'Larger than life' Yankees owner Steinbrenner dies

George M. Steinbrenner III came to New York and took over the Yankees in 1973, vowing to be an absentee owner. Instead, he became a larger-than-life presence who changed the sport, the city and the storied franchise he restored to glory and brought to new heights.

Steinbrenner died Tuesday at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa after suffering a massive heart attack at his home. He was 80, and had been saluted by his family and his ballclub on his birthday, July 4.

He leaves behind a team that won seven World Series and 11 American League pennants during his impassioned, stormy stewardship. The Yankees are far more profitable and popular than they ever were, especially more so than they were when his syndicate purchased the club from CBS in 1973 for $8.7 million. With a new Yankee Stadium and the YES Network, which was created under Steinbrenner's guidance, the most famous team in sports is said to be worth more than $1.5 billion.

Iconic status

Along the way, the former Cleveland shipbuilder known as The Boss became an American icon, wooing expensive free agents, firing managers, making bold statements to the newspapers, getting suspended from baseball twice, giving lavishly, yet secretly, to charities, hoisting the championship trophy, hosting "Saturday Night Live," appearing in self-deprecating commercials and allowing himself to be portrayed on "Seinfeld," among other shows.

Through the Yankees, his family released a statement that said, "He was an incredible and charitable man. First and foremost he was devoted to his entire family - his beloved wife, Joan; his sisters, Susan Norpell and Judy Kamm; his children, Hank, Jennifer, Jessica and Hal; and all of his grandchildren. He was a visionary and a giant in the world of sports. He took a great but struggling franchise and turned it into a champion again."

Although his health had declined in recent years, forcing him to cede day-to-day control of the Yankees to his sons, his impact still was felt by a club that maintained his high standard: Anything less than a world championship was considered a failed season. "Winning is the most important thing in my life,'' Steinbrenner said, "after breathing."

Joe Torre, whose 12-season run as manager was by far the longest under a principal owner who changed managers 20 times in his first 23 years, said, "I will always remember George Steinbrenner as a passionate man, a tough boss, a true visionary, great humanitarian and a dear friend. I will be forever grateful that he trusted me with his Yankees for 12 years."

To be sure, there were many facets to his life and personality. Steinbrenner was a hurdler, musician, assistant football coach in the Big Ten (Northwestern, Purdue), entrepreneur, racehorse owner and volunteer for many causes. But none of that challenged the high profile he attained from the way he ran the most famous organization in sports.

During his first news conference on Jan. 3, 1973, when the group that he headed announced that it had bought the Yankees from CBS, Steinbrenner said, "We plan absentee ownership as far as running the Yankees. We're not going to pretend we're something we aren't. I'll stick to building ships."

It was not long, however, before the Yankees were supporting his shipbuilding company rather than the other way around. With relentless drive that created angst and electricity, he brought relevance to the Yankees at a time when the old Yankee Stadium was dreary and mostly empty and the team usually was well out of contention. It also became clear that he followed the credo found on the plaque on his desk: "Lead, follow or get the hell out of the way."

He was far from hands off. As John McMullen, one of his limited partners, famously said in 1979 when he sold his Yankees stock, "I came to realize there is nothing in life quite so limited as being a limited partner of George."

Still, it all worked for the Yankees - whose traditions he cherished and expanded - their fans and the Steinbrenner family. Dave Winfield, the Hall of Fame outfielder with whom the principal owner feuded (to the point that Steinbrenner was suspended from baseball for giving money to gambler Howie Spira to get information on Winfield), told ESPN that Steinbrenner's legacy will be recalled this way: "One of the top owners in the history of sports. That's where they'll start, that's where they'll finish.''

Born on 4th of July

The Steinbrenner story began on July 4, 1930, in Rocky River, Ohio. He always embraced the symbolism of that birth date, wearing his patriotism as prominently as he later did a white turtleneck. Steinbrenner eventually served as vice president of the U.S. Olympic Committee and received the Douglas MacArthur USOC Foremost Award.

As a child, Steinbrenner grew up in Bay Village, near Cleveland, trying to please his perfectionist father, Henry, a champion hurdler at MIT. George, named for his grandfather, also ran hurdles at Culver (Indiana) Military Academy and Williams College in Massachusetts, but he was never the runner his father had been.

He served in the Air Force and studied for his master's at Ohio State, where he met his wife, Joan. Steinbrenner's two seasons as a college football coach were seen by supporters and critics as influential in his view of baseball years later. He was ordered back from sports into Kinsman Transit Marine, the family business, by his father in 1957. Ten years later, he was named president of the merged American Shipbuilding Company.

Disappointed when a deal for his syndicate to buy his beloved Cleveland Indians fell through, he jumped at the opportunity to buy the then-moribund Yankees. He demanded discipline, quickly raising eyebrows by writing down the numbers of players - he hadn't learned their names yet - whose hair he considered too long.

"I think I helped him with patience and he helped me with business," said one of those long-haired players, Gene Michael, who worked for the Yankees through almost all of Steinbrenner's 37 years - having experienced both hot seats of manager and general manager.

Steinbrenner jumped with both feet into free agency, signing Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, Winfield and many others. He expected his highly paid players to produce championships, and when they didn't - and sometimes when they did - the principal owner held the manager accountable. His contretemps with Billy Martin, hired and fired five times, were made more legendary when the two men appeared in a humorous beer commercial together.

Tough to work for

Many times, his demands and explanations seemed irrational at best. Team president and close friend Al Rosen couldn't believe it when The Boss yelled at him for losing a coin flip to determine the site of a possible one-game playoff with Boston in 1978. "Heads? How in the hell could you call heads?" he yelled, according to "Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball," the 2010 biography by Daily News baseball columnist Bill Madden.

He also was not averse to publicly criticizing the players. Steinbrenner is known for ridiculing Winfield as "Mr. May" (in comparison with Jackson's "Mr. October" label for coming through in the clutch), saying that young pitcher Ken Clay "spit the bit" and that Hideki Irabu looked like "a fat toad."

A PR director's nightmare

Life was difficult for the public relations directors who came and went during The Boss' heyday. Harvey Greene, who now holds a similar position with the Miami Dolphins, has said on more than one occasion, "The phone would ring in the middle of the night, and you knew it was either Mr. Steinbrenner or an illness in the family. After a while, you started to root for an illness in the family.''

Greene, like most of Steinbrenner's former employees, ultimately had a warm relationship with him. The Boss paid untold medical bills and funeral bills. He coordinated every detail of the tribute to Thurman Munson after the captain died in a plane crash in 1979.

"The thing that's remarkable to me is that it takes about 50 people to do the jobs he did because he was the ticket director, the marketing director, general manager, the third-base coach, the pitching coach, the hitting coach, too," Brian Cashman - who started as an intern and worked his way up to general manager - said recently. "He was hands-on in everything. He might have hired people to be in positions, but a lot of decisions were made or guided clearly by him.

"Who could take over a franchise as big as the Yankees and make it exponentially bigger? He did."