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Breaking news: Steve Swindal arrested

Peter Abraham
February
15

This statement just came from Howard Rubenstein:

“Steve Swindal, General Partner of the New York Yankees, was detained for suspicion of Driving Under the Influence in Pinellas County, Florida early this morning (Thursday, February 15th), and was released after several hours, as anyone would be for a first accusation. Mr. Swindal apologizes profusely for this distraction during the Yankees’ Spring Training and no further comment will be made until this is resolved.”

According to the police report, Swindal was arrested at 4:26 a.m. by the St. Petersburg police.

Swindal is George Steinbrenner’s son in law and a general partner of the team. He has been designated Steinbrenner’s successor.

UPDATE, 6:18 p.m.: Here is the arrest report.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 15th, 2007 at 5:37 pm by Peter Abraham.
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39 Responses to “Breaking news: Steve Swindal arrested”

  1. Thurman

    Best Blog on the Net, without doubt. Good work Pete, you’re now officially the first bookmark I open whenever my browser comes up.

  2. Stacey

    Oh snap!

  3. Sean

    What a mess this spring training has been so far, the Bronx Zoo is back boys!

  4. Canada

    This really cracks me up, its like the Yankee players and organization are determined to cause as much drama before AROD comes into camp…diverting all attention on themselves. This is very good.

    Thank you Swindal, Bernie, Mo, Pavano, Mussina. Thank you all very much.

  5. ChrisV82

    Wasn’t his daughter on Kids on Deck?

    I think Paris Hilton (of all people) once commented that people who stay out partying after 2 a.m. are a little weird. Doesn’t the guy work?

  6. kasey

    lord. the circus is back in town.

  7. SJ44

    Where in Tampa could he go to be out until 4 am drinking? Unless he was at one of the strip clubs, its not exactly a happening town.

    Hey, at least this bumps the Moose-Pavano steel cage match off the back page!

  8. sammy

    well… the season has OFFICIALLY started now, huh?
    I can read the back page of the Post now:
    “Swindling Swindal.”

  9. Thurman

    “Where in Tampa could he go to be out until 4 am drinking? Unless he was at one of the strip clubs, its not exactly a happening town.”

    Uh, not an expert, but I thought those were dry?

  10. DesignatedBlogger

    That’s bad. I’m glad he didn’t crack up his car and hurt anyone. Was he out partying with Dontrelle Willis?

  11. EricVA

    Can I be the first to say:

    So what?

    This doesn’t affect the Yankees or Spring Training at all. I doubt Swindal will have a problem covering the $1000 fine (or whatever it is) that he receives from this.

  12. Jeff

    People make to big a deal when public people make human mistakes.

  13. Doreen

    Holy cow! What’s gonna be next? You know, come to think of it, weren’t there all kinds of distractions during the years the Yankees won all those WS?

    I haven’t seen the “staying up until 4:30″ side of 4:30 in years!

    I do have a serious question, though, sort of. It seems an awful lot of people get caught for dui in Tampa. Do the police there kind of ‘hang out’ waiting? Not that they shouldn’t, because it is a safety issue, but there seem to be more of those coming from Tampa (at least among ballplayers). I know in NJ the police hang out in all the towns with 25 mph speed limits and snatch people left and right.

  14. Bob Boylan

    Let’s bring back Strawberry and Gooden! Can’t have too many drunks together, now can we.

  15. Doreen

    Sammy –

    Every time I hear the name Swindal, I keep thinking that’s not a good name for an executive! Good call on the possible headlines.

  16. D Baseball

    “He has been designated Steinbrenner’s successor.”

    Apparantly he has no designated driver, however.

  17. nud

    Let’s not make such a big deal out of this. Stick Michael has multiples under his belt. Must be something in the Tampa air.

  18. Anthony

    I think the back page would be “Swilling Swindal” not “Swindling Swindal” since I don’t think he’s swindled anything.

  19. mel

    No wonder Cashman’s got so much control. I bet he has lots of dirt that he’s blackmailing Swindle with. lol

  20. kasey

    carla pavano’s NL counterpart is up to his old tricks (www.mlb.com):

    “The good news on the first day of workouts for Cubs pitchers and catchers Thursday was that Mark Prior and Wade Miller both threw off a mound. The bad news was that Kerry Wood was sidelined with an injury.

    Wood bruised his right side when he fell out of a hot tub at his home Monday night. He’ll be sidelined four to five days. His ego was hurt more than his rib cage.”

  21. Rich

    Oh Stacey.

  22. murphydog

    Wow. Peter “Smoking Gun” Abraham. Outstanding!

  23. Stacey

    Where was A Rod? I’m sure he something to do with it.

  24. Rich

    Unless Swidall has a problem, I think this will be a case where one trial conditioning solves the problem.

  25. Dohtem

    It’s our Fault Why George Son in law and Future Owner of the yankees why Steve got arrested for the DuI today? Every Yankees Fan are putting pressure on Yankees and wanted contract extension for Mariano . The Bernie Situation is a mess. I encourage all Yankees to please stop. Thank You.

  26. Dohtem

    I encourage all Yankees Fans to please stop. Thank You.

  27. Jeremy

    Was there an underground poker club involved?

  28. Mark in Greenwich

    Peter,

    It might be time to revise that blog entry about the Red Sox having all the drama this Spring?

    ARod opting out
    Torre a lame duck
    Mariano mad about his contract
    Posada in his final contract year
    Pavano and his teammates
    Swindal arrested for suspicion of DUI

    What next?

  29. Rich

    What’s next?

    27…

  30. Sean

    Mark: Don’t forget the never ending Bernie drama that won’t go away.

  31. BillyJoBob

    Where’s Stengel when you need him…

  32. Jimmy the Saint

    Why was Swindal even driving? With all his money and connections, you’d think he’d have a limo, or a driver at least.

  33. Chevy

    At least it wasnt a player. Im sure ESPiN will eat this up with their usual anti-yankee bias.

  34. LC

    Mark in Greenwich,
    The Yanks have gone into ST with bigger problems before and they were ok.

  35. randyhater

    No Tampa cop would have f’ed with a son-in-law of George’s back when he was pulling the strings from a barber’s chair in the back of Malio’s. If anyone had any doubts, it’s now official; the Boss is no more and Yankee fans everywhere are poorer for it.

  36. bardos

    nice try steve. he obviously poured bourbon all over himself and got in his car weaving in and out of traffic at 4 a.m. in order to distract attention from the players and take some of th heat off of them. kudos for taking one for the team, steve.

  37. Joan

    Pete – In fact what the Yankees issued was a statement from Howard Rubenstein, not Steve Swindall. Check the New Yorker for its’ recent lengthy article on how Howard ‘protects’ his clients.

  38. crg

    FLA cops, in general, are notorious for netting drunk drivers. The Tampa police know that Spring Training brings a lot of people into town and are on extra alert. This couldn’t have been Swindal’s 1st SP trip to Tampa. He had to know the chance he was taking and chose poorly.

    Unless details emerge that he was uncooperative w/ the police or something seedy like he had a stripper on his lap when he was pulled over, I think this will go away quietly. I’m no defender of drunk driving but there’s a big difference btwn making a stupid mistake and alcoholism.

  39. Wolf In Pinstripes

    “there’s a big difference btwn making a stupid mistake and alcoholism.”

    Exactly. It’ll be interesting to see how this shakes down. Here’s a story that relates to the situation: Several years ago, the pastor at our church was a very respected man in the city, working with kids in baseball leagues, involved in tons of community programs, etc., etc., blah blah blah. He had dinner at a church member’s house and had ONE glass of wine, yet was on heavy cold medicine at the time as well. He was arrested for drunk driving and his rep took a serious hit for a long time. He probably made a poor choice to have a drink while on medication, but he certainly wasn’t a drinker, much less a drunk.

    Swindal being out at 4:30 in the morning is pretty darn odd though. I’ll be curious to see further reports, if there are any.

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About the authors
Chad JenningsChad Jennings joined the The Journal News in October 2009, having spent the better part of seven years covering baseball in Scranton, PA. He is a graduate of the University of Missouri and an award-winning beat reporter and features writer. E-mail me at cjennings@lohud.com
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Sam BordenSam Borden is an award-winning journalist who joined The Journal News and LoHud.com in January 2008. He covered the Yankees for the New York Daily News from 2004-06, and has also worked as a columnist for the Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville. E-mail me at sborden@lohud.com
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Sam BordenJosh Thomson has done some of everything since joining The Journal News in March 2003. He began working for the Gannett weeklies during the winter of 2002 as a freelance writer. He joined the daily staff soon after and has since covered various high school and pro sports. E-mail me at jthomson@lohud.com
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