Best owner ever?

Sorry, I fail to see what's so" freaking impressive" about simply being able to spend a shitload more money on payroll than any other team in the league every year.

Steinbrenner was megalomaniacal short-tempered irrational tyrranical dickhead. He, by himself, made a laughingstock of the Yankee franchise for a substantial period during the middle of his run there. Don't care how many world series rings he has, I don't see him belonging in this discussion.

 

I would put on the list the owner of the San Antonio Spurs, because they have won five championships and I don't even know his name.

 

I mostly agree, but you have to give Steinbrenner credit for maximizing the Yankees' revenues, which is what allowed them to spend the way they do.

 

As a Penguins fan, I say Mario Lemieux. He saved the franchise and kept it in Pittsburgh. He's also one of the few NHL owners trying to get a deal done.

I know NASCAR is a little different, but how about Rick Hendrick?

 

The Yankees have been by far the richest organization in MLB since the 1920s.

It took a special kind of stupid to screw that up as CBS did in the 1960s-70s.

 

I think was Phil Knight has done with the Oregon Ducks has been nothing short of remarkable.

 

International division: Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed bin Zayed Al Nahyan who took Man City from mid-table and the LA Clippers of the Premier League to league champs and the team that is at the front of every bidding war for players.

US division: Packer shareholders. More titles than anyone else in the league and a 100% lock that the franchise will never move. They even show up to Lambeau to shovel after it snows.
http://www.fox11online.com/dpp/sports/packers_and_nfl/big-turnout-for-lambeau-shoveling

 

Agreed. Steinbrenner was hated by Yankee fans for a lot of years, who were even chanting "Steinbrenner Sucks" in the early 80s. Many fans were glad to see him suspended in 1990, and only the utter suckitude of the Stump Merrill era made fans want to see him return.

And even then, had his staff listened to him, they would have ended up trading some of their best young talent (Pettitte, Rivera) for some retreads.

Oh yeah, and what kind of owner hires a guy to dig up dirt on his own players in order to blackmail them?

I'd vote for the Packers' ownership as best owners. Takes a lot to give money to own a franchise and not be able to see a penny of it ever come back.

 

I was about to say ... Steinbrenner didn't do anything to create or improve the Yankees' revenue flow or natural financial advantages. That precedes him by a lifetime.

The Yankees haven't been leaders or innovators in any major business or economic development in baseball's history. They were slow to embrace night baseball, they were slow to embrace integration on or off the field, they were slow to embrace both radio and TV, they were slow to embrace fan promotions, they were slow to embrace stadium improvements and enhancement (and in the last two decades of ballpark renaissance, they were slow to embrace it again), they were slow to embrace revenue sharing (both in the 1950s when Bill Veeck proposed it and again in the 1990s when it actually happened), and on and on.

OK, I take that back. The Yankees, thanks to Steinbrenner, were leaders in the area of free agency, which is the second-most significant development in sports history (No. 1 being integration, of course.)

Granted, this is the way every industry works. It's the poor and desperate and struggling who have to be the most creative in order to succeed.

That's why Bill Veeck gets my vote as the greatest owner ever — not only did he play a significant role in every single area I mentioned (he planted the ivy at Wrigley Field when he was 23, he integrated the American League, he doubled the number of women's restrooms in every stadium he owned including the minor-league Miami Marlins and hired females in his front offices, he was decades ahead of his time in advocating for revenue sharing and free agency that were eventually implemented), but he also did it all on a shoestring budget that forced him to sell all his teams after 3-4 years ... and won two pennants and a World Series along the way.

Oh yeah, and he was living in excruciating pain the entire time, with a multiple amputation surgeries of his leg and more than 30 operations.

And did you know he also played a major role in keeping the NFL's Patriots in Boston? Look it up.

There's no one else like him.

I highly recommend reading the new book on him by Paul Dickson: http://www.amazon.com/Bill-Veeck-Baseballs-Greatest-Maverick/dp/0802717780/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357290256&sr=8-1&keywords=bill+veeck

And Veeck's first two co-written books with Ed Linn are both hilarious and great reads, "Veeck—As In Wreck" and "The Hustler's Handbook". (I'm not as much of a fan of "Thirty Tons A Day," although there are some good stories in it.)

 

Wasn't the Yankee/YES Network the first deal of its kind, and if so, how much did that pre-date other similar deals?

 

That was my understanding, too. I'm not saying Steinbrenner belongs in the conversation among the best owners of all time. Just trying to be fair and give him credit for what he did well.

 

Globetrotters division: Saperstein. Jackson.