michaeljohn

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George Steinbrenner, owner of the Yankees. He's an idiot. I will tell part of the story. Many of the regulars know of my distaste for the Yankees, but actually it is directed at him. He has ruined a lot of things in baseball, and continues to make a fool out of himself in his public tirades. He's done it again, today. He has stated that if the Yankees don't beat Cleveland in their current series, Joe Torre is probably fired. More on that later in this post.

A little bit of history on George...

Let's look back to 1981. Dodgers beat the Yankees in the World Series 4 games to 2, clinching in Yankee Stadium. George's comment? I would like to apologize to the fans of the Yankees on their performance in the World Series. In other words, only a championship is acceptable. Where on earth were his congratulations for the Dodgers, who just completed one of the greatest performances in playoff history?

Before we get into the Dodger 1981 playoff run, let's review the history of their team in that era. They fielded the greatest infield of all time, Steve Garvey at 1st base, Davey Lopes at 2nd, Bill Russell at SS, and Ron Cey at 3rd. The double play combination of "Russell to Lopes to Garvey" owns "Tinker to Evans to Chance".

From 1974 to 1981, the Dodgers made it to the world series in 1974, 1977, 1977, and 1981. They lost to A's in '74, and to the Yanks in '77 and '78. The Cincinatti Reds of that era had one of the greatest teams in history, and the Dodgers had to contend with them in their division.

Flashback to 1980. The Dodgers trailed the Houston Astros by 3 games with 3 to play and hosted them for season ending series. The Dodgers needed to win all three games to force a playoff. I was at the first game, and my dad, who is an early leaver of games (He missed Kirk Gibson's 1988 opening world series game winning homerun but he beat traffic). Well, the Dodgers were down in the 9th, and he had the car keys so we left our field level seats between home and first and headed for the exits, and listened to the Dodgers come back and win it. Well, it didn't stop there. The Dodgers won the next two games to force a playoff, which by a coin flip was held at home. Yeah, Dodgers lost that game, and lost it big. However, they captured the heart of Los Angeles for their valiant effort. Also, they had a new secret weapon, a rookie relief pitcher by the name of Fernando Valenzuela. I think he was pretty much perfect in his stints in relief in September....By the way, the Astros went on to lose one of the greatest playoff series ever to the Phillies. Philadelphia was long tormented in the 70's by both the Dodgers and the Reds in the playoffs, and they finally went on to win a series...might have been their first ever...

Ok, on to 1981. Dodgers open at home, vs. who? The Astros? Yep! Can you guess who started for the Dodgers? Hmm? Well, try Fernando Valenzuela! If memory serves me, he pitched a shut out. If not, it was dominating. Fernandomania was born. When the last out of his complete game victory was recorded, Vince Scully said: "And a child shall lead them". I thnk he was listed at 20, but he looked older....Dodger attendance rocketed among the Mexican American fans, and their Spanish language broadcasts set ratings records...

Ok, back then, the AL and NL had two divisions, east and west. The champs met for a 5 game series to determine who advanced to the fall classic. Well, something screwy happened that season. The players went on strike. I think close to 2 months were lost. Finally, play resumed but they had to figure out how to seed the playoffs. Yeah, the solution wasn't without controversy. What they decided was the division leaders of the first half would make the playoffs, and whoever won the 2nd half of the season in their division would be their opponent. Well, the Dodgers were leading the west when the strike occured, so they just coasted along. The Astros won the 2nd half of the west. The Cincinatti Reds came second both halves and had a better combined season record than either LA or Houston, but they were left out.

So, this was the first year that a team had to win 3 sereis to win it all, similar to what we see now. The Dodgers were set to open with 2 games in Houston, then play 3 at home. (that's how they did things then, all 5 game series started that way and home opening game was alternated east and west, year after year).

Well, the Dodgers lost the first two games in Houston, and headed back home in almost the exact same situation as the year before. They needed to win 3 home games to advance. Yeah, obviously they did. Series comeback number one completed.

Next series, the Dodgers opened at home against the Montreal Expos. They split the first two games, now on to Montreal. Expos took game 3. Dodgers took game 4. Game 5 was tied up in the 9th, and Rick Monday hit a dramatic solo homer and the Dodgers held on and won. Comeback number 2 completed.

Now, it's World Series time, first 2 games in New York. Yanks won them both, easily if I recall....Now back to LA. Fernando was rocky, and allowed the Yanks a big lead in game 3. However, the Dodgers battled back and won. Next game was a pitchers duel. Ron Guidry was brilliant with a 1-0 lead, and about the 6th inning or so, LA collected a pair of back to back solo home runs. One was by Steve Yeager, I can't recall who hit the other. The 2-1 Dodger lead held up. Naturally, LA took game five. Back to New York. LA started Burt Hooten, NY a former Dodger ace, Tommy John. John was pulled for a pinch hiiter in a tie game and was royally pissed. A Yankee reliever by the name of George Frazier came in and let the Dodgers rout him to collect his 3rd World Series loss that year. Playoff comeback number three complete and World Championship to the Dodgers. If I recall, Fernando not only won Rookie of the year, he nabbed the Cy Young award too.

Yeah, George was buying high priced non playoff performing free agents back then. I recall one of them, Dave Winfield went like 1 or 21 that series and even stopped play to collect the ball to save as a memento.

Now, do you see what I mean by George's apology to Yankee fans statement? His Yankee team lost to a team that wouldn't be denied any longer. They were hungry, they were due, and they delivered in dramatic fashion. He's a fan, but only of his team. Great efforts by other teams simply don't merit his acknowledgement.

Well, the Yankees didn't do much after 1981, until 1996. George was spending money on big name free agents heping to drive the prices up in the market. Who pays this? The fans. They pay going to games, and in the prices of things the Yankee sponsors sell. I recall George did lure Ricky Henderson away from Oakland in the interim.

At some point before his current great Yankee team, George got kicked out of baseball for awhile, I let someone else add this story, it's classic George idiocy as usual.

Now, onto the current controversy....I don't care who you are, or where you work, but if you are doing a damned good job and your boss tells you your best isn't good enough, do better or goodbye, your morale just went out the window. I stated elsewhere, If I were Joe Torre, I would just lose this series ASAP and grab another opportunity to manage a team that plays like one. By the way, it is normal for teams to wait for the season to end before they fire a leader, George's actions are competely moronic and childish. The teams winning since the Yankees collapsed in 2001 are hungry, and determined. Each has it's own story and each one deserved it more than the Yankeees did.

George, did you ever stop and think you may be the problem? You spend your money getting the best and highest priced players you can find, but it's no longer working for you. These players aren't hungry, they are laughing all the way to the bank!

Yeah, it was painful to see the Yankees win 4 years of 5 awhile back, but it's even more fun watching them choke every year since 2001, and my much posted about "Curse of 9-11" that has befallen the Yanks. Don't forget, their playoff choke against the Red Sox in 2004 has been named the greatest collapse in major league sports history. It's documented:

http://msn.foxsports.com/mlb/story/...HPHCP&GT1=10539

George is mentioned as looking frail at age 77. He may not be around much longer. Ok, I'm done for now, look forward to the replies.

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plumbarius

As I recall, the Yankees were just about written off at the All Star break. Torre did a great job to bring them back into the thick of it. Not a Yankee fan, but I respect the players and especially the manager.

fmb

George is an ass. George is a very big ass. George is such a big ass there isn't a scope large enough to check his colon.

michaeljohn

Hmm, I won't edit my post above, but a couple of oops: grammar and mispelling...

Quotation marks missing in George's `1981` comment:

"I would like to apologize to the fans of the Yankees on their performance in the World Series".

Tinker to Evers to Chance, not Tinker to Evans to Chance.

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Mr. Bowler

That is truely sad. Not even congratulating the winning team. If they don't win a title its a travesty to them like they deserve to win every year. If they did win every year nobody would watch the damn sport. George Steinbrenner is an asshole, period.

NEWSFLASH TO GEORGE: You CANT win every year, get over it already.

And the "fans" of the Yankees are the worst, when their team sucks they suddenly don't like them (like before the all-star break), then they started doing good and suddenly they started re-appearing and talking shit and bragging about how many world series they "won" (Id rather say "bought")

Seeing Boston come back from being down 3-0 and then sweeping the Cards in the WS was awesome. The Yankees wouldn't be anywhere near as good if they weren't backed by such a huge bank account. Id like to see who they could buy out with the lowest payroll in the league, baseball doesn't need a cap, the Yankees do.

Right now the Stankee's just got 1 run and still down 4-1, I wish someone would put the Yankees out of their misery once and for all.

michaeljohn

A good article, tells it like it is: http://community.foxsports.com/blog...re_Torre_Or_Not

A few years back, the Dodger owning O'Malley family sold the team to avoid huge inheritance taxes. Steinbrenner should do the same before he forgets and dies. He is supposed to have Alzheimers.

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Mr. Bowler

The Yankees are now gone, a good day in the baseball world. Now it will be fun to go fuck with the bandwagon Yankee fans on the Yankee fan forum. It was good to see them lose in their home town, they got lucky to make it in the playoffs to begin with.

I'll read that article later before I goto bed, looks like a nice read.

Bonecrusher

What an awesome post Fin. I could imagine this thread becoming the largest thread on the site if people were to really start naming reasons that George is an ass.

The guy spends a ton of money to help fuel his own ego. He goes out an buys the best money can buy. He's the one making the decisions and when all goes well he takes full responsibility. He doesn't credit Joe Torre for a dozen years of playoff apperances or any of the World Series titles. He takes credit for that....but the failures are all Torre's fault or the fault of the players who are so highly paid....or even Brian Cashmans fault for signing the players George no doubt told him to go buy.

I hate people who only take credit during positive situations and then lay the blame on everyone else.

That is the number one reason George is an ahole.

the angels didn't win because they were the better team they won because Joe Torre did a poor job managing the team...at least that's what George says.

Lazer

But you also have to look at their schedule before AS break, And after.. The first half was a tough schedule, After the break it was more about facing weaker teams more often.. MLB probably does this to generate excitement for the AL east race.