New York Yankees’ Owner George Steinbrenner Dies At 80
July 13, 2010- By Jonathan Lowell
A day before the 2010 MLB All Star Game, New York Yankees fans and baseball enthusiasts everywhere got the bad news that Yankees’ owner George Steinbrenner has died at the age of 80. Steinbrenner had just celebrated his 80th birthday on Independence Day, but was not in Anaheim for the All Star game.
Steinbrenner died in a Tampa, Florida hospital Tuesday morning after suffering a massive heart attack. The family released a statement shortly after multiple sources reported he was in the hospital.
“It is with profound sadness that the family of George M. Steinbrenner III announces his passing. He passed away this morning in Tampa, Fla., at age 80,” the Steinbrenner family said in a statement.
George was born in Rocky River, Ohio to Rita and Henry George Steinbrenner II. He was the only child of a world-class hurdler at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. His father was the owner of a lucrative shipping company that ran ore and grain back and forth on the Great Lakes.
The future Yankee boss attended Williams College in Massachusetts in 1952 where he was an average student with an active extracurricular life. Steinbrenner was himself an accomplished hurdler, and was a member of the Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity. He also played piano in the band, and played halfback on the football team his senior year.
Steinbrenner joined the United States Air Force after graduating from Williams, and was commissioned as a second-lieutenant. He was posted at Lockbourne Air Force Base in Columbus, Ohio, and enrolled at Ohio State University for his post-graduate work. He served under legendary head coach Woody Hayes as a graduate assistant for the Buckeyes.
He took over the family business in 1957, and turned it into the profitable American Shipbuilding Company. He acquired the Yankees for $10 million dollars in a deal with CBS in 1973. Steinbrenner became famous for the drama revolving around his ownership of the team.
In the first 23 years of ownership with the Yankees, Steinbrenner changed managers 20 times. The most famous of his feuds with his coaches was the Billy Martin saga. George fired Billy five times in the 1970s and 80′s.
Steinbrenner was also known for sparring with players. He instituted a grooming policy on the Yankees that does not allow players to wear any facial hair besides a mustache, or hair grown past the collar. Don Mattingly was benched at the request of Steinbrenner, causing a backlash from fans and media. Writers of The Simpsons television show even made fun of the incident in an episode.
The famous Yankee boss is known for his many innovations in baseball. He is the first owner to sell TV rights cable rights. The YES network is a cable television network dedicated to the Yankees. He grew his original investment of $10 million into the club, into a $1.2 billion sports powerhouse. The Yankees franchise is worth more than even the Dallas Cowboys owned by Jerry Jones.
MLB sportsbooks have set the Yankees as the favorites to win the 2010 World series at +300 odds.
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