I started Tuesday morning with a groan and a sigh; my boss had asked me to come into work an hour early. Sitting at Subways at 7:45 in the morning, I read the New York Times breaking news that George Steinbrenner had been hospitalized due to a massive heart attack. I issued a simple get well tweet and started my workday. A few minutes at my desk, I learned that George had passed on. I wasn't able to reflect much while at work but the dark cloud lurked at the back of my mind. I left work at 12:30 and slowly walked down Water Street as the skies got painted black. The dark gloom at the back of my mind mirrored the heavens and the rain came down, hard. As I was getting drenched by the second, I started to reflect on George Steinbrenner.
To me, George was and still is the only mortal bigger than baseball. A physically well-built man, George was also larger than life itself. He did things in ways that make you shake your head, wring your hands, let out an exasperated sigh, smile uncontrollably, and even curse his name. He was banned from baseball and was eventually reinstated because baseball was lost without him. He broke the barriers in owner-players relationship positively and also negatively. The most important characteristic of George Steinbrenner is that he enjoyed winning. He believed that if he didn't win, he had failed miserably. So when others talk about how unrealistic it is that the Yankees organization openly admits that a baseball season that didn't end with the Yankees hoisting a championship trophy was a wasted season, I think of George. He first held his subjects accountable for what they do, and today, we all hold everyone in the Yankees organization accountable every time we fail to win it all.
So as I trudged my way home, I thought back to how my morning began. I thought back to how much I wanted to disregard my boss's request that I come into work an hour earlier. Then I thought, with a smile, what would George think of me?
"We're all one family with the Steinbrenners. Not related by blood, but related by something more important: #Yankees Baseball." - @beeeebzy Twitter
"It appears Mr. Steinbrenner has arrived safely Upstairs. The thunder coming from the heavens NYC right now is deafening :)" - @BonnieB_ESPN Twitter
"Steinbrenner was extremes: infuriate and elate u in same chat. saw him cruel and saw him beautiful. changed sports, not just baseball." - @joelsherman1 Twitter
"There was no harder job in the 80s than being a Yankee beat writer, fearing Steinbrenner ever-shifting alliances between newspapers." - @bobklap Twitter
"George dominated my life, as a #Yankees reporter. When my wife called to say we were expecting, I was chasing him down a corridor in Tampa." - @kendavidoff Twitter
"RIP George Steinbrenner. Set the standard as an owner for doing whatever you have to do to win with no apologies. Unique man!!!" - @michaelstrahan Twitter
"If you do something good and more than one person knows about it, you didn't do it for the right reason." - George Steinbrenner
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