The Boss Is Gone: George Steinbrenner Dies, July 13, 2010

George Steinbrenner, the owner of the New York Yankees for 37 years, died of a heart attack in Tampa on the morning of July 13, 2010. He was 80. He'd celebrated his birthday on the Fourth of July, nine days earlier, and he died on the day of the All-Star Game, two days after Bob Sheppard.

The Boss and the Voice, gone in the same week. You couldn't have pitched that to a screenwriter.

A Bad Week in July

It started Sunday. Sheppard died at his home in Baldwin, Long Island, at 99. Then Tuesday morning, word came out of Tampa about George.

The club was in good shape on the field, which somehow made it stranger. The 2010 Yankees went into the break 56-32, the best record in baseball, defending the title they'd won the previous November in the new Stadium he'd built. The Boss had his ring. Back on April 13, the home opener, Derek Jeter and Joe Girardi had walked up to his suite to hand him the 2009 ring in person. He was wearing a 2000 ring and an Ohio State ring at the time, and Jeter told him, "Boss, take off that Ohio State ring." (Jeter grew up in Michigan. Some rivalries don't take a day off.) Jeter swapped out the 2000 ring instead.

"It was a thrill to give it to him and see the smile on his face," Girardi said that day.

All-Star Day in Anaheim

Girardi was managing the American League in Anaheim that night, so he had to figure out how to grieve in front of a national TV audience. He and the Yankees' All-Stars wore black armbands. Angel Stadium ran a video tribute, held a moment of silence before the anthem, and lowered its flags to half-staff. In the quiet, a fan in the left-field seats yelled out, "Thank you, Georgie."

It's a difficult time, on a great day for baseball, the All-Star Game, something everyone looks to. A great man in baseball passed. He's meant so much to not only this organization, but to the game of baseball, and to all of us personally.

The statements piled up all day. The family called him "a visionary and a giant in the world of sports" who "took a great but struggling franchise and turned it into a champion again." Commissioner Bud Selig said he'd always be "as much of a New York Yankee as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford and all of the other Yankee legends."

The one I keep coming back to came from Joe Torre, who by then managed the Dodgers and hadn't exactly left the Bronx on great terms. "I will be forever grateful that he trusted me with his Yankees for 12 years," Torre said. "It's only fitting that he went out as a world champ." (Considering how that relationship ended, that's pretty gracious.)

Friday Night in the Bronx

The first home game after the break came Friday, July 16, against Tampa Bay. The Yankees held a 15-minute tribute before first pitch. The 27 championship flags flew at half-staff, "Taps" played, and 47,524 people stood through two minutes of silence. Girardi cried. Mariano Rivera laid two long-stemmed roses across home plate, one for each of them.

Jeter spoke from behind the plate, with both teams standing in front of their dugouts, caps off.

We gather here tonight to honor two men who were both shining stars in the Yankee universe. Simply put, Mr. Steinbrenner and Mr. Sheppard both left this organization in a much better place than when they first arrived.

The players wore two new patches that night: a Sheppard patch on the left sleeve, and a Steinbrenner patch on the chest, right over the heart. Fitting placement for an owner who never once kept his feelings to himself.

Then the game turned into a script. The Yankees trailed 4-3 in the eighth when Nick Swisher homered to tie it. In the ninth, with Curtis Granderson on second, Swisher dumped a single into right, Granderson slid home, and the Yankees won 5-4. A walk-off on Steinbrenner Night. He'd have taken credit for it.

"On a day like this when we celebrate his life, got to take him out on a W," Swisher said.

The next day, while the family held a private funeral in Tampa, the Yankees went ahead with Old-Timers' Day. Honestly, I can't think of a more Steinbrenner way to handle it. The show goes on, and it starts on time.

What He Left Behind

Here's the short version. He bought the club from CBS on January 3, 1973, as the head of a 12-man group that paid $10 million. His personal piece was $168,000. When he died, Forbes valued the franchise at $1.6 billion. In between came seven World Series titles, 11 pennants, and 16 AL East crowns.

And two suspensions. Bowie Kuhn suspended him after his 1974 conviction over illegal contributions to Richard Nixon's campaign, a two-year sentence later cut to 15 months. Fay Vincent banned him in 1990 for paying a gambler named Howard Spira $40,000 to dig up dirt on Dave Winfield, and he didn't come back until March 1, 1993. The core that grew up in the system while he was away -- Jeter, Mo, Bernie, Pettitte, Posada -- went on to win four of those seven titles. (The most hands-on owner in the sport, and the dynasty took shape while he was banned from the building. Baseball's funny like that.)

I don't think you can tell his story honestly without both halves. He fired managers like it was a hobby, he dragged a federal conviction into baseball's flagship franchise, and he made the Yankees the Yankees again. Every one of those things is true at once.

The Biggest Thing in Monument Park

On Monday, September 20, the Yankees unveiled his monument before a game against the Rays. Selig escorted Joan Steinbrenner out to center field in a golf cart, and she pulled the cover off a 760-pound bronze, seven feet by five, on a granite base. It sits right behind the original five monuments to Huggins, Gehrig, Ruth, Mantle, and DiMaggio and dwarfs every one of them. (Of course it's the biggest one. Nobody expected the Boss to go with a modest plaque.) It's the centerpiece of Monument Park now.

Torre came. So did Don Mattingly. The Dodgers were off that day, and it was the first time either man had set foot in the new Stadium. Torre even patched things up with Brian Cashman. Then the Yankees beat Tampa 8-6, with Jeter singling home the go-ahead run in the sixth and Granderson hitting a three-run homer.

The season didn't end with a parade. Texas bounced them in the ALCS in six games, and the Hall of Fame's Expansion Era committee passed him over that December with fewer than eight of 16 votes. Neither of those would've surprised him much. He'd have just yelled about both.

Frequently Asked Questions

When did George Steinbrenner die?

Steinbrenner died on the morning of July 13, 2010, in Tampa, Florida, after a heart attack. He was 80 and had turned 80 nine days earlier, on July 4. He died on the day of the 2010 All-Star Game and two days after Yankee Stadium announcer Bob Sheppard.

How did the Yankees honor George Steinbrenner?

Girardi and the Yankees' All-Stars wore black armbands at the All-Star Game the night he died. Before the next home game, on July 16, 2010, the club held a 15-minute tribute with "Taps," a moment of silence, and remarks from Derek Jeter, and players began wearing a Steinbrenner patch over the heart. On September 20, 2010, the Yankees unveiled a monument to him in Monument Park.

How big is George Steinbrenner's monument at Yankee Stadium?

It measures seven feet by five feet and weighs 760 pounds, a bronze on a granite base. It's the largest in Monument Park and sits behind the original monuments to Miller Huggins, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle, and Joe DiMaggio.

How many championships did the Yankees win under George Steinbrenner?

Seven World Series titles (1977, 1978, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2009), plus 11 American League pennants and 16 AL East titles, across 37 years of ownership.

He bought the team for $168,000 of his own money and left it worth $1.6 billion, with a ring on his finger and the biggest monument in the park. Not a bad return on the investment. He'd want you to know that, too.