"The Godfather of Baseball"
By Jose Reyes "Yankee Fan" 3/28/04
George Steinbrenner is
his name and he is known as "The Boss" to Yankee fans and the head of
"The Evil Empire" 
to the rest of the Major Leagues. He has gradually taken over baseball in all
the different aspects of the game, controlling "The Market" and now
establishing control of the Union. He's a shrewd businessman making
superstars "Offers they can't refuse" and eliminating the competition
with non-competitive ultra million dollar contracts. He has used the Yankee logo
to his advantage, with the biggest fan base in the the United States and the
rest of the baseball world. Now he has assembled an All-MVP team with the buying
of Alex Rodriguez, Gary Sheffield and Kevin Brown. This absolute power of
acquiring anyone he wants has gone to his head, giving this ego-eccentric maniac
a reason to believe that he is greater than the sport of baseball itself. He has
abandoned the "Real" Yankee fans who like the spirit of competition
and admire their players with "Real" passion. "Real" Yankee
fans know very well that Steinbrenner is sticking his nose too much into Yankee
affairs and will only send us into a tailspin back to the 80's.
I am a diehard Yankee fan who is totally disgusted with this out-of-control
lunatic! How far do we have to go before we lose total interest of this
beautiful summer pastime.
Baseball is in sorry shape right now and Steinbrenner is making things worse by
controlling the sport. We the fans, have a self-proclaimed commissioner, who has
absolutely no control of the league and is an owner himself, Milwaukee Brewers.
We the fans, have the most powerful union in the world consisting of
multi-millionaires. Now that the TV ratings on YES (Yankee Entertainment
Station) are going to rise so are the ticket prices, along with the concession
prices. They have been raised already to a point that we, the real Yankee fans,
will not be able to go to the stadium and view the game live. The real Yankee
fans will take a back seat to the corporate world which is buying out all the
tickets so they can accommodate a businessman who will be going to the game just
to see A-Rod play, not the Yankees. We, the Yankee fans will be deprived from
enjoying the game live and will be viewing it on TV.
No matter how you put it, we get screwed. The Yankee fans, are profoundly hated
by the fans of the opposing team and why, because of George Steinbrenner. How do
you think I felt when we got A-Rod, I felt disgusted and ashamed. I hate A-Rod,
I always did, just like I always hated Roger Clemens, I don't have a short
memory. A-Rod played for the Seattle Mariners, who always knocked us out of the
playoffs. I'll never forget that series 
when Mattingly smacked them around and the final game in Seattle when Mattingly
hit that double, but it wasn't enough as we lost and "Donny Baseball",
a true Yankee warrior, lost his shot to go to the World Series. I got very upset
when we got Tino Martinez, but what the hell Steinbrenner chose not to renew
Mattingly's contract, instead of setting up a platoon system with Tino at 1ST
Base. Torre did it last year with Giambi and Nick Johnson. Tino played hard and
became a real Yankee, getting those clutch hits and never complaining. He became
a real Yankee fan favorite and lived up to it, you could see it in his eyes.
Well, now we have Giambi, a real choker, who says he lost 4 pounds in the
off-season and looks like he lost 24. Let's see him win the Homerun derby now,
without the help of the steroids.
It's been proven in the last 2 years, that a team with a 50 million dollar yearly salary can go all the way. The goal is to have a good balanced "team" with no real superstars, good pitching and of course, some luck. If you look back at 76, 77, 78, you'll find this type of chemistry, as the Yanks went to the World Series and won 2 out of the 3 years. The Yanks revisited the World Series in 1981 without Reggie, where they lost 4 games to 2 and the beginning of the drought started.
Towards the 80's and the early 90's we couldn't beat Toronto because of the inability to pick up a pitcher, Steinbrenner had nothing in the farm leagues. He got rid of Al Leiter, Doug Drabek, Bob Tewksbury. He fired managers left and right even when the team won over 90 games for the season. He loves to fire and hire so much that I think it's some kind of an addiction.
Now that
we fail to beat the Diamondbacks, the Angels and the Marlins he lets Petitte,
Wells, Soriano and Johnson go, so he can stir things up. All you Cubans out
there, what did you think when he let go of "El Duque". 
This team will not go anywhere, I would like to see A-Rod handle the pressure
when he goes into a slump. Steinbrenner basically blamed the World Series on
Alfonso Soriano poor at-bats, the whole team batted .200 as a whole against the
Marlins. Lets not forget the Homerun Soriano jacked out of the ball park
in the 7TH game at Arizona against Curt Schilling in the top of the 8TH Inning.
Now that Soriano became the most prolific lead-off hitter in baseball, he
sends him off packing to Texas.
It's all about team chemistry, like I mentioned before, and you can't have that
when you pick up and drop players constantly. These overpaid pre-Madonnas that
we been acquiring in the last 3 years do not give a heck about the team concept,
they just want a ring on their finger, they don't care for what team they get it
with. Hey people we have 26 World Championships, we can afford 
to develop some home grown talent. The Yankees have 15 new players this year.
Steinbrenner has a salary over 200 million dollars this year, that's ridiculous.
Baseball is in a very delicate position right now and the unions are getting too
greedy and the players are ridiculously overpaid. It's crazy how players jump
around from team to team every year so the fans have to become fans of players
they were routing against the year before. This is adding more fuel for the
out-of-control fire of exaggerated salaries and the fans are being left behind.
When will this stop? I guess that's up to the fans, remember after all, if we
don't go to the game then they don't get paid! The Yankees will survive this
crush but the rest the league will suffer greatly. Let's stop this sick man from
controlling the future of this great sport.
Yankee Team Salary (1994-2004):
1994 > 47.5 Million 1995> 58.2 Million 1995> 58.2 Million
1996> 61.5 Million 1997> 73.4 Million 1998> 74.0 Million
1999> 92.0 Million 2000> 92.5 Million 2001> 109.7 Million
2002> 125.9 Million 2003> 152.7 Million 2004> 200 Million +
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