His teams have won over 2,600 games, appeared in 12 postseasons, won 9 American League Pennants, and captured 6 World Championships. Over 120 players have been voted in or selected to play in the All-Star game in the middle of the summer. In the past 8 years, the Yankees have won four World Championships. Steinbrenner continues to place the best talent on the field that is available in order to draw the fans into the stands.
When Steinbrenner took over in 1973, the Yankees were drawing 1.2 million fans to the park. Thirty years later, the team is drawing 3 million-plus fans to home games, not to mention what they draw when on the road
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In 1973, George Steinbrenner was chairman and chief executive officer of American Ship Building when he headed a group that purchased the Yankees from CBS for $10 million. The Yankees and the YankeeNets corporation is worth well over $1 billion. In addition, the operating profit during this period execeeds several hundred million during that time.
Rationale:
Where the Yankees organization trumps others is that Steinbrenner pays good money to have top rate facilities, scouting, and developing. In other words, they do their homework and they have an environment that people want to play in. When the Yankees have a troublemaker, they get rid of them. They have a professional atmosphere, and when players come there, they work hard to fit in and keep perpetuating the team attitude. Somtimes the biggest problem during his first year is they try TOO hard.
Quotations:
'We are an organization, we re not one person'.
'If you re going to lead the troops, you re always going to be condemned'. 'I m a great military scientist.
'You have to spend more time on your losses than you do on your victories. Don t waste time looking at your victories, but if you lose, find out why. Study and study until you find out why you lost.'
About George Steinbrenner:
George Steinbrenner is not the richest owner in baseball...not even close. Is he in the largest market? Yes, and so are the Mets. Why don t the Mets compete every year? The Dodgers are in the 2nd biggest market and Rupert Murdoch has money to burn and has not been shy about spending it (remember that Kevin Brown contract?). So why hasn t the Dodgers been a contender? The White Sox are also in a huge market, yet Jerry Reinsdorf makes questionable cost cutting trades nearly every year.
The reason the Yankees have a large payroll is they paid a lot of money to keep their own players.
Steinbrenner has also put wise people around him. The Yankees brain trust is very smart at recognizing their weaknesses and finding the players to pick up to fill those weaknesses. The reason Steinbrenner does all of this is because he wants to win. He is not afraid to spend money in order to win.
The winning formula is a simple one. The Yankees have the best front-office-staff talent in the game. Scouts who find the best talent available in the game. They sign foreign players and trade and invest in free agent signings based upon a formula not emotion.
