OK, OK, Joe Torre is a Hall of Famer, BUT... Here's the REAL Question I Want Answered!
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OK, Joe Torre is going into the Hall of Fame eventually (after he takes his next managerial job for $4mil/year). He has the most successful combination of player/manager career out of every player/manager so far. He's a lock! 2,000 hits and 2,000 wins is impressive. Put him in already!
Here's the REAL question I want answered:
Is George Steinbrenner going into the Hall of Fame some day?
Owners and other contributors to the game are certainly eligible for induction under the Executive/Pioneer category. George Steinbrenner has shaped the game as much or more than any owner since Charles O. Finley. Both for good and bad - and many times just for the headlines - but he has had an astounding impact on the game nonetheless.
How many other baseball owners can you even name from the last 34 years? Several perhaps? A bunch if you're into baseball, but most "regular" people (non-ArmchairGMites/sports dorks) would struggle to name but a few. EVERYBODY with at least a faint pulse can name George!
Sure King George III has his detractors, his foibles, his criminal past (illegal campaign contributions), the lifetime ban he agreed to for trying to dredge dirt on Dave Winfield with the help of extortioning gamblers that was lifted after merely two plus years (the same kind of lifetime ban that Pete Rose agreed to that was never lifted).
He fired managers faster than he changed underwear and drove the free agent salary scale through the roof... He is hated by many owners and by even more of his own employees. Sure, he's already a Hall of Fame A$$hole, but you can't deny his results as owner.
Plus the guy makes for great copy! How many Pulitzers has he spawned?
He also remade MLB's Global Flagship Franchise, the New York Yankees back into a powerhouse franchise (TWICE) albeit with the help of other people (whom HE hired). He brought in Hall of Fame player after Hall of Fame player and established the Professionalism that is synonymous with Pinstripes. He created a megacable television network around his team. He upgraded old Yankee stadium in the 70's and recently brokered a deal to build a brand new, beyond state of the art, eleventy quijillion dollar Yankee Stadium.
He has been mocked by everyone, likened to Darth Vader, caricatured endlessly, parodied by C. Monty Burns in the Simpsons. Dude has an imdb.com page! He's been in numerous movies, he was in Lite Beer commercials in the 70's (when commercials were COMMERCIALS!) and Visa commercials in the Naughty Aughties (that's the decade we're in for the Stiles-impaired). He even hosted an episode of SNL! Hell, he enabled ESPN to make a star out of Oliver Platt!
I can't imagine what my entire life of Baseball fanhood (he bought the Yankees about 3 weeks before I was concieved in 1973) would be without having the guy there to hate. And I don't even really hate him, he's just such an easy target!
I can't think of MLB without the irrefutable prick. I can't look at Jason Alexander without thinking of the bastard. I can't visit Tampa without hearing about the son of a bitch. I probably wouldn't even hate the Yankees so much if it wasn't for the emephing seeyesser!!!
So I've been thinking about it and I'm still not sure! I really do think he is worthy of the Hall, but like Charlie-O (who did some good Hall-worthy things of his own) I think he has so much negative baggage and so many enemies that it won't ever happen...
What do YOU think?
Is George Steinbrenner a Hall of Famer?
(there's really no wrong answer)
Discuss...
