No sympathy for Steinbrenner
06/04/2003
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"I squirm when I see athletes praying before a game. Don't they realize that if God took sports seriously he never would have created George Steinbrenner?"
~Mark Russell, writer
Yankees owner George Steinbrenner has never been a lip-biting kind of guy; if he's got something to say, you can be pretty confident that he's going to say it. About anything. About anybody. Derek Jeter, Joe Torre, Don Zimmer, Bud Selig, the Boston Red Sox, luxury taxes, salary caps, umpires, fans, whatever.
And now, The Boss is apparently locking in on MLB schedule makers.
Throwing his own little pity party, Steinbrenner earlier this week said that he's no longer in favor of interleague play because it allows for too many discrepancies in the scheduling. George worked himself into a lather over the two series that the Boston Red Sox are playing against the Pirates and Brewers this week, two of the National League's worst teams with a combined 46-65 record through Tuesday; meanwhile, Steinbrenner's Yankees match-up with the Reds and Cubs, who sport a combined record of 59-54.
"I don't think the schedule is fair," Steinbrenner recently told the New York Times. "Katy Feeney makes the schedule, and she has never been a favorite of mine or a favorite of the Yankees. We play Cincinnati, which is a fine, fine ball club; they're going to be in the middle of it. Then we play the Cubs. Now who is the other guy (Boston) playing? They're playing against Milwaukee. Now what's right about that? They're playing Pittsburgh and Milwaukee while we're playing Cincinnati and the Cubs. I think they got the best of that deal.
"Bud Selig told me personally that he was overseeing the schedule, and that he'll see to it that it's fine," Steinbrenner continued. "I used to be for [interleague play], but I'm not for it anymore."
Three words come to mind after reading those pathetic quotes: "Boo-freaking-hoo."
Give me a break. First, this guy spouts off about Derek Jeter's nocturnal habits, and then he gets on Joe Torre's case... again. He's been riding Japanese import Hideki Matsui's back recently for his lack of power and he made it clear that he wanted struggling starter Jeff Weaver to be replaced in the rotation by another one of his offseason acquisitions, Cuban star Jose Contreras.
And now he's got the stones to come out and complain about the supposedly unfair treatment his team receives from the schedule makers? What a joke.
Now, I'll be the first to admit that many of the changes that were made to the Collective Bargaining Agreement last summer were agreed upon with the Yankees in mind, but only because Steinbrenner's wallet funds the team and not simply because they're the legendary New York Yankees. For years, The Boss has been abusing the system by outspending every other team in the league by tens of millions of dollars and something had to be done to hopefully eliminate that problem.
But guess what -- even with this new structure in place, which was intended to curtail aggressive spending by the league in general and, quite honestly, the Yankees in particular, he's still abusing the system.
Did you honestly think a pesky luxury tax was going to scare George Steinbrenner? Take a look at the market his team plays in before you answer that question.
Still, financial issues aside, to suggest that the league is trying to somehow impede the Yankees by assigning them a tougher schedule than the Red Sox is ludicrous. Does Georgie Boy realize that the Cubs, six games above .500 this year, were 28 games under last season? Or that the Reds finished six games below breakeven in 2002?
But I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by these incredibly egotistical and paranoid allegations -- Steinbrenner has never been the most reasonable sports figure after all. In fact, I've scoured the Internet for more quotes from The Boss and you wouldn't believe what I've found. For the sake of space, I've limited the list below to 10 topics, but let's just say that I had plenty of material to choose from:
On Sammy Sosa's corked bat:
"Doesn't anybody else find it kind of odd that Major League Baseball decided to wait until interleague play started to reveal that Sosa's been corking his bat?" Steinbrenner said upon hearing the news Tuesday night. "I bet they've been sitting on that information for years and have been waiting for the perfect time to finally use it, which of course means they've waited for a situation that would screw the Yankees over the most. Sosa will face a suspension, a suspension that he's going to appeal, which will allow him to play this weekend when we go to Wrigley Field. Then, don't be surprised to see Sammy start serving that suspension when the Cubs play the Orioles and Blue Jays next week, two teams in our division. I'm sorry, but that's just a little too convenient for me."
On Roger Clemens failing twice to win #300:
"Hey, I already moved Weaver to the 'pen and I won't hesitate to do the same thing with Roger if he doesn't start to deliver," said an irritated Steinbrenner in Detroit following New York's marathon 17-inning win Sunday afternoon. "I mean, honestly, who can't beat the friggin' Tigers? I could get a better effort from Sterling Hitchcock, for crying out loud." The outspoken and often impatient owner then delivered another stern warning, saying, "And Giambi better start looking over his shoulder too. I'm not paying him all that money to hit .220."
On naming Derek Jeter the 11th team captain in team history:
"Yeah, DJ and I have had our differences in the past but, hey, I named Don Mattingly team captain in '91 and I couldn't stand that long-haired hippie," Steinbrenner explained. When asked if the shortstop had recently done anything to smooth over his relationship with Steinbrenner, the owner replied, "Well, I wasn't going to say anything but Derek finally agreed to let me tag along with him to his late-night parties. Man, you wouldn't believe the tail he gets at those things. DJ's the man!"
On Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati:
"Isn't it funny that the first year for the Great American Ballpark, one of the best hitters' stadiums in the league, is also the first time we've played in Cincinnati since 1976?" Steinbrenner quipped following the Yankees' ninth-inning loss to the Reds Tuesday night. "Clearly, baseball intends to inflate our team ERA by any means possible."
On the Red Sox trading for pitcher Byung-Hyun Kim:
"I have to wonder why none of my guys told me that Boston was trying to trade for him in the first place," Steinbrenner said, staring down a couple of his nearby assistants. "I would've given Joey Jr. (Diamondbacks general manager Joe Garagiola Jr.) a call just to up the asking price and piss off that punk Theo Espstein. He thinks the New York Yankees are the Evil Empire now -- wait until I cock-block all of his trades this summer." When asked how he felt Kim's acquisition would impact the AL East race, Steinbrenner said, "It's not going to affect the Yankees much. We knocked the snot out of BK a couple years ago in the Series and I'm sure we'll do it again."
On the outcome of the All Star game deciding home-field advantage for the World Series:
"Yet another plan devised by Selig and his henchmen to keep the Yankees down," claimed Steinbrenner. "Honestly, how many of my players do you think (Anaheim manager) Mike Scioscia is actually going to select for the All Star game? And then Bud will no doubt have the AL team throw the game just to ensure that we don't get home-field advantage for the Series. It's sad, really, that the league is permeated with this anti-Yankee sentiment, but it's something we as a team just have to accept."
On the recent injuries suffered by Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson:
"Oh sure, these guys go down two years after Arizona beats us in the World Series. Just like Bud wanted it. Hey, I'm not making this stuff up."
On LeBron James:
"Why is it that only 13 NBA teams were given a shot at LeBron?" Steinbrenner said after May 22's Draft Lottery. "How fair is that? What's David Stern got against the New York Yankees anyway? I bet you he's been talking to that nimrod Selig. Man, he's such a dork."
On his portrayal on "Seinfeld":
"First, the guy they had playing the role didn't sound or act anything like me," Steinbrenner said. "Second, isn't Jerry Seinfeld a Mets fan? I don't appreciate being associated with someone who roots for the Mets; it's bad enough that we play in the same city as those scrubs. And third, I would never hire a schmuck like that George Costanza to be my assistant to the traveling secretary. He once said on the show that I fire people 'like it's a bodily function.' That's just a gross exaggeration."
On music legend Bruce Springsteen:
"Who does this guy think he is, referring to himself as 'The Boss.' Doesn't he know that only one guy can be 'The Boss', and I'm not talking about Tony Danza. I'm 'The Boss,' and I'll always be 'The Boss.'" Steinbrenner then turned to one of his assistants and asked, "Is there anyway I can fire this Springsteen guy? No? Then I'm suing him for copyright infringement."
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