Uncle George

I was a Yankee fan before George Steinbrenner bought them for ten million bucks. Go back to those times and consider that they couldn't get five thousand fans into the building. The Yankee Pride was gone. They were the freaking Pirates for crying out loud.

And yes, Steinbrenner went the free agent route to bring the team back to prominence, and for this he is vilified. But he did not pioneer free agency. Curt Flood and Andy Messersmith did that as players. Steinbrenner was just the first owner to take advantage.

And man, did he take advantage. He hit the gold bars with Catfish and Reggie. He struck out with a whole bunch of others - Tartabull, Jack Clark, even Giambi.

But he kept trying. He kept putting money into the product, and didn't really care who had a problem with it. He knew that he owned the team in New York City. The team that had Mantle, Ruth and Gehrig.

He wanted the Yankees to be relevant again, and he pulled out all stops. He once said that he could double his payroll, which was already double everyone elses, but that he just wanted to be fair.

I hated him for awhile there for how much he meddled. He wasn't a baseball man, and he drove Billy Martin to drink, drink and drink some more. He pulled a real bonehead move on Winfield, and was even criminally charged and banished a couple of times.

But he really, really, really wanted to win. And when he did, he cried because he was happy for New York.

Every year my brother and I would talk about what Uncle George would get us for Christmas. There was always something under the tree.

Steinbrenner once said that he appreciated the fact that Yankee fans have better days when the teams win. So, he wanted to win every day.

And I learned to find it refreshing. Yeah, the Yankees began to turn unbelievable profits for him. Sure, they aggravated everyone else in baseball.

But there's Yankee Pride again. There are millions of true Yankee haters. The sport really needs those haters, too.

It's all good for baseball. The sport is thriving. There were a ton of owners that complained about George, but they did it as they stuffed their pockets with cash - and never gave back. The Yankees are thriving. 7 titles in Steinbrenner's reign. What other team in sports can claim that in 35 years?

What brought a smile to my face today is that Uncle George went on the day of the All-Star Game.

He was always about making a grand show of it.

RIP Uncle George. Hopefully, Hal and Hank learned something about running a successful business.