Colorful, controversial owner rebuilt Yankees

George Steinbrenner, whose big wallet and win-at-all-cost attitude whipped the New York Yankees into a billion-dollar sports empire, died Tuesday at St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, Fla., of a heart attack. He had celebrated his 80th birthday on July 4.

"George was 'the Boss,' make no mistake," Hall of Famer Yogi Berra said. "He built the Yankees into champions, and that's something nobody can ever deny. He was a very generous, caring, passionate man. George and I had our differences, but who didn't? We became great friends over the last decade and I will miss him very much."

In 37-plus seasons as owner, Mr. Steinbrenner led the Yankees to seven World Series championships, 11 American League pennants and 16 AL East titles.

"He was and always will 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," baseball commissioner Bud Selig said.

He headed a 14-member group that bought the team from CBS for about $10 million on Jan. 3, 1973. New York was then 11 years removed from its last championship.

A successful shipbuilder and a onetime college football coach who later owned several thoroughbred horses, Mr. Steinbrenner famously promised a hands-off operation.

"We're not going to pretend we're something we aren't," he said. "I'll stick to building ships."

It hardly turned out that way.

Consider his dealings with Dave Winfield. Mr. Steinbrenner paid to dig up dirt on the outfielder and derided the future Hall of Famer as "Mr. May" in 1985 after poor performances late in the season.

"There is nothing quite so limited as being a limited partner of George Steinbrenner's," one of them, John McMullen, once said.

Mr. Steinbrenner ruled with obsessive dedication to detail, overseeing everything from trades to the air blowers that kept his ballparks spotless. He admitted he was overbearing, and screamed at all, from commissioners to managers and secretaries.

He revolutionized the franchise - and sports - by starting his own television network and ballpark food company. Forbes now values the Yankees at $1.6 billion, trailing only Manchester United ($1.8 billion) and the Dallas Cowboys ($1.65 billion) among athletic teams.

His reign was interrupted for suspensions, including a 15-month ban in 1974 after his guilty plea to conspiring to make illegal contributions to President Richard M. Nixon's reelection campaign. He was pardoned 15 years later by President Ronald Reagan.

The son of a shipping magnate, Mr. Steinbrenner lived up to his billing as "the Boss," a nickname he earned and clearly enjoyed as he ruled with an iron fist.

He was known for feuds, clashing with Berra and hiring manager Billy Martin five times while repeatedly fighting with him.

But as his health declined, Mr. Steinbrenner, who lived in a mansion on a leafy street in south Tampa, let sons Hal and Hank run more of the family business.

Mr. Steinbrenner was in fragile health for years, resulting in fewer public appearances and pronouncements.

He appeared at the new $1.5 billion Yankee Stadium just four times: the 2009 opener, the first two games of last year's World Series and this year's homer opener, when team captain Derek Jeter and manager Joe Girardi went to his suite and personally delivered his seventh World Series ring.

"He was very emotional," said Hal Steinbrenner, his father's successor as managing general partner.

Mr. Steinbrenner never stopped demanding championships.

He fought with manager Joe Torre during the 2007 AL playoffs, then let the popular skipper leave after another loss in the opening round. The team responded last year by winning another title.

"I will always remember George Steinbrenner as a passionate man, a tough boss, a true visionary, a great humanitarian, and a dear friend," Torre said. "It's only fitting that he went out as a world champ."

Mr. Steinbrenner could poke fun at himself. He hosted Saturday Night Live, clowned with Martin in a commercial, and chuckled at his impersonation on Seinfeld. He gave millions to charity, often with one stipulation: that no one know who made the donation.

Mr. Steinbrenner also spent freely on the likes of Jeter, Reggie Jackson, Alex Rodriguez, Torre, and others in hopes of yet another title.

"Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing," Mr. Steinbrenner was fond of saying. "Breathing first, winning next."

He joined Al Davis, Charles O. Finley, Bill Veeck, George Halas, Jack Kent Cooke, and Jerry Jones as the most recognized team owners.

Mr. Steinbrenner's sports interests extended beyond baseball. He was an assistant football coach at Northwestern and Purdue Universities in the 1950s, and was part of the group that bought the Cleveland Pipers of the American Basketball League in the 1960s.

He was a vice president of the U.S. Olympic Committee from 1989 to 1996, and entered six horses in the Kentucky Derby, failing to win with Steve's Friend (1977), Eternal Prince (1985), Diligence (1996), Concerto (1997), Blue Burner (2002), and the 2005 favorite, Bellamy Road.

Mr. Steinbrenner made no apologies for his bombast, even when it cost him. He was banned for 21/2 years for paying self-described gambler Howie Spira to dig up negative information on Winfield, and for 15 months following a guilty plea for his conduct during the Watergate era.

Mr. Steinbrenner negotiated a landmark $486 million, 12-year cable television contract with the Madison Square Garden Network in 1988 and launched the Yankees' own YES Network for the 2002 season.

Under him, the Yankees became the first team with a $200 million payroll, provoking anger and envy among other owners. After the 1982 season, Baltimore Orioles owner Edward Bennett Williams said Mr. Steinbrenner hoarded outfielders "like nuclear weapons."

Mr. Steinbrenner also changed managers 21 times, most notably Martin. The Boss hired Martin in 1975, 1979, 1983, 1985 and 1987, firing him four times and letting him resign once as the two battled over substance and personality.

In 1978, Martin said of Jackson and Mr. Steinbrenner: "The two of them deserve each other: One's a born liar, the other's convicted."

While Mr. Steinbrenner grew up in the Cleveland area as a Yankees fan, his first passion was football. He was raised in a strict household headed by his father, Henry. The oldest of three children, Mr. Steinbrenner attended Culver Military Academy in Indiana. At Williams College, he ran track, specializing in hurdles.

After that, he enlisted in the Air Force. Following his discharge, he enrolled at Ohio State University, pursuing a master's degree in physical education. It was his intention to go into coaching, but after working at a high school in Columbus, Ohio, and at Purdue and Northwestern, he turned to business.

Mr. Steinbrenner married Elizabeth Zieg in 1956 and they had four children.

In 1963, Mr. Steinbrenner purchased Kinsman Transit Co., a fleet of lakes ore carriers, from his family and built a thriving company. Four years later, Mr. Steinbrenner and associates took over American Shipbuilding and revitalized the firm.

It was in Cleveland that Mr. Steinbrenner met veteran baseball executive Gabe Paul and became involved with the group that bought the Yankees. "When you're a shipbuilder, nobody pays any attention to you," he said. "But when you own the New York Yankees . . . they do, and I love it."

With that, the "Bronx Zoo" days began. It was while he was under suspension that the Yankees ushered in baseball's free-agent era by signing Catfish Hunter to a $3.75 million contract.

For the first five years of free agency, Mr. Steinbrenner signed 10 players for about $38 million. Mr. Steinbrenner's $18.2 million, 10-year deal with Winfield was the richest free-agent contract in history.

During those days, Yankee Stadium underwent a $100 million face-lift and reopened in 1976. That year, the Yankees won the AL pennant, but got swept in the World Series by Cincinnati's Big Red Machine. The Yankees surged back to win the World Series in 1977 and 1978 and the pennant in 1981.

In addition to his sons, Mr. Steinbrenner is survived by his wife, Joan; daughters Jennifer and Jessica; and 13 grandchildren.