No

by John Atchison

Created on: July 19, 2010   Last Updated: July 20, 2010

 First off, let us give the man his due.  As an owner of a Major League baseball team, he was first rate.  Almost from the beginning of his historic reign as the owner of one of the sport's most glamorous teams, the New York Yankees, he restored them to the greatness that its fan base has come to expect over its long history.  Certainly if you are a Yankee fan, he was positively looked upon as a beloved figure for restoring the luster to a franchise that had suffered through some of its few down years in the middle sixties to mid seventies.  The question though is whether George Steinbrenner was good for the game of baseball as a whole.  To that, a solid no would be the answer from this voice.

There will be those that argue that by him restoring the Yankees to prominence, Steinbrenner did much for the game.  After all, everyone either loves or hates the Yankees, it’s just that simple.  When their on top, everyone loathes them just that much more and go to see their teams play them in hopes that they might knock the Bronx Bombers off their perch.  To that end, perhaps he did have some positive effect in the minds of some owners that are simply in it to make a buck.  However, that is where the good ends in my eyes.  See, where Steinbrenner may have helped the economics of the game for awhile, the fabric of the game has changed and not for the good.

Go back as early as the decades of the 70's and look at the landscape of baseball.  It was America's pastime and the game was good.  Seemingly a majority of the teams competed for the pennant each year.  Teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates, Kansas City Royals, Baltimore Orioles, and Cincinnati Reds were in it to win and each fan went into the season thinking my team has a shot.  Notice what term of today is not in that line, "Small market team".  There was none of that nonsense in baseball until "The Boss" arrived on the scene and changed the baseball dynamic.

How did he change the dynamic?  Simple, the abuse of Free Agency and his use of his empire to turn a disputed cable deal into his own network, thus putting his profits and his riches far above those of most other teams.  Surely, from a business perspective it was a good move and made sense.  However, other than Yankee fans do you honestly believe that the way he did things benefited anyone but himself?  You certainly can't present an argument that the game is better off now.

Let's take the free agency angle first.  George may not have been the man that started it all with Andy Messersmith, but it was not long after that he began the abuse of a system that has carried on to this day and realistically destroyed baseball in at least 15 or so markets around the country.  From then till now, the Yankees policy has been to throw money at every big name eligible free agent that appears on the radar.  Again, great for Yankee fans as they trot out an all star lineup each season, but again what about the good of baseball.  Teams do there hard work in the draft, cultivate talent, then watch it go to the highest buck several seasons later.  It has become a never ending cycle.

George's Yankees are also one of the leading teams in the league against any type of salary cap (no need to guess why).  Sure everyone plays a role in this, from unions, to Bud Selig, all the way down to each team, however it is teams like New York that have their hands up Bud the puppet, instructing him what's good for the game of baseball.  Why would the Yankees want to change things?  After all, they have a payroll nearly twice as high as most other teams and that’s being conservative.  Greedy players no longer care about their first team, but rather the biggest paycheck and a chance to "win".  This is the George Steinbrenner effect on the game. 

Where once 30 teams went into an off-season thinking of improving, now it’s a mentality of picking from the scraps left on the table after the Yankees and then the other "Big Market" teams, get done going through the first stringers.  All one has to do is examine the evidence.  CC Sabathia, AJ Burnett, Mark Teixeira, Curtis Granderson, and so on.  Sure the Red Soxs and Phillies do it to, but it was Steinbrenner that started the game down this path.  Now baseball is but an afterthought in many Major League cities because they know they can't hope to compete on a "consistent" basis.  Do you wonder why baseball is no longer America's number one sport?  Don't look any further.

Let us not forget though also the way that he treated folks with the team as well.  Now no one denies that George did much charitable work and gave millions away to needy causes, but you can't also deny his handling of folks like baseball greats Dave Winfield and Don Mattingly.  These were Yankee stars that gave their all for the team and were often vilified in the press by Steinbrenner for any number of things.  His handling of managers is the stuff of legends, and his meddling in the affairs of his ball club was also commonplace tales.  Had it not been for Gene Michael stepping in back in the day and stopping the flow of home grown talent being shipped off for high price veterans, you may never have seen Bernie Williams in pinstripes.

Yes, George Steinbrenner was a great man, philanthropist, and a wonderful owner.  But sadly, you can not say that he was good for the game.  When he came into the league, everyone had some type of shot to win every year.  Now we live in a time where terms like "contraction" are used.  Why? Well because of the fact that teams can not afford to compete in this league any longer.  The Yankees gleefully pay their luxury tax and shake Bud's hand and say "Thank you very much" because they realize the system today is a joke.  Baseball as a sport is in the worst of times, watching a series of 5 or 6 teams buy the league, while the others site back and say what can we do.  This friend is the legacy of George Steinbrenner.  The man that rebuilt a team to greatness, but destroyed a sport in the process.

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