Watching Oliver Platt's striking portrayal of New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner in the ESPN miniseries "The Bronx is Burning" accentuates the relevancy of two recent columns to emanate from The Big Apple.
Phil Mushnick in the New York Post gave his colleagues in the media a kick in the pants for inferring that Steinbrenner had changed his stripes and was staying in the background for the time being while his Yankees were languishing under .500 and showing only faint signs of making a second-half run at the playoffs. Just watching Platt's blustery performance reminds us this is The Boss we're talking about — the man who in his 30-plus years running the Bombers has never been shy about using the press as a vehicle for demanding nothing short of championship-caliber excellence from his well-paid employees.
Mushnick implores his comrades to wake up and smell the hot dogs, after all if we haven't heard from Steinbrenner by now it's unlikely that we will. But Mushnick goes further, suggesting that Steinbrenner no longer runs the day-to-day operations of the team because he no longer has the capacity to do so.
Wrote Mushnick: "All reasonable signs indicate that his dementia — he'll be 77 the day after tomorrow (July 4) — is now so profound that he is being carefully hidden from public view, appearing only in occasional, circumspect quotes issued by his longtime personal public relations man, Howard Rubenstein. It's understandable. A delicate, respectful and sensitive approach has been taken. But what isn't understandable is the continued and perhaps conditioned take of media members who would have us think that Steinbrenner is laying low as a matter of changed philosophy, yet, pushed too far by this year's team, will muscle up and resurrect his former self. That won't happen if it can't happen."
The second column by James Brady in Forbes poses the question of whether it was appropriate for Mushnick to write what he did about Steinbrenner. No fan of The Boss, Brady conceded the news value of Mushnick's revelation but added, "I fully understand and in a way empathize with the family's desire to keep the old man's condition guarded."
Wrote Brady: "I'll bet Mushnick wrestled with the matter before deciding to go public with the (to most of us) dramatic news that the Steinbrenner we knew is gone and isn't coming back. Maybe his rationale wasn't just that a famous man's illness was news but that members of the media were being disingenuous with their references to Steinbrenner's change of philosophy or his having mellowed when they knew the guy was out of it and they were deluding their audience by writing nonsense."
From the Spud's perspective, it's time the Yankees address the issue head on and openly discuss Steinbrenner's condition. Ever since it was reported that he passed out at the funeral of football great Otto Graham in December 2003, there's been intense media speculation that Steinbrenner suffered a stroke. He's also been much less in the public eye since.
To level with the media about Steinbrenner's condition would in no way marginalize what the man has accomplished in the game. It would also put in better context who's running the show. It's no secret that Steinbrenner's sons Hank and Hal have become more involved in the operation, especially since his daughter Jennifer filed for divorce in March from team chairman Steve Swindal, Steinbrenner's handpicked successor.
Love him or loathe him, Steinbrenner took what was an $8.7 million investment in 1973 and transformed the Yankees into a $1.2 billion behemoth. He also restored pride to a franchise that was a laughing stock for the 10-year period from 1965 to 1975. What all this means to the financial well-being of Major League Baseball is obvious. What it means to the collective psyche of Yankee fans young and old is immeasurable.
Great aritcle. I enjoyed reading it. Nice job.
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Posted by: kasey loessberg | July 20, 2007 at 08:19 PM
Spud-ster!
I had missed this. Thanks for posting. Here's some hearty best wishes to The Boss, someone for whom true Yankees fans have always held a big measure of gratitude even during the most turbulent of times.
Posted by: CarlD | July 26, 2007 at 03:33 PM