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Read Ebook {PDF EPUB} Steinbrenner by Dick Schaap STEINBRENNER'S YANKEES. Less information about Steinbrenner than in Dick Schaap's recent full-length bio--and more vitriol. Linn (Veeck as in Wreck, Nice Guys Finish Last) focuses on George III's stormy tenure as the New York Yankees' principal owner--beginning with Steinbrenner showing who-was-boss during the 1981 season by refusing to negotiate a new contract with Reggie Jackson (haunted by the arrival of Dave Winfield) and firing his hand- picked manager, Gene Michael, following a flap over front-office interference. Then it's back to George's roots, with much gleeful detail on the attempt to curry federal favor for the family shipping business and the subsequent guilty pleas on election-law violations. Thereafter, Linn concentrates on Steinbrenner's takeover of the Bronx Bombers and his high-handed success in restoring the team to championship status. With the apparent aid of a Deep Throat, he offers blow-by-blow reports on many of the celebrated run-ins--with Billy Martin, Rick Cerone, Mike Burke, Thurman Munson, Gabe Paul, and, of course, Jackson. Also: some of the epic, in-house battles. But most of these yarns are twice-told tales, given Steinbrenner's mastery at leaking his version of events and the players' access to eager journalists. The few exceptions--the word that Bobby Grich (not Reggie) was George's #1 choice in the first free-agency draft, the club's shabby treatment of coach Elston Howard before his death, Bucky Dent's thought of quitting the team the night Jackson tangled with Martin on national TV--seem mere sideshows to a circus. And Linn's relentless hostility is ultimately counterproductive. So, yes, there is a lot of dirt, some of it fresh dirt. But readers who want an edged, ironic closeup--and the long view--will do much better with Schaap. Steinbrenner by Dick Schaap. Friday, December 21, 2001 The Schaap Library. "Autobiographies" told to Dick Schaap. Home Run -- Hank Aaron as told to Dick Schaap Pro -- Frank Beard as told to Dick Schaap My Aces, My Faults -- Nick Bollettieri as told to Dick Schaap Absolutely Mahvelous -- Billy Crystal as told to Dick Schaap The Open Man -- Dave DeBusschere as told to Dick Schaap Bo Knows Bo -- Bo Jackson as told to Dick Schaap Instant Replay -- Jerry Kramer as told to Dick Schaap Montana -- Joe Montana as told to Dick Schaap I Can't Wait Until Tomorrow -- Joe Namath as told to Dick Schaap The Perfect Game -- Tom Seaver as told to Dick Schaap Simms to McConkey -- Phil Simms and Phil McConkey as told to Dick Schaap Gay Olympian -- Tom Waddell as told to Dick Schaap. Other Books by Dick Schaap. RFK Turned On .44 (with Jimmy Breslin) The 1984 Olympic Games An Illustrated History of the Olympics The Perfect Jump Mickey Mantle: The Indispensable Yankee Paul Hornung: Pro Football's Golden Boy Farewell to Football (with Jerry Kramer) Lombardi (with Jerry Kramer) Distant Replay (with Jerry Kramer) Green Bay Replay Quarterbacks Have All the Fun (Edited) Behind the Mask (with Bill Freehan and Steve Gelman) The Year the Mets Lost Last Place (with Paul Zimmerman) Steinbrenner! Massacre at Winged Foot The Masters Joy in Mudville (edited, with Mort Gerberg) Sport (Collection) A Bridge to the Seven Seas (Translation) Flashing Before My Eyes. Dick Schaap. Author and sportscaster who hosted ESPN's The Sports Reporters and radio's The Sporting Life with Dick Schaap. Before Fame. He began writing for his first local sports column at age 14. Trivia. He authored biographies of Robert F. Kennedy and George Steinbrenner. Family Life. He had a son, Jeremy, with wife Trish Schaap. Jeremy also went on to become a successful sports reporter. Associated With. He wrote an biography of Joe Namath , with whom he co-hosted The Joe Namath Show. George the Third. Steinbrenner! By Dick Schaap G.P. Putnam's Sons; $14.95; 336 pp. W HAT CAN YOU SAY about a man who once fired his secretary for not making a tuna fish sandwich on time? A man whose Williams College classmates voted him "Class Griper" and "Shovels It Fastest" in his college yearbook? A man who tried to explain away his $100,000 in illegal contributions to Richard Nixon's 1972 reelection campaign as an oversight? A man whose employees privately call him the "Fuhrer"? Not a whole helluva lot that's favorable. George M. Steinbrenner III, principal owner of the New York Yankees and probably the most hated man in sports today, has been raked over the coals by the press, the public and his players so many times that calling him "controversial" has become a compliment. The baseball campaign that opened this week should do little to improve Steinbrenner's p.r. Indeed, just last week he began his annual ritual of second-guessing his employees' judgment, publicly castigating current Yankee manager Bob Lemon for the squad's uninspiring spring training record. When Steinbrenner sacks Lemon later this season, the manager will become the seventh field leader scuttled by Steinbrenner in nine years. During that time, the Bronx Bombers have racked up five divisional championships, four American League pennants, and two world championships. In Steinbrenner! ABC sports reporter Dick Schaap gives The Great White Shipbuilder as fair a treatment as he'll probably ever get. Oh, he can't resist the usual jokes--he calls his subject "George III" for his tyrannical reign over the ballclub, and "the Yankee Clipper" for forcing his charges to get haircuts. (That demand angered at least one Yankee--outfielder Oscar Gamble, whose legendary afro added more than 12" to his six-foot frame, forcing his to affix his baseball cap with bobby pips) And sure, Schaap has to tell the usual Steinbrenner stories, the ones the New York Post and Daily News have subsisted on since the Cleveland multimillionaire bought the squad in 1973. There's the derigeur stuff about the owner's hate-hate relationship with two-time manager Billy Martin, and the latest dirt on what Steinbrenner considers his "father-son" relationship with once and future Yankee manager Gene Michael, whom he canned last fall but soon rehired for the 1983 season. Schaap doesn't forget to mention the owner's interference with his managers' decisions, or his proclivity for spending ungodly sums on utility infielders, or his psychological warfare with ex-Yankee slugger Reggie Jackson. B UT SCHAAP saves Steinbrenner! from becoming an easy hatchet job by accepting the controversial owner on his own terms: his refusal to make the book a compendium of New York Post columns turns Steinbrenner! into a valid, if often irreverent biography. Realizing that the owner has zealously shielded his wife and children from the press, for instance, Schaap resists the temptation to delve into Steinbrenner's family life. He does, however, rightly chide the owner for hiding behind his family, Schaap's recounting of the numerous times that his subject refused to talk with reporters, lying that his wife or son was ill, provide the only reminder that Steinbrenner's life includes more than the Yankees and money. Despite Schaap's eagerness to interview Steinbrenner, and his obvious qualifications as a biographer (he has covered the Yankees since Steinbrenner took over, without taking sides in the team's regular internal battles) the owner refused to cooperate. In fact, Schaap says, Steinbrenner tried to quash the book, exhorting his friends not to answer the writer's questions (Most disobeyed.) Only when Schaap had completed the body of the book late this winter did Steinbrenner finally agree to talk to the author about his life. Unfortunately, the postscript that relates their nine-hour conversation does little besides confirm what Schaap has already made obvious: that the 51-year-old owner has always been obsessed with his public image and paranoid about his detractors. Self-consciousness and willful deception emerge as long-standing Steinbrenner traits dating back to his comfortable suburban boyhood in Ohio. Steinbrenner's austere German father--whom he credits with instilling toughness in him--placed heavy demands on his only son. For one thing, he forced young George to wear a tie and jacket to grade school, losing him any friends he might have had; for another, he shipped the boy off to a military academy at age 14 where. Schaap observes, Steinbrenner's one good mark was an A-plus in military science. In fact, Schaap quotes several psychologists as suggesting that the owner's legendary capriciousness could stem only from a need to please his father. And, says Schaap. Henry G. Steinbrenner was rarely pleased. When his son purchased the Yankees in 1973, his father told friends, "That's the first smart thing he's ever done." In part because of Steinbrenner's strict upbringing, Schapp says the "mature" Steinbrenner alternates between two broad behavior patterns. The "good George"--whom he charges the press with overlooking entirely--has given many thousands of dollars to charities, and has often given generously when his ballplayers faced personal crises. That trait, Schaap suggests, steinbrenner the need to please the Steinbrenner has evinced since his adolescent inability to satisfy Papa Steinbrenner. Any Yankee follower knows the "bad George," and Schaap describes a series of events that suggest that Steinbrenner's vengeful, authoritarian, and image-conscious side first took hold early on. He tells us how Steinbrenner lied to friends about his performance on his high school track team and observes that today's owner is fond of bragging that he sang in the Williams Glee Club with Stephen Sondheim--though the famed composer was never a member of the group.

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