Growing up a Yankee fan in my early years, I knew nothing about winning.  Bobby Murcer, Thurman Munson, Roy White were my heroes, even though our season ended in September.  The Oakland Athletics took over the post season with dominance during the early seventies.  But it was okay; we had Horace Clarke, Jerry Kenney, and Mel Stottlemyer to root for, along with manager Ralph Houk.  Every moment was exciting as we listened to Phil Rizzuto, Frank Messer and Bill White on Channel 11.  It wasn’t about winning or losing, it was about rooting for our heroes.

Then one day in 1973, some man with a funny name along, with funny hair was our new owner.  We were cool with that, until he started trading away our heroes.  Mike Kekich, Fritz Peterson, “Doc” Medich, one by one our team was being transformed.  He even got rid of Otto Velez.  Who is this guy and what is he doing?  He just traded Lindy McDaniel.  Our “Major” even quit his managerial duties.  Who are these guys he’s forcing us to root for? Guys like Chris Chambliss, Lou Piniella, and a rookie named Willie Randolph.  Oh my God, he even traded our All-Star Bobby Murcer.  This guy is the worst owner ever, we thought.

All of a sudden we were in a pennant race that went down to the wire.  Wow, How exciting!  This is how it should be.  Even though we just missed the post season, there was hope for next year.  Now the guy with the funny hair just brought us Jim “Catfish” Hunter, who was the best at the time.  He also hired a fiery manager in Billy Martin, which eventually would teach us about forgiveness, on five different occasions.  Even though we didn’t win, it was even more exciting to root for our team. 

Three years after he purchased the team, we represented The American League in the Fall Classic, but that’s all we did.  After years and years of losing teams, being American League Champs was good enough for us, but definitely not for our owner.  He kept wheeling and dealing until he got the right pieces and boy did he catch a big one.  Reggie Jackson is gonna play for us.  1977, was the year we finally were crowned World Champs.  Four years after he brought the team, he rewarded us with the Trophy. 

Thank you George M. Steinbrenner III for teaching us what it’s like to have a winner to root for. 

Thank you Mr. Steinbrenner for putting our money that we spent on our team back into our team to produce a winning team. 

Thank you “BOSS” for making New York happy, in a winning way!

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