You're either with them -- or you hate them. That sums up the way baseball fans feel about the New York Yankees. And that's also why the team, which clinched its 27th World Series on Wednesday night, is the Goldman Sachs of American sports.
"Mr. Steinbrenner deserves another championship." --Joe Girardi, after the Yankees won the pennant
George Steinbrenner, the most famous owner of the free agency era, was at the new Yankee Stadium on Opening Day. When he was introduced, his daughter Jenny, sitting next to him, gently raised his right arm so that he could wave to the crowd. His roar may be gone, but the old lion was able to see his palace open. I watched Steinbrenner choking back emotion on the scoreboard TV from the concourse behind home plate. Next to me, a Yankee fan in a Paul O'Neill jersey had a homemade sign hanging from a string around his neck. It read: "The House that LOOT Built."
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Joba Chamberlain walked four of the five batters he faced Thursday and failed to get an out in the first inning of the New York Yankees' 6-0 loss to Canada's World Baseball Classic team.
Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution grants the president "power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States." With a stroke of his pen, the man in charge can make legal trouble disappear. As one might expect, this practice can be a bit controversial.
It was just before one o'clock in the morning on Sept. 22, but the scoreboard clock was frozen at 12:21. The last game at Yankee Stadium was over, Sinatra had finally stopped singing New York, New York, and organist Ed Alstrom was playing Goodnight, Sweetheart. The home team had won 7-3 in a game that meant nothing in the standings but everything in a deeper, gut-felt way. The Yankees would not be going to the postseason for the first time since 1993, yet they had drawn 4.3 million fans, including another capacity-plus 54,640 on this night. And now, as the last of them drifted out of the ballpark, it felt like closing night for a hit Broadway show.
Every city in the country, I suppose, has its own relationship with New York City -- you know, much the same way that every college basketball team in the old ACC had a rivalry with North Carolina. The City is just omnipresent in American life. Everyone knows about Boston's rivalry with New York and the friction between Philadelphia and New York and the long-distance relationship between Los Angeles and New York. Chicago calls itself "Second City," and while technically this is because of the way it rebuilt itself after the Great Chicago Fire, I know many people in Chicago who believe it is in some way a reference to New York and its entrenched role as the First City. Kansas City* has a chip on its shoulder about New York that goes back to before the days when the Kansas City Blues were a Yankees minor league team and before the Kansas City A's traded Roger Maris to the big city. People in towns big and small all across America have long placed their own city's charms and ease and
"We've got to forget about all the injuries and start playing our butts off. The bottom line is that the team is not playing the way it is capable of playing. These players are being paid a lot of money and they had better decide for themselves to earn that money." -- New York Yankees co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner to The New York Post, May 12, 2008
There are only 21 more regular season games left at Yankee Stadium and each is being treated like standing room only for a smash Broadway show -- it's the hottest ticket in town. That late summer game against Tampa Bay? It's going to cost you. Seats for the regular season finale are already going for more than a thousand bucks a pop.
There was a T-shirt in New York in the early '80s that said, "Welcome to New York, Now Go the ---- Home." It is only with a small degree of exaggeration that you can apply the same sentiment to the experience of watching a game at Yankee Stadium. It is not for the faint of heart or for the aesthetic-minded.
You're either with them -- or you hate them. That sums up the way baseball fans feel about the New York Yankees. And that's also why the team, which clinched its 27th World Series on Wednesday night, is the Goldman Sachs of American sports.
"Mr. Steinbrenner deserves another championship." --Joe Girardi, after the Yankees won the pennant
George Steinbrenner, the most famous owner of the free agency era, was at the new Yankee Stadium on Opening Day. When he was introduced, his daughter Jenny, sitting next to him, gently raised his right arm so that he could wave to the crowd. His roar may be gone, but the old lion was able to see his palace open. I watched Steinbrenner choking back emotion on the scoreboard TV from the concourse behind home plate. Next to me, a Yankee fan in a Paul O'Neill jersey had a homemade sign hanging from a string around his neck. It read: "The House that LOOT Built."
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) -- Joba Chamberlain walked four of the five batters he faced Thursday and failed to get an out in the first inning of the New York Yankees' 6-0 loss to Canada's World Baseball Classic team.
Article II, Section 2 of the United States Constitution grants the president "power to grant reprieves and pardons for offenses against the United States." With a stroke of his pen, the man in charge can make legal trouble disappear. As one might expect, this practice can be a bit controversial.
It was just before one o'clock in the morning on Sept. 22, but the scoreboard clock was frozen at 12:21. The last game at Yankee Stadium was over, Sinatra had finally stopped singing New York, New York, and organist Ed Alstrom was playing Goodnight, Sweetheart. The home team had won 7-3 in a game that meant nothing in the standings but everything in a deeper, gut-felt way. The Yankees would not be going to the postseason for the first time since 1993, yet they had drawn 4.3 million fans, including another capacity-plus 54,640 on this night. And now, as the last of them drifted out of the ballpark, it felt like closing night for a hit Broadway show.
Every city in the country, I suppose, has its own relationship with New York City -- you know, much the same way that every college basketball team in the old ACC had a rivalry with North Carolina. The City is just omnipresent in American life. Everyone knows about Boston's rivalry with New York and the friction between Philadelphia and New York and the long-distance relationship between Los Angeles and New York. Chicago calls itself "Second City," and while technically this is because of the way it rebuilt itself after the Great Chicago Fire, I know many people in Chicago who believe it is in some way a reference to New York and its entrenched role as the First City. Kansas City* has a chip on its shoulder about New York that goes back to before the days when the Kansas City Blues were a Yankees minor league team and before the Kansas City A's traded Roger Maris to the big city. People in towns big and small all across America have long placed their own city's charms and ease and
"We've got to forget about all the injuries and start playing our butts off. The bottom line is that the team is not playing the way it is capable of playing. These players are being paid a lot of money and they had better decide for themselves to earn that money." -- New York Yankees co-chairman Hank Steinbrenner to The New York Post, May 12, 2008
There are only 21 more regular season games left at Yankee Stadium and each is being treated like standing room only for a smash Broadway show -- it's the hottest ticket in town. That late summer game against Tampa Bay? It's going to cost you. Seats for the regular season finale are already going for more than a thousand bucks a pop.
There was a T-shirt in New York in the early '80s that said, "Welcome to New York, Now Go the ---- Home." It is only with a small degree of exaggeration that you can apply the same sentiment to the experience of watching a game at Yankee Stadium. It is not for the faint of heart or for the aesthetic-minded.
It's never easy being told you're not wanted, that the organization is going in a different direction and that your services will no longer be needed. You can couch it in a thousand euphemisms -- all related to "philosophical differences," of course -- but it doesn't change the fact that you've just been fired.
It is possible to bring a classy professional sports reputation to New York, to accept a job (and the lavish paycheck that comes with it) from an utterly unpredictable and occasionally irrational employer, to be successful by all team and individual standards despite the boss' many flaws and meddlings, and to emerge years later more or less unscathed.
Congress screams, the Pentagon screams but it's all part of a strange Washington phenomenon. China may be dangerous but it's not clear how exactly
NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Yankees ownership approached longtime general manager Brian Cashman offering to talk about an extension to his contract that expires after the 2008 season, SI.com has learned, but Cashman responded by telling his bosses that he doesn't feel the time is right to talk about his contract.
Joe Girardi and the Yankees are believed to be putting the finishing touches on a contract to make him the 34th manager in the franchise's storied 107-year history.
There is, of course, Manny being Manny. But this is a case of the Yankees being the Yankees.
Also in this column: • Torre's 'insulting' incentive package • Cashman was his 'one ally' • Byrd not fooling anybody • More news and notes
Scott Boras, the agent for star New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, told CNNMoney.com Saturday that the current uncertainty surrounding the team, including its managerial opening, will make it difficult for his client to sign with the Yankees by the deadline given by team management.
When he was robust and running the New York Yankees, George Steinbrenner never minded a little blood on his hands. He swung his firing axe decisively and often. I was there in Chicago at old Comiskey Park when Dale Berra cried into his dirty sanitary sock when Steinbrenner fired his father, Yogi, only 16 games into the 1985 season. Steinbrenner was rash, but he took the heat for it.
The New York Yankees did the right thing by offering Joe Torre a fair contract that would have kept him the highest-paid manager in the game. And Torre did the right thing by rejecting the offer.
Joe Torre is done as Yankees manager after he rejected their one-year offer to remain with the club, ending his legendary 12-year reign in the Bronx.
Top Yankees decision-makers are believed to have discussed different scenarios under which Joe Torre could possibly return for a 13th season when they gathered again Wednesday in Tampa, Fla., perhaps signaling a softening in the tough stance club owner George Steinbrenner enunciated regarding Torre in his rare interview 11 days ago.
Don Mattingly did not tell the Yankees he isn't ready to be manager or take himself out of the running for consideration, Mattingly's longtime agent Ray Schulte said on Tuesday afternoon.
Some Yankees decision-makers have been paying close attention to the reaction of players and fans, and a few people close to the situation are actually beginning to wonder whether Joe Torre is as gone as Yankees owner George Steinbrenner said he would be.
Also in this column: • Boss' son to decide Torre's fate? • Ex-Braves GM's agent run-around • Mazzone's luck runs out
Last weekend's saber-rattling from New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner is once again raising questions about whether age and illness have caught up to the 77-year-old Boss -- and not just because many fans think Steinbrenner would be foolish to let manager Joe Torre go.
Also in this column: • What is D-Train's value? • Jose Reyes for Johan Santana? • White Sox want Rowand or Hunter • More news and notes
Word is, George Steinbrenner was "quite upset'' during the 6-4 Indians' win that ensured the Yankees would not be a World Series champion for a seventh straight season. According to confidants, Steinbrenner actually has been itching to fire Joe Torre for a few years. Now a managerial firing will likely be the Boss's only consolation.
NEW YORK -- In his first 20 years as principal owner of the New York Yankees, George Steinbrenner hired and fired 21 managers, including Billy Martin five times. That Joe Torre has remained skipper for 12 full seasons under The Boss is an anomaly, a feat almost as remarkable as Joe DiMaggio's 56-game hitting streak.
Also in this column: • How many chances for Torre? • Mattingly vs. Girardi debate • Wedge makes a bad call • More news and notes
Roger Clemens dialed up a 92-mph fastball and threw it past Victor Martinez for strike three. It was the 59th pitch of the game for Clemens, and likely the final pitch of his storied career. His shoulders slumped and then Clemens limped off the field to a mixture of cheers and boos from a crowd of more than 56,000 at Yankee Stadium.
Sunday, May 6, 2007. Seventh-inning-stretch time at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. The Yankees boasted a 3-0 lead, but to many New York fans the entire season was already in peril. The team's high-priced pitching staff had been decimated by injuries and ineffectiveness, and the Yanks had fallen 5 1D 2 games behind their resurgent rivals, the Boston Red Sox.
Also in this column: • A good week for baseball -- by comparison • More news and notes
Twenty-five years ago, the Yankees hit July 4 at 36-37 on their way to unceremoniously snapping a string of five postseason appearances in six years, including three pennants and two World Series championships. That run could have been six-for-six if not for the demoralizing death of captain Thurman Munson during the 1979 season. The '82 Yankees, who bear a passing resemblance to this year's squad, were a talented bunch (on papyrus) that wheezed in fifth in the A.L. East at 79-83 -- the franchise's first losing record since 1973.
NEW YORK -- It wasn't until after his 108th and final pitch that the Yankee Stadium crowd felt comfortable showering Roger Clemens with the appreciation that been building since his last visit to the Bronx, when he announced his return to pinstripes. And that pitch was vintage Clemens, a splitter biting down and away from the flailing swing of Pirates lefty Ryan Doumit, preserving a one-run lead after six innings of work.
Also in this column: • Zambrano's roller-coaster year • Giambi facing 50-game ban • Ken Williams backs Ozzie • More news and notes
Also in this column: • Brewers call up a stud • Sheffield's latest rant • More news and notes
Also in this column: • New Braves owners won't spend • Ozzie awaits A-Rod in Chicago • An omission from my over-40 list • More news and notes
Six months ago nearly everyone was lambasting Barry Bonds. The Mark McGwire Hall of Fame vote was the high water mark for the media taking a stand against steroids. Alas, that solidarity is gone. For whatever reason, writers such as yourself are now beginning the campaign to rehabilitate Bonds' image. Why? Is it to build hype for the chase, to give you something to talk about? Is it in response to the supposed racial undertones to Bonds' records? For whatever reason, you should be ashamed. Baseball has been degraded enough, both by its own inaction and the implicit complicity of the media during the '90s. MLB seems unwilling to stand up to its steroids-laced record holders, but the media at least should try to stand for something. I'm very disappointed in you and many of your colleagues, both at SI and elsewhere. --Jeremy S., Arlington, Va.
Well, it's early May, and we've already had our first casualty. No surprise, it's a Yankee. No surprise again, it's the strength and conditioning man who has overseen a disastrous run of injuries to front-line Yankees pitcher, many of those injuries involving the hamstring.
I have been a huge fan of Jose Reyes and David Wright since they came up to the big leagues. But while Reyes has exploded in his play, Wright has struggled. At first, it seemed like his power was all that was gone, but now he really looks lost at the plate. He didn't hit his first home run of the season until Tuesday against the Marlins. Should I be a little worried, or a lot worried? -- Dan, Monmouth Junction, N.J.
NEW YORK -- If George Steinbrenner decides to blame Joe Torre for the Yankees' awful start and fire him, Steinbrenner's first choice to replace Torre would be Don Mattingly, SI.com has learned.
Also in this column: • Schilling's bloody sock mess • John Smoltz's extension • Philip Hughes' rough debut • More news and notes
Also in this column: • Russ Ortiz's quick fix • Bobby Jenks' velocity drop • More news and notes
Also in this column: • Pitching injury epidemic • Late spring awards • Other camp news, notes
The New York Yankees took advantage of Roger Clemens' attendance at Legends Field on Wednesday to ask Clemens back to the Bronx, SI.com has learned.
In recent years, one of the annual rites of spring for the New York media has been to proclaim the return of The Bronx Zoo. This year, Mariano Rivera's expiring contract, the absence of Bernie Williams, and the Alex Rodriguez-Derek Jeter affair have prompted New York writers to invoke the name of the old Zoo. You can hardly blame them.
Also in this column: • Torre and Donnie Baseball • Tejada ready for big year • Beckett's big problem • More news and notes
CBS Chairman Leslie Moonves has an unexpected scapegoat for the network's expected No. 2 finish behind rival network Fox in a key ratings fight: New York Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera.
The panic that gripped Yankee fans in April and early May has largely abated.
Now that we've enjoyed our Thanksgiving turkeys and the ensuing leftovers, let's look at the other side of the holiday coin -- the human turkeys of business, politics, sports and entertainment over the past year.
It's Thanksgiving time again, and to most of us that means turkey.
This year's Major League Baseball All-Star game is being played in Houston on July 13, and the hometown Astros have been garnering all sorts of attention--even though they're nine games out of firs...
You don't have to love him -- and relatively few baseball fans do -- to believe that George Steinbrenner belongs in baseball's Hall of Fame someday.
Baseball is, in many ways, management theory in action. Winning teams know how to manage operations, people, and change--areas that are vital to the success of any organization. Jeff Angus, a baseb...
The thriller "Van Helsing" is expected to have cost between $160 million and $200 million to make. That's a lot of overhead for a movie about a well-coiffed guy battling the creatures of the night.
Author Michael Lewis, the champion of the small-market sports team, has a soft spot for George Steinbrenner.
All-Star Alex Rodriguez, the richest player in Major League Baseball, has joined New York Yankees after commissioner Bud Selig approved the trade from the Texas Rangers.
It seems that every year, as soon as we set our clocks forward, things start getting a little nutty. (Maybe Arizona, which passes on daylight-saving time, is on to something.) Below, our Spring Fev...
Joe Torre began the 2001 baseball season the same way he finished the 2000 baseball season: with tears in his eyes. Last year they spilled forth in the dugout after the Yankees clinched their third...
Now that the Yankees have succeeded in the little matter of winning the World Series, the really important game is under way: how to get the city of New York to give the team a new--or at least a m...
''It ain't over till it's over,'' said the Yankees' Yogi Berra, who could raise a losing team's spirits even in the bottom of the ninth. But today disheartened investors fret that the great U.S. bo...
Another baseball season come and gone. How to survive the dreary, diamondless days ahead? Do what media magnates and pizza barons do during the off-season: buy a ball club. Who knows, you might eve...
The year is winding down as we tap in these bytes, so it must be time for Keeping Up's traditional (now in its second year) list of the ten ''most notorious'' businesspersons of the annum. As in th...
ON A RECENT FLIGHT to Denver from Grand Junction, Colorado, a business executive asked Terry Liskevych, coach of the U.S. women's Olympic volleyball team, why the United States doesn't win more med...
It's a familiar situation: There are only so many major league teams and so many good managers, and the managers are always moving from team to team. Only it isn't baseball, it's airlines. In the p...
With accusations of collusion and threats of a strike, the wide world of sports looks more like an industrial battleground every day. Baseball is anxiously awaiting a ruling by arbitrator Thomas Ro...
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