Be not afraid your life will end......be afraid it will never begin.....a baseball fan named Grace Hansen from the Bronx’s Union Street, quoted at Monument Park, Yankee Stadium, July 16, 2010.....
Flags flying half mast, .pre game ceremonies to the Yankee Tampa 9 inning “New York New York”sung by the kabbalah kid out of Hoboken.
I
Two legendary humans who never wore a uniform but had pinstripes in their very souls passed away within 48 hours of each other .... time waits for no one when their hour glasses are filled......
The 99 year old announcer.....”the voice of God” Bob Sheppard
George Steinbrenner the shipbuilder’s(a Ncaa hurdler in his prime “first in his class”) son who evolved on the scene twenty years later..”the boss”at age 80..
II
Grace had tears in her eyes, her scorecard blotted with stains from another moment in the summer of 1939 July 4th Lou Gehrig’s “I’m the luckiest man on the face of the Earth.”
The Horatio Alger myth and the American Dream may not be put to bed because determinism scored an inside the park(s) homer and scorched the House that Ruth built” .and the one across the street that drove George .....”Mo” Mariano Rivero placing two roses on home plate.
“The field of dreams” makes its way..... a transition into the marketplace. ....publicity and marketing are my trade secrets. Shhhh don’t tell any one ,I told you so.”
“Elementary my dear qhoteth Mr. Steinbrenner the third.”. I t’s better than jumping hurdles isn’t it Grace ? Thiinking big. quoteth a mop up man like “Mo” ..preserving the nine inning “w”.
III
The two immortals had their legacies screened in the new park, the 47 thousand fans sat in awe as two lives in their harvest passed. No one had to light candles, the suspension of disbelief that reality was flashing before them
Recapturing St. Patrick’s Cathedral and a 9/11 insert of two humans who harnessed the prime of their lives in the Bronx.... but never having played professional ball, were destined to play out their roles.....
“Hold back the dawn”,... the divine presence of their vision taking them asunder....their dreams captured like the fireflies flittering thru the bleachers grandstands luxury boxes....
IV
“How’did they do it. mister?” asked Grace “Two visionaries”
“Thinking nothing small or petty .Living among Philadelphia lawyers, nickel and dime bandits who lost their way not recognizing what was playing out. Seeing only what they thought was their Golden Fleece prize.
“ Tit for tat knothole hoods who neve r found their niche. That it was in the imagination...... taking chances... weighing risks.... being tested.”
The unconscious, the invisible.....but let us hear.... John Sterling and Susan Wldman ‘ hand picked would you say ....a reflection of himself growing up with his chickens, selling their wares... their eggs..”
“It is high..it is far... it is gone... Fifteen rows back in the second deck right field. “
“Yes indeed” enunciating the gig playing out before their eyes....his 22 years with the boss, she became one of his confidantes. “He made my career,”she said, during those minutes soaring thru the Stadium’s divine presence. ..
The Sheppards into their fluid Vernon & Irene Castle’s enchantment. (p re Fred and Adele Astaire)........Bob singing “Let me call you sweetheart.”
“Whitey Ford Yogi Berra (a 14 year ego trip embarrassment by Mr. Steinbrenner) Joe Girardi (‘he believed in me”) Andy Pettite (he brought me bnack from Texas”) Paul O’Neil....Bernie Williams Tito Martinzez...”Mister October, Reggie Jackson” Brian Cashman”
“He was a revolutionary but unlike Fidel Castro, he fought battles with Billy Martin five times hiring and firing him....Yogi twice...pitching coaches......letting Reggie go.”
“Was it his oedipus? With his MIT Ncaa hurdler dad demanding.....ever so demanding...doing the hurdles 110 220....Why’did you lose a race? Why porque mister Steinbrenner the third.”
“Sending you to Culver Military Academy. Put some iron in your spine. Raise your grade point average Attent hut! the Yankees are in town.** Joe DiMaggio and Bill Dickey. Maybe you’ll learn by example. Dismissed~”
(**Tommy Henrich (“old reliable”) passing at 96 seven months earlier. 12/1/09
“ Streaming a coffee cart franchise at his Ohio AF Base’s two year stint .subsequently...during the Korean 39th parallel..a trick of the trade Chief Specialist (A) Tom Fena, an All American guard at Nebraska capturing the newspaper market on Treasure Island in WW2's aftermath_.,
V
The lights came on not unlike the Ohioan native Larry McPhail introducing night games, across the river in Brooklyn, the home of the Dodgers some seven decades earlier....his son being part of the syndicate from Cleveland that gave Mr. Sterinbrenner his jersey....Stauffer foods mojo Mr Steinbrenner grew up with, backed out..... his bleeding mercurial temperament to blame..
“Think big, George.”we’re not hustling eggs.....nor coffee.”.
“Who are you heroes ,Mr Steinbrenner the third?”asked Grace.
“Otto Graham, the Buckeye., Later a genius quarterback for the Browns....:aul Paul Brown’s Jim Brown....the Coast Guard Academy’s dynamo in a command role.”the coach”.
The Cleveland Indians think tank included medicine men Bob Hope... his golfing alter ego Bing Crosby no longing teeing off. Here competing for the big prize....the World Series championship.
“But for my mother Rita.....she always rooted for the underdog. Her compassion and character I made a part of myself.”
“My father competing for he r favor. ..his heroes John J J P Henry Ford Vanderbilt but we got our commission in the Air Force...then Thomas Aquinas High School coaching basketball and football...buying the Pipers ABL...Hired the first Afro American coach/
“Remembering my role as sports editor and playing the piano at Williams.,pledging the Delta Kappa Epsilon becoming a “Deke” thru the hazing syndrome. Being a jolly good fellow on fraternity row..”
“ You got to get along to get tahead .”Mr Steinbrenner’s heirs go scot free of any estate tax in 2010.
“En garde Grace....the duality of life is playing out...”a half a million buckeroos...going going gone .”
“Robby Cano... don’t you know”
VI
“He identified with jocks professional sports yet he was his father’s son in and around Cleveland’s Great Lakes...shipping ore and grain.. He majored in English. Not at MIT but at Williams, didn’t he mister.. Couldn’t muster the grades..make the score.”
“He was a omplex human Grace you heard Brian Cashman, his general manager, who he hired as an intern in ‘86 say.... the boss gave him his life...a father figure and a perfectionist who you couldn’t b.s. He’d find out because he knew down to the tiniest detail what you were thinking in
“ He played all the roles in the steroid amphetamine era and if he found you out. God for bid Grace. You were toast in the Big Apple. He knew all the details to the nth degree. It may be a cliche but he covered all the bases.. Yet he lived among the hoi poloi grooming a stable of ponies for his crowd’s adulation.
“His appearances on Saturday Night Live. A character in “Seinfeld”....an Uncle Milty sense of the absurdity of life....remember his trying to get Dave Winfield in a fait accompli with a gambler... Banished from baseball for two years. Reduced to 15 months.Grace”
VII
An impresario discovers himself in the House that Ruth Built.....his ego trip of 37 years beginning in 1 973 is a journey assimilating those competitive lessons taught by his 19th 20th century father and grandfather (the First) calibrating all the interpretations he envisaged in his journey of role playing.
Mimicing Culver Military ...Majoring in English at Williams... the Air Force coffee gig.. basketball and football coaching at Aquinas High School.... graduate assistant in coaching at Purdue... Northwestern....assistant at Ohio State with Woody Hayes....similar aspirations (undefeated Rose Bowl season) eleven American League pennants...seven World Series rings..
An entrepreneur into money grubbing? nevah!, he honed his gift of competition in being and becoming a champion..... He was atop the players reserve clause... the sports page leader board.
A pivotal role until the player’s bargain ran out.... metamorphosing into free agency... their agents hounding the marketplace....bonuses long term contracts as many franchises bidding for their potential dream stars. In small and large markets across America’s major and minor leagues. Colleges high schools wherever ....
Ted Williams Mickey Mantle Roger Maris Willie Mays Jackie Robinson you name them.
VIII
Mr. Steinbrenner metamorphosed from a Third.... hurdling into a first. Nobody had seen anything like this “What makes George run?
Except maybe the boss’s “ Captain” Derek Jeter who discerned Mr Steinbrenner”s fear of failing his father.... throwing champagne over the image bearing beau brumal, the Big Ten Buckeye’s mood crashing with laughter. Jeter knowing the “boss” like no other. ”lasting first timpressions....... since that day he signed me.”
Fidel Castro threw up his arms after he emerged from his low profile Havana cocoon “Senor Streinbrenner is no longer the third. He is the first, .Believe me.! Grace.I know.”
“We expect big things of you “when he signed el capitan to a long term contract
But those older veterans like Greg Nettles Ron Guitry Reggie ”clutch” Jackson saw another side of his nature..
”As a little boy I wnted to be a bsseball player and join the circus. With theYankees I accomplised both”
“You lost two in a row,” the Boss told Guitry...two rings and a Cy Young awa4rd, pointing the finger at the pitcher in the clubhouse....he having an ERA of one.
On Thurman Munson’s tragic plane crash at age thirty two..... .it blows your mind. In a game of balls and strikes....stops and slumps.”
“Off the charts: the psychopathology of the Boss’s lullaby. “
“It happened not once but 17 times,” said the Cy Young winner. ...”A guy hands me the ball.. the new pitching coach.”
“My relationship with the Boss as a father figure morphed until now I see him as an older brother. The learning propcess of understanding life,”said Mr. October.
IX
His 4thof July birthright morphing into a 7th inning stretch (Kate Smith’s “God bless America”) and the “Yes” network: a cable image of the reality in the houses that Ruth and r Mr Steinbrenner built was but a footnote in the archives.
A denizen from North Hollywood scribbled a Dear Mr. Steinbrenner on a napkin and lo and behold ... the baseball Gods anointed it...
”How to get a yes”published in the Long Beach Teacher’s Journal, principal Harry Stauffacher, Lindbergh Junior High, editor Sol Kaufler......1952-53
Yes, the boss’s network saw the light of day.
“Mister October vindicated their relationship with 3 home runs in one World Seriesnine innings.”
“You see how Bob Sheppard became “the voice of God” Grace.”
Ole blue eyes “My way”... Old timer’s day.....Yankee Stadium, July 17, 2010
