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    Art Schallock, Oldest Surviving Major Leaguer, Dies at 100

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    A pitcher, he played for the Yankees and the Orioles. When Mickey Mantle was sent to the minors in 1951, Schallock was called up.Art Schallock, the New York Yankees and Baltimore Orioles left-handed pitcher of the 1950s who had been the oldest living former major leaguer, died on Thursday in Sonoma, Calif. He was 100.His death was confirmed by his family.When the Yankees sent 19-year-old Mickey Mantle to the minors in 1951, they called up Schallock, who was making his major league debut.Pitching for five seasons in the majors, he appeared in 58 regular-season games, 14 of them as a starter.Arthur Lawrence Schallock was born in Mill Valley, Calif., near San Francisco, on April 25, 1924, the fourth child of Arthur and Alice Schallock. His father was a telephone and telegraph lineman.After pitching for high school and semipro teams, he served in the Navy during World War II as a radio operator on an aircraft carrier.The Brooklyn Dodgers signed him in 1946, and he pitched in their minor league system until they traded him to the Yankees in July 1951.Art Schallock in 1955. He spent five years in the major leagues, playing in 58 games.Harry Harris/Associated PressHe was a member of the Yankee teams that defeated the Dodgers in the 1952 and 1953 World Series, though he had only one postseason appearance: In Game 4 of the last of those matchups, he allowed one run in two innings.“I roomed with Yogi Berra and he knew all the hitters on each team,” he once said. “Besides that, I had to run down to the lobby and get his funny books. Every morning.”The Orioles obtained Schallock off waivers in May 1955.He had a career record of 6-7, with an earned run average of 4.02 and 77 strikeoutsSchallock’s family was struck by tragedy one night in March 1973 when a man who was an outpatient at a mental institution invaded the home of his brother Melvin; Melvin’s wife, Ruth; and the couple’s son, Daniel, in Mill Valley, Calif. The man set the house on fire and killed all of them with shotgun blasts.Last April, the Yankees honored Schallock on his birthday when they sent him a team jersey signed by the players.A list of Schallock’s survivors was not immediately available. His wife, Donna, died in 2023.For all his fortitude, Schallock did not set a record for longevity in professional baseball. The pitcher Si Simmons of the Lincoln Giants of the Negro leagues lived to 111, and the Yankee pitcher Red Hoff reached 107. More

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      Al Trautwig, a Mainstay in the TV Booth at Madison Square Garden, Dies at 68

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      The Long Island native covered 16 Olympics, and had cameos in the movie “Cool Runnings” and the TV show “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.”Al Trautwig, who brought sports fans along with him to New York’s Canyon of Heroes, champagne-doused locker rooms and the medal podium at the Olympics over a broadcast career that spanned more than three decades, died at his home on Long Island on Sunday. He was 68.His death was confirmed on Monday by his son, Alex Trautwig, who said that the cause was complications from cancer.In the largest U.S. media market, one where no detail is too minute for newspaper back pages and sports talk radio, Mr. Trautwig was a familiar face on New York Rangers and Knicks broadcasts for a generation on MSG Networks. He also covered Yankees games before the team created its own cable network in 2002.Al Trautwig, right, after the Yankees won the 2000 World Series.Steve Crandall/Getty ImagesThe son of Long Island had a wider audience: he covered 16 Olympics, most recently for NBC and focusing on gymnastics. His work earned him four national Emmys and more than 30 New York Emmys, his son said. He was also named New York Sportscaster of the Year in 2000.Mr. Trautwig’s death was announced earlier on Monday by Alan Hahn, an ESPN Radio host and a studio analyst for MSG Networks, who described him in a social media post as a mentor and teacher.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Yankees Part With Tradition: Beards Are Now Allowed

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      The team is ending its longstanding policy on facial hair and will allow “well-groomed beards moving forward,” Hal Steinbrenner said.Mariano Rivera and Bernie Williams had to shave. So did Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez.But now Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and the rest of the current Yankee roster can grow “well-groomed beards” if they so choose, after the club announced a change to its longstanding grooming policy.“After great consideration, we will be amending our expectations to allow our players and uniformed personnel to have well-groomed beards moving forward,” the team’s managing general partner, Hal Steinbrenner, said in a statement on Friday. “It is the appropriate time to move beyond the familiar comfort of our former policy.”Since the 1970s, the Yankees have barred their players from having beards or long hair. The policy was started by then-owner George Steinbrenner, Hal Steinbrenner’s father, who believed that neater appearance would increase professionalism and discipline among his players.While some other teams in major North American sports have policies regarding dress or appearance, the Yankees’ beard policy was among the strictest, and certainly the most famous.Hal Steinbrenner said he had consulted with “a large number of former and current Yankees, spanning several eras” before changing the policy.The policy has occasionally rankled members of the team. In one of the most remembered incidents, Don Mattingly, the team’s best player and captain in 1991, was pulled from the lineup because he declined to cut his hair.“I’m overwhelmed by the pettiness of it,” Mattingly told reporters then. He relented soon afterward.Don Mattingly, who was once pulled from the team’s lineup for his refusal to cut his hair, at Yankee Stadium in 1991.Focus on Sport/GettyIn recent years, speculation increased that the policy was hurting the Yankees’ chances of attracting quality players.“You’d be surprised how much more attractive the Yankees would be if they got rid of that facial hair rule,” Cameron Maybin, a former Yankee, said in 2023. More

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      Paul Simon Plays Rare New York Show in a Downtown Loft

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      The 82-year old singer received several standing ovations at an exclusive SoHo Sessions performance that drew fans including Kevin Bacon, Jerry Seinfeld and Amy Schumer.Paul Simon walked onstage to a rousing ovation in a royal purple jacket for a casual downtown evening — as laid back as something with about 150 guests could be — at the SoHo Sessions loft in NoLIta on Monday just after 8 p.m. for a small benefit concert.“Today is my birthday,” said Mr. Simon with a mischievous, boyish smile, drawing more cheers. He quickly added, “It’s not my birthday.” (He’ll be 83 in October).Earlier, the venue’s runners escorted guests — including Whoopi Goldberg, Kevin Bacon, Amy Schumer, Jerry and Jessica Seinfeld, and the musician Jackson Browne — in the updated freight elevator to the loft, a 3,500-square-foot fifth-floor space that was the original site of Chung King Studios, a former recording studio.Since December 2021, Nicole Rechter and Greg Williamson, two concert producers, have curated 14 Soho Sessions — private, mini-concerts raising funds and awareness for various causes, including mental health and gun control, and building community around the music. Ms. Rechter and Mr. Williamson are also behind the annual Love Rocks NYC, benefiting God’s Love We Deliver.The actress Whoopi Goldberg with her grandson Mason Dean. Rebecca Smeyne for The New York TimesJerry and Jessica Seinfeld.Rebecca Smeyne for The New York TimesThe actor Michael Imperioli.Rebecca Smeyne for The New York TimesWe are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Derek Jeter (Finally) Snags a Buyer for His New York Castle

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      The Yankees legend initially put the compound on the market in 2018 for $14.25 million. This time, the asking price was $6.3 million.After years of swings and misses, the Yankees legend Derek Jeter has finally found a buyer for his compound in Orange County, N.Y. — after it was re-listed for less than half of its original asking price.The four-acre lakefront home in Greenwood Lake, N.Y., known as Tiedemann Castle, went into contract on May 25, two years after it failed to sell at auction, and six years after the Hall of Fame shortstop initially put it on the market for more than $14 million. The asking price was slashed to $6.3 million this year, and the sale is currently pending.The listing agent, Diane Mitchell of Wright Brothers Real Estate, declined to comment on the specifics of the deal, but said that she is “thrilled” that it’s finally under contract. The estate comprises three different parcels, according to the listing, including a main house, guesthouse, pool house and boat house. At more than 12,500 square feet, it has six bedrooms and 13 bathrooms.Mr. Jeter, the Yankees’ all-time leader in hits, has been trying to sell the property for six years.Vincent Carchietta/USA TODAY Sports, via USA Today Sports Via Reuters ConBuilt more than a century ago, the home’s distinguishing features are vast and lavish. There are five kitchens (four indoor, one outdoor), a lagoon, an infinity pool shaped like a baseball diamond, a game room and turrets. It has been compared to a medieval castle.Mr. Jeter bought the property in the early 2000s, at the peak of his baseball career. He initially listed it for $14.25 million in June 2018. In 2022, it went to auction, at which point Ms. Mitchell, who was the listing agent then as well, said in a statement that “the owner is serious about selling because the owner spends most of his time at other family-owned homes.” The auction, which had a minimum bid of $6.5 million, was unsuccessful, and the property was listed again last month.In recent years, Mr. Jeter has been reshaping other aspects of his real estate portfolio as well. In 2020, he listed his custom-built, 30,875-square-foot mansion in Tampa, Fla., for $29 million. It sold the following year for $22.5 million, becoming the region’s most expensive home sale at the time. Last year, The Tampa Bay Times reported that the home was set to be demolished and replaced with new mansion.Steven Dolinsky PhotographySteven Dolinsky PhotographySteven Dolinsky PhotographySteven Dolinsky PhotographySteven Dolinsky PhotographyIn the village of Greenwood Lake, which is around 50 miles north of Manhattan, the median listing price is $475,000, according to Realtor.com.For Mr. Jeter, who was born in Pequannock Township, N.J., and grew up in Michigan, the estate holds sentimental value. His grandfather, William “Sonny” Connors, was the adopted son of John and Julia Tiedemann, who previously owned the home, and the future Yankee captain spent summers there, according to Ian O’Connor’s 2011 book, “The Captain: The Journey of Derek Jeter.” At the time, Mr. O’Connor wrote, he “was not looking for a chance to swim as much as he was looking for a partner in a game of catch.” More

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      After 5,631 Yankees Games, John Sterling Calls His Own Walk-Off

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      The WFAN announcer was known for his catchphrase, “It is high! It is far! It is gone!” His last game was on Monday.John Sterling and Suzyn Waldman had that special sort of radio relationship where they would often finish each other’s sentences, or more precisely, each other’s lyrics. They might have been announcing Yankees games, but that would not prevent them from dipping into musical theater, a passion for both of them.“It’s something sort of grandish,” Sterling might say on the air, using one of his signature phrases to describe a great play by the former outfielder Curtis Granderson, or perhaps it was a reference a grand slam someone had hit.Right on cue, without any rehearsal other than decades as friends and colleagues, Waldman would add, “Sweeps my soul when thou art near,” reciting the next line of the song from “Finian’s Rainbow.”Sterling and Waldman formed one of the more unusual relationships in sports broadcasting history, but it ended abruptly on Monday when Sterling retired, effective immediately. “I just don’t want to do any more work,” he said Monday on WFAN. “I’ve worked for 64 years, and in July I’ll be 86, so let’s face it, my time has come.”He had announced 5,420 regular season and 211 postseason Yankees games on radio since 1989. With his silky baritone, singsong inflections and signature home-run call — “It is high! It is far! It is gone!” — Sterling became a fixture on the airwaves, bringing his earnest and schticky boosterism to generations of Yankee fans.“He is an original, and there will never be another like him,” Waldman said on Tuesday.Sterling’s last 20 years were spent alongside Waldman, whom he met in 1987 at WFAN. They became fast friends, as much for their love of sports as Broadway. When the former Yankee owner George Steinbrenner suggested hiring Waldman as the first woman to do color commentating on regular a baseball broadcasts, Sterling endorsed the pioneering move.We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Ken Holtzman, Who Pitched Two No-Hitters, Is Dead at 78

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      A left-hander, he was part of the Oakland A’s dynasty in the ’70s. He was also the winningest Jewish pitcher in Major League Baseball, with more victories than Sandy Koufax.Ken Holtzman, a left-hander who pitched two no-hitters for the Chicago Cubs and won three World Series with the Oakland A’s in a 15-season career, died on Monday in St. Louis. He was 78.He had been hospitalized for the last three weeks with heart and respiratory illnesses, his brother, Bob, said in confirming the death.Holtzman won 174 games, the most for a Jewish pitcher in Major League Baseball — nine more than the Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax, who is considered one of the best pitchers ever and who had a shorter career.In addition to his win total, Holtzman, who at 6 feet 2 inches and 175 pounds cut a lanky figure, had a career earned run average of 3.49 and was chosen for the 1972 and 1973 All-Star teams.Holtzman, at 23, threw his first no-hitter on Aug. 19, 1969, a 3-0 victory over the Atlanta Braves — a performance distinguished by the fact that he didn’t strike out any Braves. It was the first time since 1923 that a no-hitter had been pitched without a strikeout.“I didn’t have my good curve, and I must have thrown 90 percent fastballs,” Holtzman told The Atlanta Constitution afterward. “When I saw my curve wasn’t breaking early in the game, I thought it might be a long day.”We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      Should Gay People Seek to Be Seen as ‘Normal’?

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      More from our inbox:Domingo Germán, Simply PerfectTrump and EvangelicalsArt in Private Hands, Lost to Public ViewMissing: Younger Women’s Voices Amir Hamja/The New York TimesTo the Editor:Re “As a Gay Man, I’ll Never Be Normal,” by Richard Morgan (Opinion guest essay, nytimes.com, June 25):Mr. Morgan just reinforces the concept of normalcy. Better that we just be ourselves, and ignore the labeling altogether.I live in a college town, and what I see every day is gender fluidity and sexual orientation boundaries continuing to be dissolved at a pace that middle-aged queers like me should find both inspirational and enviable. Young people today don’t care so much about the “who is normal/abnormal” space that the author writes about.We should not retreat from the many hues in our “rainbow” of people, including all those who dwell in the borders. We should neither spend too much time separating out the colors (as the author does), nor dig our heels into concepts of “true” or “pure” queerness.Young people aren’t normalizing queer; they are finding newer and braver ways of being themselves. Whether that means walking in a parade, or never doing it; whether obviously or imperceptibly gender fluid; whether in, out or through the back closet into Narnia; whether normal, abnormal, homogenized or wildly unique. Everyone belongs, and we should have a wide open door.James SeniorMarquette, Mich.To the Editor:Richard Morgan makes the mistake that countless individuals have made in equating heterosexuality with normality and being gay with … something else. Heterosexuality isn’t normal … it’s just common.Yes, Mr. Morgan, as gay folks, you and I are in a distinct minority. But why take on the burden of allowing others to categorize us as abnormal?Yes, homosexuality is less common than heterosexuality, but it’s entirely natural and entirely normal. Raise your consciousness, brother.Jim SkofieldWalpole, N.H.To the Editor:“As a Gay Man, I’ll Never Be Normal” was such a touching reflection of emotions I’ve long held myself. As a teenager I cried and prayed for the “normalcy” he described, but only now have realized that it was ease I hoped for. As a proud gay man I’m happy to have survived such a difficult and uneasy journey to adulthood.The Human Rights Campaign’s messaging for marriage equality, grounded in the claim that gay relationships are deserving of equal protection because they are just like straight relationships, did unmeasurable good for the community. But it was flawed in the sense that it set a requirement of likeness for legitimacy.We aren’t like heterosexuals; we often live and love very differently and across a wide spectrum. I’ve seen a shift in the queer community away from “we’re just like you” messaging recently, and applaud those who demand acceptance despite their differences.While this might not be the easiest path to tolerance, it’s the only path to acceptance.Austin RichardsChicagoTo the Editor:I do not agree with Richard Morgan that “L.G.B.T.Q. folks have a peculiar interest in normalization.” Whether or not he, or I, or any gay man feels either “normal” or “normalized” matters only to the individual.What seems much more important is that our legal, religious and educational institutions come to understand that a society composed of people of varying sexual and gender identities is, in the end, what is truly “normal.”David CastronuovoRomeTo the Editor:Richard Morgan is right. As a gay man, I will never be “normal,” even if I always wanted to be accepted like everyone else. I have accepted that truth now and have offered that up as my cross to bear.But I am grateful for the empathy and caring it taught me and for the kindness of strangers, and, of course, for my kind and strong husband.It’s OK to be different. Just learn to let go of the stress and anger it can sometimes bring.Patrick Sampson-BabineauEdmonds, Wash.Domingo Germán, Simply PerfectDomingo Germán of the Yankees needed only 99 pitches to complete a perfect game against the Oakland Athletics.Godofredo A. Vásquez/Associated PressTo the Editor:Re “Yankees Pitcher Throws M.L.B.’s First Perfect Game Since 2012” (Sports, nytimes.com, June 29):He had been so imperfect his last two starts. His statistics were ghastly. And before that, there was the 10-game suspension for being the poster child for this year’s worst sin: a pitcher with too much sticky stuff on his hands.He was a mere afterthought in the starting rotation, an asterisk caused by injury to others. Domingo Germán, hanging on by a thread.So Wednesday night seemed more likely a final chance, a last gasp at redemption rather than a ticket to baseball immortality.Maybe his choice of uniform number — zero — was prophetic. Maybe mere serendipity that he had his best stuff against a uniquely inept opponent, the Oakland Athletics. Whatever the cause, there it was, and there it will be in perpetuity.My most prized piece of sports memorabilia is a ball signed by the pitchers and catchers of the three previous perfect games thrown by the Yankees. Suddenly, that ball needs two more signatures. But I forgive Mr. Germán his transgression.Not good. Not great. Perfect.Robert S. NussbaumFort Lee, N.J.Trump and EvangelicalsIn an effort to consolidate evangelical support, former President Donald J. Trump emphasized his role in appointing three Supreme Court justices who helped overturn Roe v. Wade.Pete Marovich for The New York TimesTo the Editor:Re “Trump Burnishes Judicial Record at Evangelical Conference: ‘This Guy Ended Roe’” (news article, June 26):Evangelicals’ support for such a morally compromised and ethically challenged individual as Donald Trump never ceases to amaze me. Their dubious rationalization for this — that he brought an end to Roe v. Wade — borders on the absurd, given that every Republican candidate running in 2016 and today would have nominated three “pro-life” nominees for the Supreme Court if afforded the same opportunity that Mr. Trump had as president.So why continue to support someone who has made a mockery of almost every fundamental Christian value and endorse such a deplorable example of leadership for our youth when so many others are available who represent those values so much better?Ira BelskyFranklin Lakes, N.J.Art in Private Hands, Lost to Public ViewTo the Editor:Re “$108.4 Million Sale Sets Auction Record for Klimt” (news article, June 28), about the sale of “Lady With a Fan”:Art sold to private collectors is often lost to public view. As someone who spent many years researching Gustav Klimt and his work, I found that your story raised critical issues about ownership and access to important paintings.When the philanthropist and World War II restitution activist Ronald S. Lauder purchased “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I” for a record $135 million in 2006, he put the portrait in the Neue Galerie in Manhattan, where it has remained on continuous display.By contrast, “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II” is now in private, unnamed ownership in China, and “Lady With a Fan” is now in the possession of a private collector in Hong Kong.Klimt’s paintings show us the lost world of his Jewish patrons in turn-of-the-century Vienna. Some may applaud Sotheby’s record European sale, but art is more than a commodity; it is part of our shared history.When a painting is sold to private collectors for record millions, it becomes unaffordable to museums and too often inaccessible to the people who would appreciate its beauty and significance.Laurie Lico AlbaneseMontclair, N.J.The writer is the author of “Stolen Beauty,” a novel about the creation and restitution of “Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I.”Missing: Younger Women’s VoicesTo the Editor:Re “Nine Kansas Women on Abortion” (“America in Focus” series, Opinion, June 25):Come on! Of the nine women who discussed their thoughts and votes on abortion, the youngest was 37 years old. The other women interviewed were in their 40s, 50s and 60s!Why be so removed from the women who are the hardest hit subjects of the bans? You should have given readers a chance to hear from the many fertile women in their teens and 20s whose bodily autonomy is being challenged now.Lisa LumpkinOsprey, Fla. More

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      Trump/Steinbrenner: how the Yankees owner fired a president’s ego

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      Trump/Steinbrenner: how the Yankees owner fired a president’s egoDonald Trump is exiled in Florida but he was made in New York – in part by a friendship with a controversial baseball ownerWhen Donald Trump was looking to make his mark in 1980s Manhattan, he found a role model up in the Bronx: the New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. Trump was also a professional team owner: his New Jersey Generals competed in the short-lived United States Football League. But though Trump and Steinbrenner would ultimately become good friends, they didn’t get off to the best start.Trump to publish book of letters from Kim Jong-un, Oprah Winfrey and othersRead moreAs Maggie Haberman of the New York Times writes in her bestselling book, Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America, the two men sat on the board of the New York State Sportsplex Corporation, which was looking into building new stadiums. Trump was eyeing one in Queens, where the Generals could play.“At a press conference following the board’s first meeting, in 1984, Steinbrenner complained that Trump was hogging the microphone. ‘This isn’t going to be a one-man show or I’m not going to stick around,’ he said, raising his arms to obscure Trump so that photographers could not capture them together.“That show of ego, and willingness to set the terms of debate, did not stop the men from becoming friends, and Trump was a constant presence in the owner’s box at Yankee Stadium.”Years later, Steinbrenner provided inspiration for Trump on his hit TV show, The Apprentice.“He ad-libbed the ‘You’re fired’ line used to dispatch each week’s loser as an apparent, and unacknowledged, homage” to Steinbrenner, Haberman writes, describing how the Yankees owner’s “revolving door of managers was one of New York’s great ongoing tragicomedies.“As he was still trying to figure out how to be a boss of a company, Trump looked upon Steinbrenner – and the ease, even glee, with which he fired people – and other members of Steinbrenner’s social circle as examples. When he had to play an executive on television, Trump adopted Steinbrenner’s voice and recast The Apprentice’s spirit as gleefully punitive.”Memorably, Steinbrenner cashed in on the catchphrase in a 1978 Miller Lite commercial, which shows him clashing with manager Billy Martin.Steinbrenner says: “Tastes great.”Martin insists: “Less filling.”“Billy,” Steinbrenner.“Yeah, George?”“You’re fired,” Steinbrenner says, with a grin.“Not again!” Martin replies, as the two men chuckle.In real life, Martin had five stints as Yankees manager.Steinbrenner and Trump became etched into popular culture – as executives who made firing people an art form.In 2010, following Steinbrenner’s death, Jim Caple on ESPN wrote: “During his prime, Steinbrenner single-handedly raised the national unemployment rate by a percent, firing managers so regularly that he made Donald Trump look like the head of a teachers union.”Trump told the writer Mark Leibovich Steinbrenner had been his best friend, calling him a “big time winner”. Those comments were published in 2017, when Trump had taken Steinbrenner’s human resources philosophy to the White House, dispensing with officials the way Steinbrenner fired executives and managers.However, when, in 1973, the syndicate Steinbrenner led bought the Yankees, he gave no indication he would be so involved in personnel matters.“‘I won’t be active in the day-to-day operations of the club at all,” he said, making arguably the least accurate prediction in sports business history.“We plan absentee ownership as far as running the Yankees is concerned,” Steinbrenner added. “We’re not going to pretend we’re something we aren’t. I’ll stick to building ships.”Steinbrenner’s stint with the Yankees did feature one thing more scarce in Trump’s business career: eye-catching financial success. His group bought the team from CBS for a measly $10m. Last year, Forbes pegged the Yankees’ value at $6bn.There was a reason for the bargain price. Steinbrenner, then 42, chairman of the American Ship Building Company and part‐owner of the NBA’s Chicago Bulls, purchased the most successful franchise in baseball at close to rock bottom, at least by its standards. The year before, the Yankees finished fourth in the American League East and drew just 966,000 fans: their first time under a million since the second world war, when attendance was down across baseball. Steinbrenner’s group got the Yankees for less than the small-market Cleveland Indians had recently fetched.Around the same time, Steinbrenner and Trump both got into trouble with the US justice department.In 1973, the department sued Trump’s real estate firm for discriminating against Black tenants and thereby violating the Fair Housing Act, a case eventually settled.The following year, the justice department indicted Steinbrenner for illegal contributions to Richard Nixon’s 1972 re-election campaign. That case ended in a guilty plea in August 1974, two weeks after Nixon resigned, and Steinbrenner being suspended from running the team. (Trump would also befriend Nixon – he will include 25 letters from the former president in a book due out in April.)Untouchable review: Trump as ‘lawless Houdini’ above US justiceRead moreSteinbrenner wound up returning the Yankees to the pinnacle, spending liberally on star players, especially in the early years of free agency, and winning 11 pennants and seven World Series titles.In 2006, with the Yankees on their way to a ninth straight AL East title, Trump threw out the ceremonial pitch at Fenway Park before a game against the Boston Red Sox. In August 2020, as president, he said he had canceled plans to throw the opening pitch at Yankee Stadium, also against the Red Sox – citing his “strong focus” on the coronavirus pandemic. The Times said no invitation was made for that specific game.We’ll never know how Trump would have been received. But he has weighed in from the peanut gallery himself. In 2013, with the Yankees on their way to a first playoff miss in five seasons, he called out the team.“The Yankees are sure lucky George Steinbrenner is not around,” Trump tweeted, before going back to the firing imagery that marked both men’s careers.“A lot of people would be losing their jobs.”
      Frederic J Frommer’s books include Red Sox vs Yankees: The Great Rivalry and You Gotta Have Heart: Washington Baseball from Walter Johnson to the 2019 World Series Champion Nationals
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