Not a Hall of Famer

16 esteemed members of the Baseball Hall of Fame Veterans Committee will soon vote on whether to induct 12 members up for consideration from the expansion era (1973 to present). As with the standard method of voting, a candidate must garner 75% of the vote in order to receive nomination into the Hall of Fame. One of those names on the Veterans Committee ballot this year is the late Yankees owner, George Steinbrenner; other notables up for consideration this year are Yankees player and manager Billy Martin and former Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) executive Marvin Miller.

Steinbrenner bought the Yankees from CBS for $10 million and in April 2010 they were worth $1.6 billion according to Forbes magazine; Steinbrenner died in July. Under his ownership, the Yankees won 7 World Series championships and 11 American League pennants. Aside from the championships, Steinbrenner also oversaw the creation of a team owned television network to broadcast the team’s games, something now considered vital to all teams. Steinbrenner’s lasting legacy to the team and its fans will be the new Yankee Stadium. In his later years, while the Yankees were winning 4 World Series in 5 years and going to the playoffs pretty much every year, Steinbrenner was lionized by many as a great owner and one with tremendous vision. Steinbrenner also displayed a commitment to the community by often lending a helping hand to those less fortunate, albeit without much fanfare from the media. In addition, perhaps one of the biggest reasons that Steinbrenner grew in popularity with the fans is his portrayal by Larry David on Seinfeld.

So, under Steinbrenner, the Yankees won a lot, made a lot of money, formed their own TV network, and built anew stadium. However, he was also suspended from baseball twice and he was one of the most tempestuous owners in the game. In Steinbrenner’s first 23 seasons he changed managers 20 times, including hiring and firing Billy Martin 5 times; in his last 14 years with the team Steinbrenner employed only 2 managers, Joe Torre and the current manager, Joe Girardi. In fact, if Steinbrenner had not been suspended in 1990 (more on that later), the Yankees likely would not have enjoyed the success of the late 1990s and 2000s. While he was suspended, the club, under the direction of GM Gene Michael, held on to players like Bernie Williams, Derek Jeter, and Mariano Rivera. The impatient Steinbrenner would have likely ordered the young players to be moved in exchange for high priced veterans. He very likely would have made more deals like the Jay Buhner for Ken Phelps trade made all the more famous by David’s Steinbrenner.

Many also say that Steinbrenner’s free spending on free agents is one of the biggest reasons for creating a disparity between the haves and have nots in Major League Baseball. However, while the Yankees did outspend all of their opponents most years, the concept of the rich teams using the poor teams as mere farm teams is hardly new. For years, even before free agency, teams like the Yankees would raid the poorer clubs, like the St. Louis Browns, of their talented young players in exchange for money. Hell, they famously acquired Babe Ruth from the Red Sox for $120,000 in 1919.

Steinbrenner often feuded with his high priced free agents, including Reggie Jackson; Dave Winfield, who he called “Mr. May;” and Hideki Irabu, the Japanese import he called a “fat toad.” His feud with Dave Winfield led to Steinbrenner’s second suspension from the game in 1990. Steinbrenner had paid gambler Howie Spira $40,000 to dig up dirt on Winfield, who had sued the Yankees for failing to contribute $300,000 to his foundation, a stipulation in Winfield’s contract. He was first suspended by Major League baseball in 1974 for making illegal campaign contributions to the campaign to re-elect Richard Nixon and subsequently for obstructing justice. For this offense, Steinbrenner narrowly avoided spending time in jail.

So, we have enough background on George Steinbrenner, but is he worthy of election to the Hall of Fame?

There are few owners in the Hall of Fame, and, honestly, Steinbrenner does compare favorably with them. Charles Comiskey, owner of the Chicago White Sox, gained notoriety as both a player and owner. As a player he is widely credited with being the 1^st first baseman to play away from the bag; meanwhile, as an owner, he was instrumental in forming the American League. Comiskey is probably most famous for the thriftiness that led 8 members of the 1919 White Sox to throw the World Series. Barney Dreyfuss, owner of the Pirates in the early 1900s, was instrumental in the creation of the World Series. Bill Veeck was a famous pioneering owner in coming up with promotional events to draw in fans. Among Veeck’s most famous attractions were using midget Eddie Gaedel as a pinch hitter and Disco Demolition Night. Walter O’Malley moved the Dodgers to the West Coast and opened up new markets to Major League Baseball. Red Sox owner Tom Yawkey rebuilt Fenway Park and imported expensive players.

In comparison with these other Hall of Fame owners, how does Steinbrenner compare? Steinbrenner has more World Series championships and pennants than any of them. However, does an owner really deserve credit for winning a World Series, and should that be instrumental in his Hall of Fame candidacy? Despite the fact that the owner accepts the trophy from the commissioner at the end of the World Series, he does not actually make any on-field contribution. I don’t think writing checks is enough for entry into the Hall of Fame.

Next, he has turned the Yankees into the most valuable sports franchise in the world. Again, does his ability to turn a profit make him qualified to be in the baseball Hall of Fame? I doubt it. I think that qualification for the Hall of Fame should be reserved for either on field accomplishment. Off field accomplishments can be enough to be elected, but being able to turn a profit is not one of those accomplishments.

This brings us to the last of Steinbrenner’s major accomplishments, the creation of a team owned regional television network and the new Yankee Stadium. Are these enough for an owner to gain entry into baseball’s most exclusive club? In comparison to the other owners in the Hall of Fame, Steinbrenner is most akin to O’Malley.

O’Malley opened up a whole new market to Major League Baseball by moving out to the California; although, baseball had been in California for quite some time. The Pacific Coast League, which had teams throughout California, had been a AAA level league since 1903. Likewise, Steinbrenner ended his television pact with the MSG network and set up the YES network to broadcast Yankees games in 2002. So, while Steinbrenner did found his own television network in 2002, it was not as if fans had previously not been able to view their favorite team. In fact, now fans were forced to pay a premium in order to see the Yankees by making sure that their television package carried the YES network. So, while O’Malley brought Major League Baseball to California and the western United States, Steinbrenner forced cable companies and their subscribers to pay more money to carry the YES network if fans wanted to see Yankees games. Even more like O’Malley, Steinbrenner often threatened to move the Yankees from the Bronx if the city of New York did not give him money to either make improvements to the old Yankee Stadium or to build the new Yankee Stadium. Having learned their lesson from 50 years prior when O’Malley took the Dodgers west, the city granted the Yankees hundreds of millions of dollars in tax-exempt and taxable bonds.

The YES network and the new Yankee Stadium have given the Yankees incredible revenue streams, which they can use to bring in free agent talent, both home grown and newly acquired. However, if it weren’t for Marvin Miller, the MLBPA’s longtime executive director, free agency in Major League Baseball would not exist. Miller’s innovations to the game include the first collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between owners and players, including arbitration in the CBA in 1970, free agency, and eliminating the reserve clause, which had previously bound players to their teams for the duration of their careers. Without Miller’s contributions to the game, Steinbrenner would not have been free to pursue free agents like Catfish Hunter, Dave Winfield, or Alex Rodriguez. In 1992, Red Barber, the Hall of Fame broadcaster, said that Miller was one of the 3 most important men in baseball history, along with Babe Ruth and Jackie Robinson. However, Miller is not in the Hall of Fame.

So, are George Steinbrenner’s accomplishments, 7 World Series championships and a new baseball empire, enough to get him into the baseball Hall of Fame? Are his two suspensions and his further dividing the haves and have nots enough to keep him out? Obviously, it will be up to the voters on the Veterans Committee to decide; however, if you want my opinion, he does not belong in the Hall of Fame. Surely, if there were a business hall of fame, he would be in. However, why does he deserve to be enshrined with baseball’s most hallowed heroes for writing checks to the players who did the winning? If his greatest accomplishment is creating a television network, then is he really worthy of such an honor? It’s not like the Yankees were not on television before YES went on the air. As I heard on WFAN Tuesday night while listening to Steve Somers, George Steinbrenner did less for the Yankees and Major League Baseball than either Major League Baseball or the Yankees did for George Steinbrenner.