Why is Steinbrenner villified?

The things that you said are definatly the things that make him a great owner. The problem with George is that he has done some pretty scummy things in the past, I do not know if you remember Dave Winfield ( He called him MR May in The NY Post. " I used to have Mr October (Reggie Jackson) and now I have Mr May(Dave Winfield") Winfield is a hall of Famer and was a class act. Well he had a guy named Howie Speera (about ten years ago) on his payroll follow Winfield and blackmail him. He got suspended for that. He was gave illegal political contributions to Richard Nixon back on 1970 and was convicted and suspeded for a year.

He has definatly mellowed with age. I have read a lot of books about the Yankees and he really tortured his managers, He would call them in the middle of games to critcize them and scream at them , apparently there is a red phone that is his personal line to the dug out that makes the managers want to scream when it rings at leats once a game , even when thety are winning 11-1 or something like that. He was constantly firing managers and General Managers before Torre took over. Call them at 3 am and wake them out of dead sleeps to yell at them. He is famous for using the NY newspapers to blast his Players and Coaches , and when i say blast them it is no holds barred . He will say the most hurtful things he can think of. That is why the NY writers love him because he is always good for a quote. There is no doubt he would be better off maybe keeping things in house rather then publically embarrising them and letting the whole world know about every mistake.

When a classy and great pitching Coach like Mel Stottlemeyer leaves and says the guy is complete scum in his last interview before quitting and Mel is battling cancer at the time, it makes you wonder. Don Zimmer who was a career baseball man also, who blasted George on the way out the door before taking a job with Pinella in TB at the time, Zimmer quit also deciding that peace of mind was worth more then winning and getting treated like crud. Both guys quit, they were not fired Stottlemeyer besides the cancer thing was and is one of the great pitching minds of our era. He did not need nor deserve the public blastings.

The interesting thing about George is that after he fires someone for no reason he gets feelings of remorse at some point down the road and will usuallly do somrthing nicr for the person to try and make ammends, evern sometimes rehire the guy even a lunatic like Billie Martin.

George likes his cocktails and there has been some whispering that he had and has a drinking problem and has some of his tantrums are caused in part by being in druken stupers. It is documented fact that he wpuld and will go get a shot of B12 in his *** the day after a hard night on the town from the trainers to deal with the hangover as soon as he showed up to work. The Trainers had to make sure they arrived early for George or all heck would break lose.

There is also a lot of jealousy from other owners because the Yankees are so darn wealthy , I am sure you are aware that a lot f the other owners in Baseball blame him personally for making the pay scale getting out of control and when he wants a palyer( no matter what team he was on, see Johnny Damon, Wade Boggs. Roger Clemons) really wants him he will totally outbid and do anything that has to be done to get the guy he wants. That has created a lot of anomisty from his owner peers. He also would line up on the side of the players during the Player Strikes or at the very least be one of the first owners to cave in which really made the small market teams owners angry with him. Bud Selig hated him and may still before he became baseball commisioner.

George is a guy who does a lot for the comminity and charties without people aware that he is doing so. The real knock on him is that when he thinks you(as a player) are not a winner he will not just trade you , he will kill yo u in the papers first though and turn the Yankee fans afainst you then ship you (the player , to the worst team possible , the last team that the player wanted to go to.

As I said earlier he has really mellowed out the last ten tears and I think Torre had a lot to do with that, Torre is such a class act some of that has rubbed off on George.

Being A tankee fan I am glad he is the owner , he will spend whatever it takes to make his team better. He did not even bat an eye last year when he added Bobby Abreu and his 16 million dollars a year. He has the biggest payroll alomost every year and has no problem paying the luxury tax if he thinks a guy even with a huge salary to the payroll , Abreu is a perfect for for that team. He takes a ton of pitches and has power to right firld and can steal a base and most importantantly to a guy like Abreu he can just be one of the guys, he does not have to be the team leader He gave the Phillies nothing as far as talent goes , the only thing the Phillies cared about was the salary not George , he just wants to win.

You all already are hearing rumors that you believe they are true because they keep making the rounds that George is going to sign Mark Texicara of the Rangers to play 1b next year and keep Giambi as DH. You know Tex will rock as a yankee with that short right firld porch and him being anither guy who is patint at the plate.

He has toatlly restocked the minors especially the pitching staff, Baseball America rates the Yankee farm system as the nimber one ststem is basball. He got 3 stud pitchers for Sheffield who did not want to leave because the Yankeees traet their players like kings. He also got a couple of youg studs for Johson who did not belong in NY , he was not a NY type of guy

Sterinbrenner also spends the most money in basball on scouting , Latin American he has guts in the payroll all over the plave and the Japanese players all want to play for the Yankees because of Matsui and how he is treated. It is documenued tha the pitcher the Red Sox got ( Matauzki?), the Gyro ball guy wanted to be a yamkee , and he would have been one if it was just a free ageny situation and not a bidding war with the Japanese club also, he still finished second Boston who went way over the top, If the Red Sox had lost out in that one also after the Damon thing the fans would have burned down Fenway. I could go on and on, but I do not want to bore you, but you put it perfectly , the guy wants to win, the fans matter to him and he cross the line in order to do so, but that is what is most important to him.

He is a Brilliant buisness man his ship building company is making a fortune, he came up with the idea for the YES channel which has made him a fortune also.

I am glad to have an owner that will spend his money rather then save it . The fact is that his spending money to make money way if doing buisness has been a toatal success. I am not sure what the Yankees are worth now, but they have to be the most valuble franchise in all of proffesional sports including Football teams and European Siccer teams.

Yes I wish he did not have his temper tantrums and act like a 3 year old at times and I wish he would step back and coint to 10 before he rips someone, but he is an equal oppirtunity SOB, It does not matter to him , race , religoim or any of that stuff he has no prejudices which I akso think is a goof trait. Fundamentally he is a good man who makes mistakes sometimes out if anger, but I love going to watch them play , he puts an unreal offense on the field it is like am all star team . When they are all healthy Canoe bats 9th and Canoe hit 340 last year. You go into every seasom thinking that they can win the World Series. I know it has been a few years since they have won it all , but it goes in cycles they could win the next 4 in a row, I do not think that would surprise anyone . That as a fan the chance of winning a title every year is exciting . That is what you get with this owner . There is no one else I woild rather have head own my team even with all the bad things he does and has done .

He is villified, because he has the resources that the small market teams don't have. There is not equality in baseball, and MLB is hurt by it. The NFL does a great job through revenue sharing and salary caps in creating parity, which makes for more competitive games. The Yankees can buy a team, and that seems unfair. That said, whenever Steinbrenner starts buying all of these players, that's when they stop winning World Series. Interesting phenomenon. But building a team is more than getting a group of talented players together and sending them on the field.

The Boss is vilified because he wants to win so much. He will spend whatever he thinks it will take to get the talent on his team to win. He has had a reputation for being a very stubborn owner, with his rules on hair length and facial hair, to his having his nose in all aspects of Yankee business. Generally people don't like to have someone that shows them up by not really trying to make a profit with the Yanks, as much as just trying to win. Teams like KC or the Pirates tend to say "we aren't selling enough tickets, so we don't have the money to get big name players." But if you get the players, and put a good team on the field, people will show up. In the early 90's when the Pirates were good, people were there all the time. So market size really doesn't mean that much. It's just the majority of owners aren't willing to have a few years in the red to potentially turn their teams around.

Steinbrenner has ruined baseball for the sake of spending! Why would smaller market teams relish steinbrenner as they can't get the players he can!

He is really only vilified by small market teams who can't afford to pay their players high salaries, them and the Red Sox fan who think that they pay too much for players (yet the Red Sox have the 2nd highest payroll) and on a side note except for A-rod the Yankees don't have the highest paid player and any position.

But you see the problem with spending so much to win comes with a draw back, ticket prices. While the games still tend to pack the house, the prices are outrageous. Where the smaller market teams prices are still reasonable.

MANY PEOPLE ARE JEALOUS BECAUSE HE ALWAYS TRIES TO WIN. THE FANS OF THE SMALL MARKET TEAMS BLAME HIM FOR THEIR TEAMS FAILURES. THE

OWNERS OF THESE TEAMS POCKET THEIR REVENUE SHARING OR SPEND IT POORLY.MAYBE INSTEAD OF A SALARY CAP THERE SHOULD BE A SALARY FLOOR. NO TEAM SHOULD HAVE A PAYROLL UNDER A CERTAIN AMOUNT. MANY PEOPLE ALSO REMEMBER WHEN HE WOULD FIRE MANAGERS AT THE DROP OF A HAT ONLY TO LATER REHIRE THEM. BILLY MARTIN MANAGED THE YANKEES FIVE DIFFERENT TIMES. LOU PINNELLA TWICE. MANY TIMES HE HARSHLY CRITICIZED HIS STARS SUCH AS WINFIELD, MATTINGLY

& OTHERS.