George Steinbrenner

American shipbuilding magnate and baseball team owner

• Born: July 4, 1930
• Birthplace: Rocky River, Ohio
• Died: July 13, 2010
• Place of death: Tampa, Florida

Steinbrenner’s vast wealth enabled him to buy the New York Yankee baseball club and to become famous, not only for the team’s success but also for his autocratic management style.

Sources of wealth: Inheritance; shipping; sports franchise

Bequeathal of wealth: Charity

Early Life

George Michael Steinbrenner (STIHN-brehn-ehr) III was born on July 4, 1930, in Rocky River, Ohio, the first of three children born to Henry and Rita Steinbrenner. Henry Steinbrenner became a Great Lakes shipbuilding magnate by marrying the daughter of a shipping company owner. He was also a domineering father, who forced young George to wear a white shirt and tie to grade school, apparel that often elicited teasing from George’s fellow students.

Most children of wealthy parents received lavish allowances. Henry gave his son chickens. George was expected to sell eggs to earn his spending money. The young entrepreneur called his egg business the George Company, and when he went away to school he sold the company to his younger sisters, Susan and Judy, who changed the name to the S and J Company. Steinbrenner would later say he got his toughness from his father and his empathy from his mother, a devout Christian Scientist. At age fourteen he was sent to the Culver Military Academy in Indiana, and from there to Williams College in Massachusetts.

First Ventures

Following college, Steinbrenner went into the U.S. Air Force as a second lieutenant in fulfillment of his Reserve Officers’ Training Corps (ROTC) commitment. He was assigned to Lockbourne Air Force near Columbus, Ohio, and given the job of athletic director, overseeing baseball, basketball, and intermural events. His peers considered him aloof, in part because he did not drink and lacked social skills. His habit of flaunting his wealth also made him unpopular. However, he excelled at his job, perhaps a foreshadow of his later destiny. Even in the Air Force, Steinbrenner was driven to win, and for one tournament he switched professional ballplayers for a few of the airmen on his team. He later managed, and eventually bought, the Cleveland Pipers, a short-lived professional basketball team.

In 1956 he married Joan Zeig. The couple had four children; sons Hank and Hal, and daughters Jennifer and Jessica. Although on the brink of divorce in the early 1960’s, the couple reconciled and celebrated their golden anniversary in 2006.

By 1957, Steinbrenner had joined his father at Kinsman Marine Transit, the family shipbuilding business. Not surprisingly, the two men clashed on a regular basis, and Henry sometimes fired his son and then reinstated him. The firings were a management ploy George himself would use throughout his volatile career. He was wildly successful by anyone else’s standards, but he always felt that he failed to live up to his father’s often unrealistic expectations. Steinbrenner bought the business from his father in 1963.

Mature Wealth

Steinbrenner, like other sports team owners, had considerable wealth before buying the New York Yankees from William S. Paley in 1973. He paid $10 million, raising the money through a limited partnership that included Texas oilman Nelson Bunker Hunt and Chicago businessman Lester Crown. Steinbrenner insisted upon being the managing partner. By buying the team, Steinbrenner appeared to have finally gotten out from under his father’s shadow, and Major League Baseball would never be the same.

The news media soon discovered, and exploited, Steinbrenner’s explosive temperament and delighted in reporting his many battles with players, including Dave Winfield, Reggie Jackson, and Darryl Strawberry. Steinbrenner once made Yogi Berra so angry that the baseball great vowed never to set foot in Yankee Stadium again. However, the person who most often endured the wrath of Steinbrenner was the legendary coach, Billy Martin, whose firings and subsequent reinstatements became the fodder for sports journalists, not to mention late night television show hosts and comedians.

Steinbrenner’s management style emulated that of his father. He ran the team the way Henry managed both the family shipbuilding business and the family itself. George was fiercely loyal to those around him who measured up to his exacting standards, but he felt personally hurt and exacted revenge when he believed he was betrayed. More often than not, his decisions were about money. Steinbrenner’s overwhelming success allowed him to manage by intimidation or by any other style he chose. As long as the Yankees won, the fans were happy, and the money rolled in. If the team lost, someone would be held accountable. That someone was often Billy Martin.

One reason for Steinbrenner’s success was his understanding that money attracts money. He was in the vanguard of hiring highly paid—or, in some critics’ opinions, exorbitantly paid—professional athletes. By paying his players more than any other baseball team owner, Steinbrenner was assured of building a team with the kind of talent that would win repeated championships.

Steinbrenner’s wealth assured him a perennial spot on the lists of the richest Americans. He used his fortune to improve the lives of others, at times acting on impulse to fulfill a perceived need. For example, while driving in Florida, he came upon a broken school bus, and he not only paid for its repair but also bought lunch at McDonald’s for the stranded children. He sent $50,000 worth of toys to an orphanage in need. When Hurricane Andrew ravaged Florida, Steinbrenner was a major donor, making public appearances to urge others to join the relief effort. After he learned that Florida’s Salvation Army employees were driving trucks without air conditioning, he immediately arranged to have air conditioning units installed in every vehicle. Steinbrenner’s generosity, combined with his often autocratic nature, illustrate the contradictions and complexities of his character. The man that his staff and team encountered was the Steinbrenner who preferred being feared over being liked; the beneficiaries of his kindness saw an empathetic man who recognized life’s inequities and worked to alleviate them.

Unlike his father, who never indulged in any form of conspicuous consumerism, Steinbrenner and his family always lived in a manner befitting his balance sheet. He enjoyed lavish homes in both New York and Florida, and he made sure his own children never had to suffer the indignities he experienced in childhood. Joan Steinbrenner had everything a wife could want but at the price of being dominated by her husband.

In 2007, Steinbrenner turned the team over to his sons. Steinbrenner had a long run with the New York Yankees, and this tenure was both successful and controversial. He was twice suspended from Major League Baseball, and he was twice reinstated. One of the dismissals came after he was convicted of a felony for making an illegal contribution to President Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign.

In his later years, Steinbrenner’s health declined. On July 13, 2010, he had a heart attack and was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa, Florida, where he died at the age of eighty.

Legacy

George Steinbrenner will be best remembered as the man who brought the New York Yankees to even greater glory, making it the most successful franchise in baseball history. Although often harsh and dogmatic, he achieved his goals and made Yankee fans happy. Although he did not always show his more compassionate nature, his generosity is also a large part of who he was. He assisted charities in New York and in the Hillsborough County area of Florida, where the Yankees have their spring training camp. Among his philanthropic causes, he founded the Silver Shield Foundation to pay the college tuition of children whose fathers were police officers who died in the line of duty in New York City or in Hillsborough County. He also was a longstanding donor to the Special Olympics. Steinbrenner Field, the Yankees’ winter home in Tampa, Florida, is named for him, as is a high school in Hillsborough County, which recognizes his charitable contributions to the area’s schools.

Bibliography

Allen, Maury. All Roads Lead to October: Boss Steinbrenner’s Twenty-five-Year Reign over the New York Yankees. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2000. Describes Steinbrenner’s ownership of the team from 1973 through 1998, including how he worked with Reggie Jackson, Yogi Berra, and Darryl Strawberry, as well as his tumultuous relationship with Billy Martin.

Golenbock, Peter. George: The Poor Little Rich Boy Who Built the Yankee Empire. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley and Sons, 2009. Golenbock, a New York Times’ reporter, recounts Steinbrenner’s life from his childhood through his years as owner of the Yankees.

Kahn, Roger. October Men: Reggie Jackson, George Steinbrenner, Billy Martin, and the Yankees’ Miraculous Finish in 1978. New York: Harcourt, 2003. The story of the remarkable comeback of the Yankees to take the Word Series from the Boston Red Sox in the seventh game at Fenway Park. Both teams had won ninety-nine games that year, but the Yankees emerged to win a total of one hundred.

Mandrake, Mark. The New York Yankees: One Hundred Years—The Official Retrospective. New York: Random House, 2005. Comprehensive history of the team, including the Steinbrenner years. Includes 175 photographs.

Schaap, Dick. Steinbrenner! New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1982. A balanced, though unauthorized, biography that uses telling anecdotes to make sense of the contradictions of Steinbrenner’s personality.