Major League Baseball

Latest Yankees' title was Steinbrenner-esque

Published Nov. 5, 2009 10:38 p.m. ET

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In the moments after Game 2, our hurried assault on the locker rooms came to an abrupt halt in an interior stairwell. No reason was given. But it soon became apparent that a portion of Yankee Stadium was in a state of lockdown.


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In keeping with standard journalistic process, confirmation eventually came in whispers: George was in the house. The stairwell had been turned into a makeshift holding pen to enable Steinbrenner the Elder to make a clean getaway. After all these years being front and center, the once-ubiquitous owner — or was it his handlers? — wanted to remain unseen.

By the time we were granted access to the field-level rotunda, all you could see were a lot of cop-types with walkie-talkies, clearing a path for a Chrysler mini-van. As its windows were blackened, Steinbrenner — or, the figure presumed to be him — was a faint silhouette. So there you have it: with his team on the precipice of a 27th championship, the most famous owner in American sports — the quintessential owner — had been reduced to a spectral presence.

In ways both factual and figurative, the new Yankee Stadium belongs to George Steinbrenner. A monument to victory and commerce, it will be forever identified with him the way the original was identified with Babe Ruth. Little wonder, then, that Stadium workers — the kind of people he routinely terrorized, if occasionally saved with fits of largesse — were outfitted with World Series tee-shirts that read: "Win it for the Boss."

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