Mike Lupica Analyzes Steinbrenner, and Learns a Valuable Lesson About the I-Man

The amazing thing about the late George Steinbrenner, in Mike Lupica’s opinion, is that there were two separate and distinct acts in his public life.

“Even though he broke in fast, and built the Yankees back up in the 70s, and brought Reggie to town, and raised the profile in a way it hadn’t been raised in a long time,” Lupica began. “He also got suspended from baseball twice, which is a world record for any owner in any sport.”

Following those suspensions—one for making illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon, the other for hiring someone to dig up dirt on Dave Winfield’s foundation—the fans “came to him in a way they never had,” said Lupica. Then the team started winning again, and “the whole idea of Boss Steinbrenner changed exponentially over this second act of his career, which really lasted about ten years.”

Imus wondered whether the seven World Series titles the Yankees won under Steinbrenner were more difficult than the first 20, and Lupica provided a thoughtful, thorough analysis that Imus thought was too long. But here it is anyway.

“I think it became more difficult to win the World Series,” he said. “Because when they won the first 20, you didn’t have to win three rounds of the playoffs to win the World Series.”

Steinbrenner, however, made it easier (at least for his team) by understanding the possibilities of free agency. “In the infancy of free agency, he came along and he signed Catfish Hunter first, and then he signed Reggie Jackson,” said Lupica. “And Reggie Jackson just changed the whole game, the way he recruited him, the way he sold him on New York City. And all of a sudden in ’77, ’78, the Yankees were back on top.”

What’s more, Steinbrenner, Jackson, and Yankees manager Billy Martin were constantly on the front and back pages of the tabloid newspapers. “It became known as ‘The Bronx Zoo,’ and the profile of the Yankees had been changed forever,” said Lupica, who wrote Reggie Jackson’s memoir for him.

Jackson liked Steinbrenner, Lupica said, even when they were fighting. During his final year with the Yankees, Jackson was slumping, and Steinbrenner made him get an eye examination. “You couldn’t make this stuff up,” said Lupica. “But over time, and especially in the second act, they became very close.”

Steinbrenner had a reputation for firing and un-firing people all the time, as he did most famously with Martin. But what bothered him most was that he fired one of the most beloved Yankees of all time, Yogi Berra, just 16 games into the 1985 season, when Berra was managing the team.

“Of all the impulsive and mean things he could do, running Yogi off—that was a pretty big deal, and something that it took him an awful long time to make whole again,” Lupica said.

Lupica can’t imagine Steinbrenner won’t be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame some day, if for no other reason than he changed sports team ownership forever.

“There’s no Jerry Jones of football without him, there’s no Mar Cuban of basketball without him,” said Lupica. “All these guys tried to be him.”

At the mention of Steinbrenner’s recurring “role” on “Seinfeld,” Lupica sent himself into a fit of hysterics. “We have to move on, Mike,” Imus told his giggling friend. “The whole world doesn’t revolve around you. It revolves around the I-Man.”

Noted. A long, long time ago.

-Julie Kanfer