About The Yankees ‘07
October 22, 2007
What do we really know of Hank Steinbrenner, the 50-year-old New York Yankees legatee who made such a half wit of himself in l’affair Torre?
We do know that he’s overweight and smokes cigarettes, this according to a widely distributed paparazzi photo taken outside the Steinbrenner-Yankee headquarters in Tampa, Fla.. The moment of pix came during the interminable wait for Hank, and other Yankee “executives,” to make up their collective minds about what to do with their baseball team’s manager, the esteemed Joe Torre, native of Brooklyn, N.Y., veteran of almost 9,000 major league baseball games as player and manager in 42 seasons
We pinpoint Hank because he’s the heir apparent, so seemly designated by his father, the infamous 77-year-old George Steinbrenner who resuscitated the Yankee empire and ran it like a sultan in four decades.
Many commentators, amateur and professional, have had their say about l’affair Torre. But none, that I know of, address a simple issue. Why did not Hank … or any of the other “execs” … consult Howard Rubinstein, the notable public relations pope regarding the best way to posit a Torre solution?
Rubinstein, for a variety of clients both good and bad, has proven he can make a saint out of a witch.
Steinbrenner Senior has been using Howard R. as his major and almost only voice for around two years now as George slowly slipped into senility. (This slippage is my calculated presumption.)
Rubinstein did a good job of protecting his client as Howard always does in manipulating the media giants of New York City, a remarkable day-by-day feat.
He did slip recently when Steinbrenner, in Florida, answered an inquiry call from a reporter, Ian O’Connor, of a minor newspaper, the Bergen Record of Hackensack, N.J. Steinbrenner told O’Connor that Torre’s job was at severe risk now, following the Yankees’ elimination from the current playoffs by the Cleveland Indians.
That was a coincidental and epic scoop for respected reporter O’Connor, whose quotes from Sir George were widely repeated and, in most cases, credited.
Hank, from Cleveland and Tampa, doesn’t know anything about New York. Thus followed, after Torre’s refusal to accept the Yankees’ puny and “insulting” offer to continue as manager, the vicious explosion from all facets of New York media. Possibly, or more probably, this response came as a dismissible jolt to ole’ Hankeroo, the puffing avoirdupois midlife pally without clues.
Howard Rubinstein most certainly could have helped to discover a better way to make disappear Joe Torre, the 67-year-old object of everyone’s love & affection.
What next? The Yankees will likely continue to be a competitive baseball team with no danger of the annual three million home- attendance total diminishing. Not with a brand new Bronx ball park coming in 2009.
A tick, a wobble? Yes, should Brian Cashman quit. Cashman continues as the person in charge of hiring and firing the players. The apparent lone Torre supporter in the Yankee executive suite, he may choose to leave this organization after one more season. That would be troublesome for the helpless Steinbrenner heirs.
There is something else. The Yankees, under George Steinbrenner, have enjoyed sweetheart leases of Yankee Stadium (which belongs to the city of New York) thanks to a series of benevolent mayors such as Abe Beame and Rudy Giuliani. The organization, as a tenant, has been slow in paying its various dues and continues way behind. Furthermore the itemization of expenses, to reduce the rent, has been romantic, expansive and imaginative according to investigations revealed by the New York Times.
The Times is on to this story and apparently will not let it expire. One would note that the current mayor, Michael Bloomberg, is a superb businessman and courageous politician unlikely to let the rich Yankees get away with any unpaid bills.
Conclusion. The Yankees — it is a collective name — have problems, a welcome circumstance to Yankee haters. Hank Steinbrenner seems to have encouraged the emergence of many more haters … and problems. £££