Why New York Yankees Fans Shouldn’t Fear a Sale of the Team
May 24, 2012 · Michael Moraitis · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
New York Yankees fans thought they would never see the day when the team would be sold, but according to Michael O’Keeffe and Bill Madden of the New York Daily News, the Steinbrenners might be interested in doing just that.
“There has been chatter all around the banking and financial industries in the city for a couple of weeks now,” one high-level baseball source told The News.
Despite the rumors swirling about a potential sale being considered, Yankees brass has denied it. Also via The News:
Yankee president Randy Levine adamantly denied the rumors: “I can say to you there is absolutely, positively nothing to this. The Steinbrenners are not selling the team.”
Clearly, even if there were plans to sell this team, we certainly wouldn’t know about it.
So is this really a big deal in the grand scheme of things for the organization?
Well, besides the unstoppable discussions regarding the astronomical cost of the most successful sports franchise on the planet, this really doesn’t mean much.
Many would say the team would never be the same without the Steinbrenners running the show, but that should be edited a bit. The team will never be the same without George Steinbrenner running the show.
And since his death in 2010, that has already begun. There is no fiery leader that stands out above the rest of the ownership in baseball. It is only a mess of suits and bottom lines that could forever change the way the organization is run.
Hal and Hank Steinbrenner don’t share the same passion their father did, something O’Keeffe and Madden spell out in their piece:
Another factor fueling the speculation is the fact that Hal Steinbrenner doesn’t seem to share his father’s passion for baseball, and his brother, Hank, has virtually disappeared from the baseball landscape since he approved an onerous 10-year, $275 million contract for Alex Rodriguez before the 2008 season. Hal Steinbrenner rarely attends games, and according to those who know him, abhors doling out the huge money long-term contracts such as the Rodriguez deal.
Who really wants a team run by owners like that? It seems the two guys running the Bombers are disinterested in the task at hand and won’t have any desire to try and make things better if necessary in order to save some money.
There was never any talk of cutting payroll under The Boss, either, which according to the same report, is exactly the opposite under George’s son, Hal:
“I’m a finance geek. I guess I always have been,” Steinbrenner said during spring training. “That’s my background; budgets matter and balance sheets matter. I just feel that if you do well on the player development side and you have a good farm system, you don’t need a $220 million payroll. You can field every bit as good a team with young talent.”
In the end, maybe the Yanks could score themselves another fearless leader who isn’t afraid to say or do what he needs to in order to fire up his team and make it a winner.
Or, the Yankees could get saddled with a total corporate takeover where the bottom line—and not a great team—is the only thing that matters.
Only one thing is certain at this point: No matter who buys the team, the Yankees will never have another owner quite like The Boss.
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