On Tuesday November 9 the Baseball Hall of Fame announced twelve candidates for possible selection to the Hall by the Expansion Era Committee at its December meeting in Orlando, Florida. They include former players, managers, baseball executives, and George “the Boss” Steinbrenner, the recently deceased owner of the New York Yankees. To be selected, a candidate must be named on 75% of the ballots cast by the sixteen-member committee.
As soon as the announcement was made sportscasters at New York’s WFAN began championing Steinbrenner’s candidacy. Some consider Steinbrenner a pioneer of modern sports ownership because he started high spending for free agent players and was one of the early team owners to set up his own cable network. However Steinbrenner’s negatives far outweigh any supposed positives. He belongs in a Hall of Shame, not the Baseball Hall of Fame. Commissioner Bud Selig should bar him from the Hall for life for conduct detrimental to baseball.
Steinbrenner was a notoriously bombastic and abrasive employer who operated on the border or outside the law. He was a convicted felon who frequently embarrassed players, coaches, managers, baseball, and New York City. He felt he was entitled to his misbehavior because of his wealth. Under his “leadership” the team became known in the 1970s as the “Bronx Zoo.” Former Yankee player and manager Lou Piniella was quoted in 2004 as saying, “George is a great guy, unless you have to work for him.” Between 1973 and 1990, Steinbrenner switched rs switched managers 18 times and hired 13 general managers.....
The battle between George the Jerk and St. Steinbrenner continues.
ReplyDeleteIf being an asshole was enough to keep people out of the Hall, where would Ty Cobb be? And he's just one of many.
I'm not for George getting in, especially, but even the convicted felon bit, while technically true....hey, wait a minute....and when he was barred, that's when Stick and the guys actually were able to build the team into a winner.
Can George get in for being good--and an asshole--during the 70s and then sucking the rest of the way? Boy, that would open up Hall possibilities for so many players who had some good years and then never did again.
Gee, this is more complicated than I thought.
The Great Leader should have a bigger HoF plaque than Babe Ruth's.
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