George Steinbrenner: The original Trump

Welcome again to the Bill Bradley Collective, where this week in deference to our season-wide theme of criminal justice and sports, your hosts examine the life and crimes of George M. Steinbrenner III. Like many bull’s-eyes on the proverbial Collective dartboard, Steinbrenner is born into the dual advantage of white privilege and inherited wealth. His beginnings as a shipping magnate of the Great Lakes eventually leads to ownership of the New York Yankees in 1973. Until his death in 2010, George assumes a massive celebrity persona in New York City, not unlike a certain businessman who failed all the way upwards to eventually become President. Like Donald Trump, Steinbrenner’s outspoken brand of cult of celebrity somewhat overshadows a life of serious white-collar crime. A tale of two cases: illegal contributions to then President Richard Nixon in 1974 under the veil of “bonuses” to shipbuilding cohorts that results in a paltry fifteen month suspension from commissioner Bowie Kuhn, and what was a mere 2-year suspension in 1990 from Fay Vincent for employing honorable gambler/snitch Howard Spira in a vain attempt to accrue unsavory information on future Hall-of-Famer and noteworthy Steinbrenner free-agent signee Dave Winfield. A “Seinfeld” caricature, Miller Lite pitchman and presiding “boss” of 7 world championship Yankee teams seems to mask a far more unsavory legacy. This is the story of George Steinbrenner: authoritarian, thug, bully and criminal, this week on the Bill Bradley Collective.