By this time, just about everyone on this planet knows of the passing of long-time Yankees owner, George Steinbrenner.  Steinbrenner, 80 years old died of a heart attack in his Tampa, Florida residence early on the morning of July 13, 2010.  Steinbrenner was the principal owner of the Yankees for 37 years, starting in 1973.  In the 9 years before "The Boss" took over, when the Yankees were owned by CBS, they had just 4 winning seasons.  In George's 37 year reign, the Bronx Bombers captured 7 World Series titles and 11 American League pennants, not too shabby.  This is a tough one to swallow for not only Yankee fans, but for admirers of the game of baseball.

As a Mets fan living in New York, I've always loved to hate The Boss, but now that I think about it, it was more because I wanted what he gave his team: a sheer commitment to winning.  This commitment started at the top and permeated throughout the entire organization.  Current players, ex-ballplayers, and employees have all come out with their own personal stories of The Boss after the news broke.  The consistent theme among these reflections was the difference between working for the Yankees other organizations.  With the Yankees, the expectations were for nothing less than perfection.  This was simply not the case with most other ball clubs.  The word "rebuilding" is not in The Bosses vocabulary.  His actions backed that up.  Loyalty did not get in the way of success for George.  The Yankees have had 13 different GMs in the time George owned the team and before Brian Cashman who has held the position since 1998, none lasted longer than 5 seasons, most just staying at the helm for just 1 or 2 seasons.

Managerial changes were the same story with George.  They came and went without a second thought.  The Yankees had 22 different managers in the first 24 years that Steinbrenner ran the team.  The most notable managerial story, at least in my mind was from the 1985 season when Yankee great Yogi Berra was the skipper.  Yogi played for the Yankees from 1946-1963 totaling up a measly 18 All-Star appearances, 3 American League MVP awards, and 13 World Series rings.  His retired #8 jersey hangs proudly in Yankee Stadium for all to see and Berra wears pinstripes in Coperstown where he was inducted in 1972.  Simply put, the dude is a Yankee legend.  This may be why when Yogi Berra was the Yankee manager for the 1985 season, Steinbrenner was comfortable promising him the full season as manager.  However, the Yankees started that year 6-10, which was unacceptable to The Boss.  This meant that after only 16 games, Yogi was fired.  It took 14 years for the two men to utter a word to each other when finally a meet up was arranged where George reportadly uttered to Yogi, "I flew all the way from Florida to be friends again."  And they were.

George Steinbrenner was a lot of things.  He may have been crazy, not so loyal, maybe even a little mean.... However, above all things, George Steinbrenner was a winner, and that is why he will be remembered.