NEW YORK, NY — There’s no New York Yankees the sports world knows of today as the New York Yankees without the late great George Steinbrenner.
Veteran New York Post sports columnist Mike Vaccaro undertook a herculean task in writing “Bosses of the Bronx: The Endless Drama of the Yankees Under the House of Steinbrenner” as it is the definitive book on the history of the Yankees ownership.
Let’s face it. If you are going to write a book about Yankees CEOs, there is not going to be much public interest in Jacob Ruppert, Del Webb, Dan Topping, or the suits at CBS who owned the team during their temporary decline in the late 1960s and early 1970s who put legendary Madison Square Garden executive Michael Burke in charge.
Image Credit: Harper Publishing
Although the book title is “Bosses of the Bronx,” Vaccaro knows there was only one “boss” who will be remembered. Although there have been many books about George Steinbrenner, this one is by far the liveliest read.
Brian Cashman has overseen Yankees personnel matters for over 30 years, so it is easy to forget how unstable the general manager’s job was for most of Steinbrenner’s tenure. Vaccaro describes how former Yankees general managers Gabe Paul, Lee MacPhail, Tal Smith, Bob Watson, and Gene Michael butted heads with Steinbrenner, with only “Stick” Michael having any success in getting “The Boss” to agree with their personnel decisions.
While Steinbrenner may have butted heads with his general managers, those were nothing compared with his battles with Yankees legends. Vaccaro provides all the details about George’s dustups with Reggie Jackson, Don Mattingly, Dave Winfield, and Yogi Berra. The feud Berra had with Steinbrenner lasted well over 20 years with Berra refusing to attend Old-Timers Day ceremonies at Yankee Stadium for years. Happily, both men patched things up late in their lives when Steinbrenner visited Berra’s home in Montclair, NJ to apologize for his mistreatment of him.
Writing about George Steinbrenner without doing so about Billy Martin would be the equivalent of writing a biography of Stan Laurel without discussing Oliver Hardy. Steinbrenner hired and fired Billy Martin so often, Miller Lite Beer had the two of them star in a commercial with Steinbrenner firing Martin for disagreeing on whether Lite’s chief virtue was great taste or whether it was less filling.
Image Credit: MLB
Billy Martin had five separate tenures as Yankees manager, and Mike Vaccaro reveals there would have been a sixth, had Martin not tragically died in a Binghamton, NY car crash on Christmas Day, 1989.
Vaccaro tells the story of how Mickey Morabito, the Yankees media relations chief at the time, was worried about losing his job because he convinced Steinbrenner to let him host a luncheon for Martin and Yankees beat writers in the summer of 1978.
An inebriated Martin gave the writers plenty of fodder, and Morabito thought he was finished. As luck would have it, there was a newspaper strike the next day, and no one knew about what transpired.
Morabito, now the Athletics’ travel secretary, confirmed that account to me when I saw him at Citi Field last month.
Check out “The New Baseball Bible” by Dan Schlossberg
Another very worthwhile book on the nation’s pastime is “The New Baseball Bible” (Sports Publishing) written by veteran baseball and travel journalist Dan Schlossberg. Yes, there are plenty of facts about the Hall of Famers, but what makes this book a fun read is the little factoids.
A good example is how William Shea, who was instrumental in getting the National League to put a team in New York City, after both the Dodgers and Giants left town in 1957, collected water from the Harlem River near the Polo Grounds, and the Gowanus Canal which was not far from Ebbets Field.
Image Credit: Sports Publishing
He sprinkled the bottles on the grass of the ballpark named after him, Shea Stadium, the day before it opened in April 1964.
AEW’s Extravaganza in Queens
The All-Elite Wrestling Promotion held a pay-per-view extravaganza at Louis Armstrong Stadium at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center this past Sunday. To promote the event, AEW had their charismatic wrestling heel, Maxwell Jacob Friedman, who grew up a big Mets fan in Plainview, make an appearance last Tuesday on SNY’s “Baseball Night in New York.”
Image Credit: AEW
Friedman, better known in pro wrestling by his initials, MJF, proceeded to roast host Sal Licata in a style which would have made the late, great insult comic, and Newtown High school alum, Don Rickles proud. The SNY production team then showed MJF making a 2024 pregame appearance at Citi Field. The best bit, however, was them showing Friedman serenading wrestling fans in Philadelphia with a letter-perfect version of “Meet the Mets” in 2022. They were not very appreciative of his crooning.
Queens Business Expo at Citi Field
Mets Hall of Famer Dwight “Doc” Gooden made a promotional appearance at last Tuesday’s Queens Business Expo organized by the Queens Chamber of Commerce and was held at Citi Field.
Image Credit: Queens Business Expo
One of the exhibitors, the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino at Metropolitan Park, is hopeful of an opening date in 2030. The New York City Football Club had a booth as they were promoting season ticket plans at Ethiad Park which will open across the street from Citi Field next summer. The New York Islanders also had a kiosk.
Improvement coming in 2026 for Jets?
Dan Leberfeld, SiriusXM NFL air personality, and publisher of Jets Confidential, gave credit to Jets general manager Darren Mougey for improving the Jets defense against the opposition’s run game.
Image Credit: Bill Menzel/Latino Sports
The Jets were so poor at stopping the run last year that Dan wrote in the current issue of Jets Confidential it seemed like Moses was parting the Red Sea for running backs playing against Gang Green.
LIRR Strike ends just before the NBA Eastern Conference Finals
The five unions who represent the workers of the Long Island Railroad owe the New York Knicks a big thank you for helping to get their strike settled. I do not believe it was a coincidence the trains started running again just hours before the NBA Eastern Conference Finals, between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the New York Knickerbockers, was about to get underway.
Image Credit: ABC7NY
Madison Square Garden is located above Penn Station. No politician wanted television news camera crews standing on 33rd Street, interviewing fans as they were either entering or leaving the Garden.
Boomer Esiason to be enshrined in Radio Hall of Fame this fall
WFAN morning man Boomer Esiason will likely never be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but he will be enshrined in the Radio Hall of Fame this fall. Esiason, will be entering his 20th year handling morning drive at the FAN. He goes back to their days when the station’s studios were in Astoria’s Kaufman Studios.
Remembering and Paying Tribute to Dennis Locorriere
I was saddened to hear of the passing last week of singer Dennis Locorriere last week at the age of 76. While his name is unfamiliar to most pop music fans, his work is not. His tenor voice made the band, Dr. Hook, one of the most successful musical acts of the 1970s. He credibly delivered the angst of a man learning his ex-girlfriend, who he never got over, was marrying a wealthy gentleman in south Texas in 1972’s “Sylvia Mother.” Locorriere’s vocals about a failed high school crush were a lot more lighthearted on the band’s 1976 cover of Sam Cooke’s “Only Sixteen.” Other big hits which featured Locorriere’s lead vocals were “Sharing the Night Together,” “Better Love Next Time,” and “A Little Bit More.”
You can read more of Lloyd Carroll’s columns posted weekly on The Queens Chronicle.
