George Steinbrenner Has Dementia

Anybody who follows baseball closely knows that George Steinbrenner, the owner of the New York Yankees and one of the most influential and powerful men in baseball for the last twenty-five to thirty-five years, isn’t the man he used to be. He was no longer a mainstay at Yankees games and their recent stretch of futility, at least in terms of winning a World Series, wouldn’t have been tolerated by the old George. There would have been a mass of firings or trades, but instead he just issued statements through his publicist that the organization was committed to winning. I, and most people I think, assumed that it was simply a part of the aging process and that Steinbrenner was tiring of the public spotlight as he aged and mellowed a bit in the wake of a 2003 fainting spell.

However, MSNBC’s Mike Celizic reports that its likely that Steinbrenner has dementia, or something resembling that diagnosis.

The body is there, but the mind is fading. He isn’t going to drop the axe on anyone because he can’t. He’s not going to rip anyone because he can’t remember their names.

I’ve been saying for several years that he’s not the same man he once was. I never used the word “dementia” because I didn’t know what the reason was. I only knew what I heard privately from people, and that was that the Boss had lost his
fastball.

…..

“While many in the media continue to suggest The Boss is still a lurking and fearsome presence, there has been little-to-no-evidence the last two years to believe Steinbrenner has the capacity to run the Yanks in the same manner in which he
had run the team since the 1970s.

All reasonable signs indicate that his dementia . . . is now so profound that he is being carefully hidden from public view, appearing only in occasional, circumspect quotes issued by his longtime personal public relations man, Howard Rubenstein.”

ESPN also has an article up which touches on Steinbrenner’s aging and the future of the Yankees. Steinbrenner’s expected successor was originally going to be his son-in-law Steve Swindal. Since Swindal is in the middle of divorcing Steinbrenner’s daughter (both daughters are considered “brilliant” but neither is considered a possible future owner, as Steinbrenner is a chauvinist) he has been let go from his job with the Yankees and obviously has no future there. Steinbrenner’s sons, Hank and Hal, ran the family’s thoroughbred racing farm and hotel chain, respectively, but both are taking larger roles with the Yankees, with one, perhaps Hal, expected to take over for George when he dies.

I have three points to make.

1. How bad could this marriage have been that this guy blew his opportunity to run the New York Yankees? I hate the Yankees, but c’mon. It’s the biggest sports franchise in North America. I don’t care what your wife makes you or how much of a bitch she is. Deal with it and put a damn smile on your face and spent 18 hours a day at the “office.” Seriously, you’re running the most successful and richest franchise in baseball history. People have stayed in bad marriages for a lot less. Seriously, how the hell could you have thrown that away?

2. If I ever up with dementia or serious Alzheimer’s or a debilitating brain injury or anything similar, don’t let me live. Put me out of my (and your) misery. I can’t imagine living in a state where you can’t carry on simple conversations or recognize your own family or function in any meaningful way. Whenever I write a will, this will be one of the first points: permission to smother me in my sleep if I get any serious condition affecting my ability to intellectually function. Alternatively, buy a 9mm and a pack of bullets and deduct it from my assets and you can even keep the gun and unused bullets when you’re finished.

3. The ESPN article is worth clicking on even if you have no interest in the story, because there’s a funny photo of Hal Steinbrenner in the article. It’s the third photo. On a message board one guy posted, “What the hell is up with that photo of Hal Steinbrenner?” The next guy replied, “Hal Steinbrenner is watching you masturbate.” I laughed out loud.