Several years back I wrote George Steinbrenner's obituary.  It was what they call in the business a "canned" piece that would need only minor revisions in the event of the Boss's demise and ready to go almost instantly.

That's not what I'm putting in this place; I've thrown that file in the virtual trash can.

Steinbrenner was many things.  A tough boss to work for.  A meddler.  Outspoken.  Demanding.  And difficult in many ways.  But he was more than that too.  He wasn't just an owner, but the owner.  The owner every team wishes that it had.  A man who put winning first and foremost, cost or difficulty be damned.

R.I.P. George Steinbrenner

Photo by dfhdez, used under creative commons license.

He didn't just reinvent the Yankees; he reinvented what it meant to be a Yankee.  In 1973 the glory years seemed to be behind the team -- lackluster play, poor leadership and a prevailing attitude of apathy seemed to have a death grip on the franchise.  George changed that.

While other teams were letting their players set the tone in the dugout George didn't.  He set up a corporate code that regulated everything from player conduct to the banning of facial hair below the lip.  He wanted his team to be different, not indifferent, to even things as small as their appearance.  Clean cut, recognizable and winners were his initial goals and changes in the rules, allowed him to have all of that and more.

Steinbrenner certainly didn't invent free agency, but no one has ever exploited it better than Steinbrenner and the New York Yankees.  You only need to look at the current roster to realize that.  That's just one of Steinbrenner's legacies to the game.

In fact legacies, especially the one about what it means to be a Yankee and a Yankees fan were and still are a huge part of the marketing of the team today.  That history, that mythos, hadn't been forgotten, but hadn't exactly been stressed since the golden age of the game had passed.  George saw that and dusted it all off and spoon fed the Yankees legends back to fans who had never seen Ruth or Mantle, had missed out on actually hearing Gehrig's farewell speech, and so much more.

His success in re-forging those myths and returning the Yankees to a mythical place in the baseball universe is unparalleled.  George may have been the first to really realize that baseball isn't just about the games played but about the history.

And George made plenty of history leading the charge in selling cable broadcast rights, taking the majority of games off free television, and building ratings by the one thing that most defined him: winning.

Making money never seemed to be his main priority -- winning was.  He loved the game, he loved his team, and he even loved the fans and he wanted to give them something year in and year out.  He spent more money on players than any other man in baseball history and he used that Yankees mythos to bring the best flocking in and wanting to be Yankees, especially in the last 15 years, not just for the salaries, but because the Yankees always seemed to have a chance to win.

I don't know if George would have plowed every cent he made back into player contracts if the Yankees hadn't found so many other sources of revenue over the years, but it sure seemed that way.  And he, like most other owners could actually afford to do so.  After all professional sports teams are the toys of billionaires.

George knew that, and his desire to win guided him.  While other franchise owners treated their teams as businesses, George never obviously seemed to do so.  His pride and his ego were always on the line.

And that's how he wanted his team to play, with their pride and egos on the line.  It was the cornerstone of what he felt it meant to be a Yankee.  George certainly was.

The greatest tribute that I can give Steinbrenner is to simply state that I wish every franchise had an owner who cared so passionately about their team and put winning, not making a big profit first.

Goodbye, George. You will be missed.

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