Now He Can Fire Billy Martin Again...And Again...And Again

[PenPho]

That hardly took any vision.

So little vision that no one else did it (well, at least) until he did?

[Fork]

That hardly took any vision.

So little vision that no one else did it (well, at least) until he did?

Free agency was in its infancy. Steinbrenner just signed anyone who wanted to be a Yankee, with some good results (Reggie Jackson) and some bad ones (Don Gullett). Bill Veeck said at the time that Steinbrenner's biggest failure wasn't his overpaying for stardom, it was his overpaying for mediocrity.

It is also no mistake that the Yankees' best run (1996-2000) was due to a team largely assembled during his second ban from baseball.

[J. Walter Weatherman]

That hardly took any vision.

So little vision that no one else did it (well, at least) until he did?

Free agency was in its infancy. Steinbrenner just signed anyone who wanted to be a Yankee, with some good results (Reggie Jackson) and some bad ones (Don Gullett). Bill Veeck said at the time that Steinbrenner's biggest failure wasn't his overpaying for stardom, it was his overpaying for mediocrity.

It is also no mistake that the Yankees' best run (1996-2000) was due to a team largely assembled during his second ban from baseball.

What does that have to do with YES?

[CT III]

Steinbrenner didn't revoluationize the model for other MLB teams.  He revolutionized it for the Yankees.  He spent a shitload of money on free agents and he set up the YES network, but what impact does that have on MLB?  No other franchises except maybe the Red Sox and the Cubs have ability to emulate what Steinbrenner did.

Al Davis has always been insane, but his insanity has actually changed the landscapre of pro football and even other sports.  It was largely due to his leadership that the AFL was able to force the NFL into a merger (which set the blueprint for the WHA to pull the same thing on the NHL).  His lawsuit against the NFL in the 80's set the stage for the movement of franchises.  Without it, there would not be any Indianapolis Colts, no Oklahoma City Thunder, no Phoenix Coyotes.

Guh.

I'm not saying that Davis' acheivements turned out to be great things for sports or sports fans, but I certainly think he did a lot more to change the face of professional sports than George Steinbrenner.

[Fork]

That hardly took any vision.

So little vision that no one else did it (well, at least) until he did?

Free agency was in its infancy. Steinbrenner just signed anyone who wanted to be a Yankee, with some good results (Reggie Jackson) and some bad ones (Don Gullett). Bill Veeck said at the time that Steinbrenner's biggest failure wasn't his overpaying for stardom, it was his overpaying for mediocrity.

It is also no mistake that the Yankees' best run (1996-2000) was due to a team largely assembled during his second ban from baseball.

What does that have to do with YES?

He didn't innovate there either. The whole team/network model was devised by Ted Turner.

[Brownie]

An owner who did revolutionary stuff with TV? Look no further.

An owner who did revolutionary stuff with pay television?  Look no further.

An owner who was able to put his stamp on the 1970s by firing and releasing people at will? Look no further.

An owner not ashamed to buy a World Series? Look no further.

An owner who figured out Rent-A-Player? Look no further.

An owner who figured out how to make the team's brand go global? Look no further.

An owner who seems content to let his kids ruin his team through benign neglect? Look no further.

All local connections, sure, but each of their impacts (except for the last guy) measures up to and beyond Steinbrenner's.

[Oleg]

I don't really get how Steinbrenner gets all this credit for "revolutionizing" free agency.  Kruk, that mope, said the same thing during the home run derby, something to the effect that player owe Steinbrenner thanks for making all this money.

Shit, if Marvin Miller wasn't smarter than Charles Finley, and certainly no other owner was, free agency today would be a boon for management.

In short, John Kruk can suck a bag of pickled corpse penis.

[Brownie]

I don't really get how Steinbrenner gets all this credit for "revolutionizing" free agency.  Kruk, that mope, said the same thing during the home run derby, something to the effect that player owe Steinbrenner thanks for making all this money.

Shit, if Marvin Miller wasn't smarter than Charles Finley, and certainly no other owner was, free agency today would be a boon for management.

In short, John Kruk can suck a bag of pickled corpse penis.

What are the great moments in free agent history? Outside of the Reggie Jackson signing, what did Steinbrenner do that was noteworthy? Sign Ed Whitson? Jason Giambi? Fail to sign A-Rod?

[Richard Chuggar]

This thread title is still really, really shitty.

[Fork]

I don't really get how Steinbrenner gets all this credit for "revolutionizing" free agency.  Kruk, that mope, said the same thing during the home run derby, something to the effect that player owe Steinbrenner thanks for making all this money.

Shit, if Marvin Miller wasn't smarter than Charles Finley, and certainly no other owner was, free agency today would be a boon for management.

In short, John Kruk can suck a bag of pickled corpse penis.

What are the great moments in free agent history? Outside of the Reggie Jackson signing, what did Steinbrenner do that was noteworthy? Sign Ed Whitson? Jason Giambi? Fail to sign A-Rod?

Actually, the first noteworthy FA signing was Catfish Hunter. But Steinbrenner didn't innovate anything, he just outbid Ted Turner.

And John Kruk can eat his own rotten nut.

[Ivy6]

An owner who did revolutionary stuff with TV? Look no further.

An owner who did revolutionary stuff with pay television?  Look no further.

An owner who was able to put his stamp on the 1970s by firing and releasing people at will? Look no further.

An owner not ashamed to buy a World Series? Look no further.

An owner who figured out Rent-A-Player? Look no further.

An owner who figured out how to make the team's brand go global? Look no further.

An owner who seems content to let his kids ruin his team through benign neglect? Look no further.

All local connections, sure, but each of their impacts (except for the last guy) measures up to and beyond Steinbrenner's.

GODDAMMIT JUST TELL ME WHAT HE DID THE LAST 10 YEARS THAT'S ALL THAT MATTERS HELLO

[PenPho]

That hardly took any vision.

So little vision that no one else did it (well, at least) until he did?

Free agency was in its infancy. Steinbrenner just signed anyone who wanted to be a Yankee, with some good results (Reggie Jackson) and some bad ones (Don Gullett). Bill Veeck said at the time that Steinbrenner's biggest failure wasn't his overpaying for stardom, it was his overpaying for mediocrity.

It is also no mistake that the Yankees' best run (1996-2000) was due to a team largely assembled during his second ban from baseball.

What does that have to do with YES?

He didn't innovate there either. The whole team/network model was devised by Ted Turner.

That's a totally different model.
TBS was a failing station that he owned and he bought the Braves so that he'd have something to show on that piece of shit station. It was a desperation move (that, to his credit, worked out pretty well.)

Steinbrenner created a TV station so that he could have exclusive rights to broadcast something very profitable and then he could make all kinds of demands from the cable providers and keep all the profits and put them back into the team.

I'd type more, but this Big Stein dong hanging out of my mouth is getting in the way of my typing.

Edit: TBS may not have actually been a "piece of shit station" but the fact remains that he owned the station and then bought the team so that he'd have programming for the station, which is certainly not the YES Network model.

[Eli]

short

Hey everyone, look who wrote "short".

[MAD]

So Steinbrenner had more of an effect on his game's delivery than the game itself, via broadcast programming et.al.  I'd say in this instance, he shares a pantheon with Roone Arledge and Eddie Einhorn as opposed to Al Davis, who had a more direct effect on the competition of his game itself. 

The important thing is, you're still more wrong than a fleet-full of Chucks driving Yugos.