Steinbrenner by Bill Madden

Author:Bill Madden
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2010-06-04T15:13:03.760000+00:00

STEINBRENNER RAN AFOUL of Bowie Kuhn several more times—and for substantially larger penalties—before the commissioner officially left office at the end of 1984. During an ’83 spring training game in Fort Lauderdale between the Yankees and the Montreal Expos, Steinbrenner was standing along the fence next to the Yankees dugout when National League umpire Lee Weyer called a Yankee out at first base. “National League homer!” Steinbrenner screamed, within earshot of New York Post reporter Mike McAlary, who dutifully scribbled down the remark in his notepad. “That’s the way [National League president] Chub Feeney tells them to do it. If it’s close, give it to the National League!”

Upon reading McAlary’s account the next day, Kuhn reacted swiftly, fining the Yankees owner $50,000. Steinbrenner’s war on umpires, which he’d inflamed with that silly caricature of Billy Martin arguing with one on the cover of the press guide, was further ramped up on May 27, when Dave Winfield was brushed back by a pitch, setting off a fight between the Yankees and the visiting Oakland A’s. As Winfield charged Oakland pitcher Mike Norris, he was intercepted by catcher Mike Heath, whom he put in a choke hold. Both benches cleared and a wild melee broke out; when order was restored, only Winfield was ejected by home-plate umpire Derryl Cousins.

Watching the game on TV from Tampa, an enraged Steinbrenner phoned Yankees PR director Kenny Nigro in the press box and told him to get a pen and paper. For the next five minutes Nigro feverishly scrawled up and down and into the margins of a piece of yellow legal paper as Steinbrenner dictated a blistering attack on Cousins and his partner, John Shulock, both of whom, he noted, had been awarded their jobs after serving as replacements during the recent umpire strike. “I was scribbling furiously until my wrist started aching,” Nigro recalled, “but he just kept dictating. Finally, when he was done, he asked me to read it back to him. I started stammering, which set him off even more.”

After somehow organizing Steinbrenner’s rant into a cohesive statement, Nigro distributed it in the press box, where, it so happened, one of the occupants that night was Bob Fishel, the former Yankees PR director who was now assistant to American League president Lee MacPhail. Upon reading Steinbrenner’s release, Fishel immediately called his boss, who in turn dictated his own release, which said in part, “Mr. Steinbrenner’s intemperate blast at the integrity of the American League umpires is completely unacceptable and will result in disciplinary action.” When told by Nigro of MacPhail’s threatening response, Steinbrenner showed no contrition. Instead, he decided he would have the last blast and dictated yet another release, this one slamming the American League president: “We are all free to express our opinion,” Steinbrenner said, “unless Lee MacPhail has authored a new Constitution or Bill of Rights of the United States.”

Though, as Nigro said proudly, “we outdueled them 2–1,” Steinbrenner’s two press releases earned him a one-week suspension from MacPhail.

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