[外電] George Steinbrenner's Teams

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http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/george-steinbrenners-teams/

George Steinbrenner’s Teams
by Jack Moore - July 13, 2010

As you likely have already heard, George Steinbrenner died today of a heart
attack at the age of 80. Steinbrenner has been a gigantic figure in the
baseball world since his purchase of the New York Yankees in 1973. The
Yankees were a truly mediocre franchise for the decade immediately following
their 1964 World Series loss to St. Louis. The Yankees finished in the bottom
half of the standings every season from 1965 to 1973 except for a 2nd place
finish – and no playoffs – in 1970.

Steinbrenner’s Yankees saw quick success, reaching three straight World
Series beginning in 1976, his fourth full season as owner. The Yankees would
win in both 1977 and 1978, and the impact of free agent acquisitions such as
Reggie Jackson were certainly significant.

After losing in the 1981 World Series, however, the Yankees entered another
period of relative futility which would last until the strike. The Yankees
did win 90+ games three times in this stretch, but also finished below .500
five times and didn’t make the playoffs a single time. Steinbrenner
certainly left his mark on this period, constantly meddling with his team,
particularly with the managers. After the 1981 season and before the hiring
of Buck Showalter in 1992, the Yankees played under nine different managers,
including three of Billy Martin‘s five separate managing stints with the
team.

This brings us to the Yankee dynasty that we all remember. From 1995-2000,
the Yankees made the playoffs six times including four division championships
and four World Series victories. These teams did include some home-grown
talent – Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, and Andy Pettitte, for example, and
others brought in through trades, such as Paul O’Neill, Scott Brosius, and
Roger Clemens. Still, free agency proved key. The Yankees brought in Joe
Girardi, Wade Boggs, David Cone, and David Wells, all key pieces in various
seasons in this period.

Steinbrenner’s teams really began to make use of free agency and his massive
wealth in the 2000s. In 2001, the Yankees signed Mike Mussina to a big money
deal. 2002 saw the addition of Jason Giambi. 2003 saw the import of Hideki
Matsui. Although they were through trades, the 2004 additions of Alex
Rodriguez and Kevin Brown were shows of the power of Steinbrenner’s
impressive financial assets. On top of Rodriguez’s $22 million contract and
Brown’s $15 million contract, the Yankees signed Jose Contreras for $8.5
million out of Cuba and added Gary Sheffield for $13 million. The Yankees
took the $16 million owed to Randy Johnson in 2005. In 2006, the Yankees had
four different players (Mussina, Jeter, Rodriguez, and Giambi) earning at
least $19 million, and then they added Bobby Abreu‘s $16 million contract.
The Yankees added $39 million more in free agency via the Andy Pettitte, Carl
Pavano, and Johnny Damon contracts in 2007. The Yankees stood pat in 2008,
waiting for various contracts to come off the books.

This period is generally seen as a failure, due to the fact that the Yankees
didn’t win any titles over this period, but lest we forget, these teams were
very, very, very good. Every team except for the 2008 team, which suffered
from the end of some big contracts but still won 84 games, reached the
playoffs. Overall, the Yankees had a .599 winning percentage from 2001-2008,
which is about as much as money can buy. The team simply sputtered in the
playoffs, something that the media tended to blame on the inability of
expensive free agents to play with chemistry.

Even though Steinbrenner retired in 2006, his fingerprints are still on the
team. The revenue streams he managed to set up allowed the Yankees to
continue to pour money into the free agent market, adding players like CC
Sabathia and AJ Burnett for the 2009 World Series championship team, despite
the fact that it contained many expensive free agents.

Much of the coverage today has featured Steinbrenner as a hero. That, to me,
is going a bit far. He was notoriously hard on his workers. He made illegal
campaign contributions to the Nixon campaign. As always, Joe Posnanski puts
it best(http://ppt.cc/xL8d ):

Steinbrenner is what you make him. He is the convicted felon who quietly gave
millions to charity, the ruthless boss who made sure his childhood heroes and
friends stayed on the payroll, the twice-suspended owner who drove the game
into a new era, the sore loser who won a lot, the sore winner who lost
plenty, the haunted son who longed for the respect of his father, the
attention hound who could not tolerate losing the spotlight, the
money-throwing blowhard who saved the New York Yankees and sent them into
despair and saved them again (in part by staying out of the way), the bully
who demanded that his employees answer his every demand and the soft touch
who would quietly pick up the phone and help some stranger he read about in
the morning paper.

As far as his impact on the game of baseball, however, there can be no
debate. George Steinbrenner was a big part of making free agency relevant.
His teams changed the way that other large market teams did business, as his
Yankees teams of the 2000s forced teams like the Red Sox and Mets to drive
their payrolls into a never before thought of territory, be it $100 million
or the nearly $170 million on the Red Sox payroll this season. George
Steinbrenner created winners in New York, and although he occasionally
created losers through his meddling, I doubt that his seven World Series
rings and 11 AL pennants particularly care about that. Steinbrenner is
certainly the most successful owner in professional sports history, and that
is what baseball will remember him as.

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推 decorum     :典型的美國大亨＝冷血殘酷的老闆＋慈愛慷慨的慈善家
推 asdfzx      :而他都做到極致了 所以成為大亨之王
推 Shauds      :推~ 能賺錢的時候當然盡量賺 做善事的時候再慷慨一點
推 chanh       :沒提到Mo, Bernie, Tino.....@.@
→ E1000       :不過他所拍的廣告還滿搞笑的，在電視上看到的..