The Steinbrenner Moment

Thirded. Jacobs is a mess.

 

That was my reaction as well....the kissing was bizarre. Yogi and Goose, kissing The Boss? Like something from the Godfather, all the old Yankees kissing their former enemy now that he's too old and frail to hurt them any more.

 

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I did get a chuckle that the driver of golf cart was former Steinbrenner gardner and now son and law - Felix Lopez.

 

The Steinbrenner moment was O.K., just not a huge thing. It seemed like it was crammed in there between the introductions and Sheryl Crow.

What bugged me, is that there was no tribute to Bobby Murcer, except for Fox's 10-second clip in the 12th inning. Would it have been so hard for MLB to have a moment of silence?

 

A shameful omission, given the timing of Bobby's passing.

But, hey.

It's. All. About. George.

 

He's been wheelchair-bound for a while, I think.

I also wonder now if Steinbrenner will make it to Opening Day '09. Wow, he did not look good, at all.

As for the "great owner for the fans" thing...uhh, no. Unless you've never stepped foot in Yankee Stadium. I don't know the exact figures, but I'd bet ticket prices at the Stadium have gone up several hundred percent since the strike ended. Parking is $17, a fucking joke. The new Stadium is for the richest of the rich, not you. (If the Red Sox can figure out a way to stay at Fenway, the Yankees SURELY could have stayed at the current Stadium) The help at Yankee Stadium is too paralyzed with fear to, you know, ever actually help.

And the fact he spent billions on payroll doesn't excuse how he treated his less-famous employees...horribly and with zero regard for their livelihood. Unless you think it's cool for George to make you work Thanksgiving Day, fire people for the sheer hell of it and threaten to take away benefits in a "cost-saving" move.

George didn't blow billions in payroll for you. He spent money for him. You are/were along for the ride, but not invited.

 

It was sad. Did you see how he was constantly wiping his mouth, as if maybe he was drooling? The sunglasses were probably to hide that look once-powerful men get when they age, that slightly scared/a big glassy and watery/slightly confused gaze.

They handed a paper bag, of all things, to his wife for those ceremonial first-pitch balls. And she was just plucking them out of the bag one by one and handing them to him. It was bizarre.

Also not sure what the two big dudes on the back of the golf cart were doing there. Bodyguards? Hospital orderlies? It wasn't as though he was going to fall out of the cart backwards.

Very surreal.

 

I didn't expect that at all. To see one of the game's great, great ballplayers hampered like that was tough to watch. Same with Big Stein. I didn't realize he was so far off; he's regressed so much, at least by the looks of things.

 

For all the "the fans should love him because all he cared about was winning," their greatest run of success came when he faded into the background and stopped his meddling.

 

I don't even blame George. I think, if he had all his mental faculties with him, that he would have wanted Murcer honored in some way. I think somebody else, either in the Yankee organization, or MLB, fouled up majorly.