George Steinbrenner... a Tough Act to Follow

Thanks to all of you for weighing in on my Facebook over the last day on my views on the passing of George Steinbrenner. It has allowed me to take a long view of his life and how, if certain things would have worked out differently, how thing might have been different in my home here in Cleveland.

My view of George is positive despite the warts. What he did in Lorain was largely unacceptable. Lorain is still trying to figure out what to do for recovery to this day. But, if we blame George and AmShip for the start of the slide there, we can also blame USX and Ford for completing his work. Today, Lorain is ripe to rise from the ashes. They are looking for the person or people who will take the risk and develop something that will allow Lorain to become a viable center of commerce again. If anyone wants to put a bee in Alan Spitzer's bonnet, a good time to do that might be sooner than later.

George set a high bar for all baseball teams and, yes, he did exploit the system for the benefit of his team. So be it. That's the way the system works. It didn't seem like Dick Jacobs had much trouble keeping up when he owned the middle-market Indians, although it would be interesting to see whether he'd be doing things the same way now. One thing's for sure, the Dolan family simply lacks in comparison in their carnival act ownership of the club

It also would have been interesting to see if George had become the owner of the Indians. I'm not completely sure that George would have had the same success. But, I am sure that he would have seen to it that the team was equipped for success in Cleveland the same way that he set up the Yankees for success. I believe that he would have set up the Indians for an unparalleled level of success that they had not seen before.

I also believe that he would have been a champion for Cleveland and that, working with political and community leaders, he would have been a go to guy for improving his hometown. I suspect that he would have been instrumental in developing what became the Gateway Project much sooner and would have done so under the big tent including the Cavaliers and Browns. I also suspect that Art Modell would have been convinced by George to be part of the project and that chances would have been that the project would have been the early catalyst for much of the new stadium development we have seen in pro sports over the last 20 years. It might have saved Cleveland the pain of the embarrassing loss and hiatus of the Browns.

I know that much of what I've said here is much ado about speculative history. So be it. If you think of it, the great things George did to return the Yankees to glory had the cloudiness of a heaping helping of suspicion toward others over those years. No doubt that drama would have played out here in Cleveland. But the great mountains of interpersonal drama play out often in the world of successful professional athletics. If Cleveland would have been the locale of that drama in return for a few World Series trophies, I surely would have dealt with it. And, if you are a Cleveland sports fan, you would have, too. I can assure you of that.

At the end of the day, for all his personal and professional gaffes, George was a success and leaves a standard that will be difficult for others to top.