap he did to Dave Winfield. He was a mean and dispicable man. I'm not happy he's dead, I'm just telling the truth that he was a mean and dispicable person who was insecure. But please read through my original post and tell me where I wrote, "I'm happy he's dead" because I can't find it.

[The_Admiral]

Do you know why the Penguins are able to spend that money? Because of the NHL's salary cap and revenue sharing. Before that was in place, they were just as screwed as the Pirates, maybe more since they didn't have the benefit of a top-notch stadium. They had to trade away Jaromir Jagr and others for nothing because they couldn't afford them.

If I'm not mistaken, Howard Baldwin made some really dire mortgage-the-future moves that left the Penguins in a huge mess, which Lemieux's group had to clean up. They didn't wind up with Face-of-the-Franchise Rico Fata because Pittsburgh is an intrinsically weak hockey market or anything.

[JayJaxon]

The truth of the matter is that most of the people that had nothing but harsh words to say about him when he was alive now want to kiss his ass because he is no longer alive. I'm sorry but I'm not going to be fake. I didn't like the man and anything he stood for. I'm not going to pretend he was suddenly a great person because he is no longer in this World. He was a tyrant in every sense of the word and although I feel for his family and loved ones, it doesn't bother me that he is gone. I applaud oddball for having the sack to say what he really thinks instead of trying to be politically correct. His words were harsh and don't look good for the people that actually do care. But they are real. That is more than I can say for some people who blindly praise him now because he is gone.

[Jigga]

My first thought when I heard it this morning was, "You damn selfish bastard! You couldn't wait a day to die and have it all to yourself? NO!!!" So now it will be an All-Star Game that becomes a Steinbrenner love fest. I don't have a problem with him spending the money, and it's not his fault that teams such as KC, and Pittsburgh don't, but let's be honest here, he was the most selfish and insecure a-hole there ever was. It wasn't about the Yankees winning, it was about George owning the Yankees who won. Go to Hell George where you belong right next to Georgia Frontiere! You two bastards deserve each other's company! Stop kissing his ass as he doesn't deserve a love fest.

There is really something wrong with you.

[TFoA]

Eh, I didn't like the man, but I'm not gonna posthumously slam the dude. Idk, but that just seems a little bit too ridiculous. He was a baseball owner, not some evil world leader or anything.

I'm just gonna say what he was, at least to the public: A ruthless businessman that would've done anything and went to any measure that he could think of to make sure that his investment was successful...and he did a damn good job at it. The proof is in the pudding. Before he got to the Yankees, that franchise had a great past, but was floundering. He's left behind probably THE biggest professional sports franchise in North America. So, I give him props for that. Plus he was a board member of & a leading contributor to Grambling State University, a pretty prominent HBCU. That elicited a "Who knew?!" reaction from me. So yeah, RIP.

[Milo Meningocele]

I didn't like the man and anything he stood for.

You didn't like his extensive charitable contributions? I also agree that it's disingenuous after how widely reviled he was during his Yankee years, that he's now being talked about as the Greatest Man Who Ever Lived. Unfortunately, that happens when just about anyone dies, celebrity or not. But you gotta respect his generosity.

[rams80]

So...Viking funeral doubleheader at Old Yankee Stadium?

Yeah, I don't exactly care for the Yankees' spending during his ownership tenure, but I'm not going to get angry at him for doing what the rules of the game let him do.

[NJTank]

Patches the Yanks will wear the rest of the season.

[Cujo]

Which one are they slapping on the back of their hat? -- If not both?

[TopCat]

Ew. Two black bands would be better.

[The_Admiral]

How do you even legibly render that Sheppard patch?

Oddball was really sort of a dicksmack in this thread, by the way.

[oddball]

It's not my fault that you obviously forgot the truth. The fact of the matter that he would've treated you crap like he treated all of his employees, so stop with this love-fest. Oh, I'm sorry, he's dead so we now have to ignore the complete truth of what a truly mean person he is. Wow! Talk about revisionist history in one day!