The Times Breaks the Silence
So someone has finally done it: written a piece about the worst-kept secret in sports journalism, George Steinbrenner's bizarre and somewhat sad retreat from public life.
If you follow the Yankees, you know that the 76-year-old owner, once omnipresent and involved in virtually every aspect of the Yankees' operations, hasn't been around much lately. When he goes to games, he is guarded by New York City police, who keep reporters at a distance. (Weird, huh?) The rest of the time, he is guarded by PR flacks and the executives who cash his checks.
When Steinbrenner does make public comments, they are monosyllabic: "A good win," that kind of thing. Not too long ago, he nearly fell walking down a short flight of stairs. And when he appeared yesterday at a ceremony to mark groundbreaking for the new Yankee Stadium, his remarks constituted fewer than 25 words, and he said—not once, but three times—that the stadium was being built for "you people."
Asked about a halting and awkward interview Steinbrenner gave on the Yankees YES network last year, team president Randy Levine said, “His performance was a question of subjective opinion. I can tell you that his interview on YES was one of the highest rated.”
Boy, is that an interesting quote.
And yet, until today, the New York media hasn't written a thing explicitly addressing the question of Steinbrenner's health. Why? It isn't out of sensitivity, as Paul Lo Duca will tell you. It's because reporters feared that if they wrote the piece, they'd suffer a backlash from the Yankees' press machine. That's why the two reporters bylined on the Times piece aren't the Times' regular Yankees beat writers; to try to cushion the inevitable pushback. But the piece is clearly informed by the observations of the beat writers....
Steinbrenner's new absence—and reticence—are surely a good thing for manager Joe Torre and general manager Brian Cashman; dealing with Steinbrenner has probably been the toughest part of their jobs. Both men are among the finest in baseball at what they do; both have come perilously close to leaving the Yankees because of Steinbrenner's role in the past.
And yet, there's something sad about Steinbrenner's current condition. It's hard, of course, to see any human being reduced to a fraction of his former capabilities. But Steinbrenner was, for better and worse, particularly engorged with life. He was rich, powerful, insecure, egomaniacal, obnoxious, generous, blustering, and caring; Steinbrenner was every adjective, and he was its opposite. This is not a simple man.
Now time is whittling away at him. He is reduced to a shell of his former self, at a relatively young age. He got all that he seemed to want: fame, admiration, attention...winning. Above all, winning. And yet one wonders, if Steinbrenner were to look back on his life, if he were ever truly happy.
And in the answer to that question, George Steinbrenner, slipping into the lonely winter of a life devoted to the boys of summer, might serve as a lesson for all the rest of us.
