IT turns out George Steinbrenner is more Queen Elizabeth these days than King George.
He rules the Yankees kingdom still, but mainly now as a figurehead. Steinbrenner’s court determined there was a value – with fans, media and, especially, in business dealings – to preserve the image of The Boss. But that myth is slowly being denuded.
These days, at best, Steinbrenner is counselor and consensus taker, Vito Corleone to Michael toward the end of The Godfather, aging patriarch with lingering wisdom. At worst, well, you know what the worst is. Steinbrenner is 77. He has faded mostly from view. What we have seen has hardly appeared the robust autocrat of yore who breathed fire and fired managers.
In recent years, Yankees executives have tried to erect a velvet rope to restrict gawkers and intruders. To protect a father’s dignity and to protect a multi-billion dollar empire that benefits from the perception that The Boss – like The Hulk or The Flash – is immune to aging and possesses his powers eternally.
But as we have learned, Steinbrenner’s comic book persona has an expiration date. And its most overt manifestation – with his two sons coming forward to accept the throne – is what makes this one of the most important weeks within one of the most vital periods in Yankees history.
Because we know how The Boss would have handled the Yankees’ current situations. He would have fired Joe Torre, perhaps during ALDS Game 4. He would lavish money on Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera to keep them off of the free-agent market. And he would liquidate his children’s trust funds to seduce Alex Rodriguez into staying. We would not be discussing how Joba Chamberlain, Ian Kennedy or Phil Hughes fit into 2008 because the philosophy instituted to draft them would not have been enacted and/or they would have been traded with the Yankees at 21-29 for Barry Bonds or Todd Helton or fill-in-the-blank of a diminished, overpriced famous name.
So as Yankees executives converge on Tampa to decide the immediate and long-term future of the most important sports franchise on the globe, there is mystery, because we are no longer pretending the man most responsible for making them the most important sports franchise on the globe is who he was.
In reality, Steinbrenner has not really run the team for quite a while, at least not in the domineering style of his legend. It is just now the Yanks are making some public admittance of this, with the sons Hank and Hal officially taking command roles this week.
It has a Shakespearean tinge. In Henry IV, after all, the king fretted if his carousing son would ever have the gravitas and motivation to succeed the father. Call it providence, if you like, that the son was Prince Hal, who would indeed ascend regally to become Henry V. Hank Steinbrenner’s real first name is Henry. The name was given by George in honor of his father, whose overbearing, achievement-oriented nature fostered the traits we most commonly associate with The Boss.
For years, the Bossy tone of the father kept Hank and Hal at a distance from George’s most public entity. But as George has entered his twilight, the children have flocked back as defenders of the old man and, now, as caretakers of his beloved team.
They do not make their public coming out at an easy time. How to handle the remaining pieces of the dynasty not named Derek Jeter (Torre, Posada, Rivera and Andy Pettitte) is on the agenda as is what to do with the game’s best player (Rodriguez). This seminal moment emerges as the Yanks have been ebbing toward younger as Steinbrenner has gotten older, and toward a philosophy of less expensive as the heirs to the future and the fortune gain a stronger foothold.
So maybe old and pricey go, maybe the Steinbrenner boys say no to Scott Boras’ YES-themed pitch that Rodriguez is too valuable to the team-owned network to let a few $100 million stand in the way.
For all his unpredictability, Steinbrenner was predictable on decisions like this. But the throne has been abdicated. King George doesn’t live here any more.