Quote:
Originally Posted by Frank A
GREEDY that they have to have all the great players so they spend a fortune to get them. The problem is baseball lets them. I don't blame George, he had the money so he used it. But only to make more money. He was a great business man, but a stinker. He did great for the Yankees but did nothing for baseball.
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First of all, he was the owner of the NY Yankees, NOT the Commissioner of MLB. It was his fiduciary responsibility to improve the Yankees. It wasn't his job to "do" anything for baseball. (But, as I'll mention later, I disagree with that statement anyway. He was great for baseball.)
Secondly, he could have made much more money than he did by not spending it on players. Are you aware that the Yankees are one of the MLB teams that usually loses money in their annual P&L? He simply took the Revenue available to him (Tickets, Parking, Concessions, TV money, etc.) and plowed it back into HIS TEAM!
Thirdly, he didn't have to have all the "great players," but he did have a deep seated desire to win. Doing so involves spending money, and taking chances on the better players. Sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. But he never accepted complacency. He ate the bad contracts and moved on to the next one. The owners you should be pissed about (too many to list, but use Tom Hicks of Texas and the Wrigley Corp as examples) are the ones who don't care if they win. When the Marlins won the World Series in 2003, the Yankees paid about $11 million in Luxury Tax. Several million of that went to the Florida Marlins. What did they do with it? They flew ALL of their front office staff and families to NYC for the games, put them up in The Plaza, partied for days, won the World Series, went home, pleaded poverty, and broke up the team. They didn't re-sign a player. They didn't go get a free agent to help.
Lastly, and I don't understand people who don't get this one, since the revenue is there (estimated at over $600 million to the Yankees last year) If George doesn't give it to the players, who should it go to?
During Steinbrenner's time with the Yankees, they have been outstanding. And they have been awful. He never tolerated awful. Forcing them to be good again has been very good for baseball. The Red Sox got good in the last 10 years because they finally got an owner that really wanted to win. That rivalry is GREAT for baseball.