Control of the Yankees up for grabs
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- March
- 28
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The question of who takes control of the Yankees when George Steinbrenner steps down or passes away has been reopened.
Steinbrenner’s son-in-law and designated successor, Steve Swindal, has been sued for divorce. Jennifer Steinbrenner filed papers in the Hillsborough County Circuit Court’s family law department on Tuesday. She cited “irreconcilable differences.”
The divorce proceedings came 40 days after Swindal was arrested for driving under the influence and speeding in an unsavory section of St. Petersburg. Swindal is expected to lose his position as general partner.
Steinbrenner’s two sons, Hank and Hal, have not previously exhibited much interest in the operation of the team. Hank Steinbrenner is a senior vice president and general partner and Hal Steinbrenner a general partner. But both have spent more time at Legends Field this spring, particularly in the wake of Swindal’s arrest.
Another son-in-law, Felix Lopez, is a senior vice president of the team.
This is a significant development for fans. Once Steinbrenner dies, it is unclear whether his family would retain control of the team or sell it.
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on Wednesday, March 28th, 2007 at 7:52 pm by Peter Abraham.
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Chad Jennings
Sam Borden
Josh Thomson
rasner is doing a bad job tonight, this is embarrassing.
George might sell the team (Mark Cuban, are you interested? Donald, c’mon man!!). How dumb must Swindal feel? He just threw away millions and millions.
Interesting….
I got to say, I’m going to miss the big Stein when he passes. Got to love an owner who wants to win at all costs. Though sometimes his ego did hurt our team…Sheff/Vlad and other countless stuff.
Here’s to you Big Stein!
This one will be easy to solve. Cash divorces whoever he’s married to. Cashman marries Jennifer at the new stadium on Opening Day ‘09. Everyone lives happily ever after.
good one mel.
I’ve always hoped Jennifer would someday run the team. From what I understand she is very competitive and driven just like her father.
Is Jennifer hot? I’m single right now.
it would be cool if the family retained control just because of the passion and drive to be the best..but i’d also welcome new ownership in a heartbeat. note: only 6 of the yankees 26 championships have come under Steinbrenner’s control…so sure he does everything he can to win but obviously hasn’t had the same success that CBS had when they owned the team.
come on, Ras. as soon as they start mentioning that he has a good shot to make the rotation, his nice spring takes a hard left turn..much like karstens.
Astro’s announcer just had a good line,
“Here’s Mienkiewicz, who leads the league in vowels”
and he gets a hit!
What’s awful is that Swindal was a big supporter of Brian Cashman, and seemed happy to defer to Cashman’s decisions
We can hope that Felix Lopez and the Steinbrenner sons will have as good a relationship with Cashman
and then gets doubled off first.
maybe because Rasner and Karstens just aren’t any good?
Clare,
Thanks for clarifying. I swore I heard “leads the league in fouls”! I thought I was hearing things!
they should get Damon one of those t-shirt cannons to throw the ball back to the infield.
The Astros announcers are especially awful. And you get the feeling the entire Yankee team, Cashman, and Steinbrenner all kicked their puppy.
Milo Hamilton is WAY past his prime – but the two idiots doing the game tonight are really noxious
I just hope they dont sell the team to cablevision, because theyd run it into the ground
I’ll take over Pete. U set me up with Jen and I’ll give u a sky box for life.
here’s a thought: all of us wise [acre] know it all fans who post on various blogs should all team up to buy the team. i mean we know what’s best for the yankees afterall, right?
Scooter,
lol. I was really enjoying the broadcast when they were raving about our lineup. That was until they started up on all the holes in the lineup and even dared to say that there was fear in Yankeeland that Pavano’s our pitcher on Opening Day. How dare they! Only Yankee fans are allowed to rad on Carl and Alex.
But the best is when they started lamenting about the fact that they were “this close” to catching the Cardinals and the Cardinals went on to win it all. Like it could’ve been them that won it all.
Now they’re talking about Alex and his 24 errors. Yuck!
I liked when they said we have a circular lineup. Doug is a good hitter?? since when? doug is our pitcher hitting. LOL
I think Steinbrenners desire to win borders on obsession. I think it has created unneccessary and excessive pressure for the team. And in the long run done more harm than good. Passion to win is healthy, obsession is not.
jennifer,
It’s circular, but Doug is a speed bump. Just have to slow down a little.
doug isn’t all that bad. he has the ability to hit around .270, which is respectable for a nine-hole guy.
CBS? You are kidding, right? CBS had the team from August 1964 through 1972. Let’s throw out the last two months of 1964.
The Dark Ages where when CBS owned the team.
I’m just kidding. I’m not a hater.
But I would like to see Phelps make it over Phillips. You guys should check out the Yankee Blog at the Post. George King got skewered for saying Andy should get it over Josh.
just checking in…we’re still sure that either rasner or karstens could ably fill in for wang and come close to duplicating his output, right? right?
i read “The Bronx Zoo” recently, Sparky Lyle’s collaboration about the 1978 team, for those who don’t know about it. I think he described Steinbrenner best by calling him a “rah, rah, football guy”. or something to that effect. it’s exactly the way he comes off, like an obsessed football coach.
10 of the championships came under the ownership of Del Webb and Dan Topping.
7 under Jacob Ruppert, who died in January 1939. Three came when Ruppert’s heirs owned the team (1939, 1941, 1943) before selling to Webb and Topping (Larry MacPhail was co-owner with Webb and Topping 1945-1947).
6 under Steinbrenner.
i was trying to be ironic about the CBS comment but it flopped. basically what i was saying is Steinbrenner hasn’t done as much good as people make it seem.
Kasey…
It’s a handful of starts until Wang comes back. Not even that.
Repeat that about a million times.
Both Karstens and Rasner have had great springs. No one is perfect and both were do for a bad game sometime. Better to get it out of the way now when the games DO NOT COUNT.
As Archie told Edith…… STIFLE.
I dont care if shes hot, id marry her and be the happiest man alive if i could own the yankees
good job swindal, you F’ed UP!
good bunker line, mike s.
the games in april count.
9 hits, 6 runs, 4.2 innings = Rasner. All against a terrible Houston lineup. It’s the Karsten complex I tell ya.
not too concerned with what happens to karstens or rasner regarding the rotation anyway.. the Yankees don’t even need a 5th starter until around the time Wang is expected to be back. any hiccups in the rotation after that, we got plenty of guys down on the farm if either of the two of them still can’t do it. i’d rather have one of them be in the bullpen.
Villone reeks. Cut his ass.
I vote Clippard for 5th starter
This kind of game makes you really appreciate Igawa and Pavano.
A rough night for Rasner,
but what is even more telling is the numbers on Villone.
Too bad about Swindal. Divorce really sucks – it’s like a death only no one dies. He’s got kids too, I think (at least that one daughter). What a shame. You have to feel bad for his family. Believe me, this has probably been coming for some time – the arrest episode was just the final straw.
Hey, maybe Rudy will put together a group to buy the team. He ain’t becoming president and he would be as ruthless as Big Stein. Yeah, that’s the ticket. Rudy, Billy Crystal and Torre all put up some cash and finance the rest.
sheesh… Another guy that missed his chance… I hear Jen’s previous ex-husband is running for high school principal now..
Kasey
We know now that Karstens’ performance was impacted by a stiff elbow. We also could see that he was throwing with less velocity and less movement on his pitches than all spring
Rasner can get really hit around when he lacks control. He just doesn’t have the stuff to get by without perfect control. You shouldn’t lump Rasner with Karstens – I don’t think the Yankee brass does.
Villone was awful
Henn in…
Walks the first batter, then gives up a run-scoring single
I think I’ll vote for Bruney for the pen, and stick with just Myers as a lefty.
The plot thickens.
Jeter has made it clear he wants to own a team. Now’s the time to start hitting up a sugar mama named Jennifer!
Actually, Reggie has been very vocal about buying a team… he tried to put together a deal to buy the Angels I think.
[...] From Pete Abraham – The question of who takes control of the Yankees when George Steinbrenner steps down or passes away has been reopened. [...]
Isn’t that girl who was on Kids on Deck his and Jennifer’s daughter?
I don’t think Haley is Jeter’s type.
Who wanted a guy whose name sounds like ‘ swindle ‘ anyhow? I bet the Beanheads had the T shirts all ready too. Hmmm hope they lose plenty of $.
Meanwhile, somebody with a baseball brain needs to jump in retroactively. If Jennifer is up for it, I want her, but I’d take Cuban in a heartbeat. OR Maybe Rudy Giuliani can front a group. . ..
BTW you guys need to be pursuing Haley Swindal, George’s granddaughter.
OK folks, the two words are “Estate Planning” and you can be sure that George Steinbrenner has everything in order. He has a wife, two daughters and two sons then the grandchildren and the in-laws. What ever happens to the Yankees when George is gone will be whatever he has chosen.
Mr. Swindal knows that and so does the rest of the family.
This is definitely not a good omen for the Yankee management team! Swindal is the most knowledgeable baseball person in the Steinbrenner family and has been the “calming influence” on George’s impetuous thoughts on occasion. He is chiefly responsible for the Cashman’s increasing power within the Front Office.
We may critcize General George for being a “rah-rah” guy, but his dedication to make the Yankees the best team in sports in unquestioned. He brought the NY Franchise back from the scrap heap with his free agent spending and shrewd deals ,when we had the worst farm system in baseball (thanks Gabe Paul, Al Rosen).
And for those who criticize the fact that NY “has only won 6 Championships” under George – THAT’S TWICE AS MANY AS ANY MLB FRANCHISE since Steinbrenner took over in 1973!
And please remember, that prior to 1965, there was no Free Agent Draft and the best ballplayers typically went to the Teams with the most MLB scouts and the most money, so owners had a free reign in signing talent.
Love him or hate him, Mr. Steinbrenner will be recognized as one of the Greatest MLB owners in history. Enjoy what little time he has left!
The picture of Jennifer in the Post said it all. She looks like a man with a wig. Swindell probably couldn’t stand it any longer.
Circular lineup! Immediately brings to mind visions of the Bug Bunny cartoon in which the opposing team just has like 40 guys trotting around the basepaths non-stop, each taking his turn to swat a pitch out of the park when he gets to the plate:
http://video.google.com/videop.....9243692928