The Boss and the Yanquis

Once upon a time there was a baseball owner who took hands-on leadership to the extreme. He was known for over-reacting, removing managers at a whim and expressing his ire over perceived player recalicitrance. I'm, of course, referring to George Steinbrenner. The legendary Yankees owner took over the Yankees shortly after the demise of the Reserve Clause. The Boss used millions made in the shipping industry and permanently shaped the future of baseball free-agency. He dedicated his ownership to building the Yankees into a permanent championship team, centered around star players paid exorbitant salaries.

In New York Yanquis (Arcade Publishing: 1995), author Bill Granger gives us Yankee owner George Bremenhaven, a thinly-veiled recreation of the late Yankee owner. Sharing the stage with Bremenhaven, and the book's protagonist, is veteran relief pitcher Ryan Patrick Shawn, turned manager. The premise for Granger's comedic novel is the Yankee owners desire to reduce his payroll by getting rid of all of his high-priced players and replacing them with a roster of Cuban all-stars who will play the game simply because of their love of the game. The only player he retains is Shawn, who happens to speak Spanish, and is desperate for one last go-around before retiring.

The novel is full of jabs at Stienbrenner, from his all-consuming drive for a pennant to his penny-pinching methods. He houses the Cuban players in one of his run-down hotels and feeding them pizza. To keep Shawn in line, Bremenhaven contrives various schemes that has Shawn fending off accusations of infedelity to his girlfriend and fearing that the IRS is going to lock him up for tax fraud. Shawn is initially a gullible hero, but one that can, and will, stand up to Bremenhaven - often in amusing verbal jabs. Shawn finds himself playing cat-and-mouse games with his boss, which in the end tends to put him on an equal footing with the eccentric owner.

Bremenhaven hates to lose, whether it's against other teams, their owners, or even his own players. Shawn just wants to survive one more season and then see where things take him. The Cubans just want to play ball, but find themselves frustrated and depressed at being so far from home and being treated as second-hand citizens. The story is a comedy that makes light of the Stienbrenner-esk character and his antics, but we are also treated to a host of stereotypical characters, from Shawn's Los Angeles-based agent to his girlfriend, and a host of mysterious government agents. And then, there's the cameo appearances by Fidel Castro, himself, with his long-winded, rambling tirades

Actual baseball action is rare in this novel, but done well when it appears. But the story is actually less about baseball than about hopes and dreams, and the compromises that must be made along the way toward happiness. Yes, we are entertained by the Bremenhaven character (who I would not be surprised if Granger didn't model him after the Steinbrenner of "Jerry Seinfeld" fame), but in the end it is the Ryan Shawn and his Cuban players overcoming all types of obstacles thrown in front of them that is the real story.

New York Yanquis is not a morality play. It's a farse about greed in the American Game. An over-simplication of complex issues like baseball ownership, free agency, and U.S. politics. But I'd recommend it as an entertaining fun read; one that brings back memories of the craziness that surrounded the Yankees and The Boss.


Steinbrenner: You know George, it struck me today me that a Communist pipeline into the vast reservoir of Cuban baseball talent could be the greatest thing ever to happen to this organization.
George: Sir?
Steinbrenner: You could be invaluable to this franchise. George,there's a southpaw down there nobody's been able to get a look at; something Rodriguez, I don't really know his name. You get yourself down to Havana right away.
George: Yes, sir. Yes sir, do my best.
Steinbrenner: Good, Merry Christmas George. And bring me back some of those cigars in the cedar boxes, you know the ones with the fancy rings? I love those fancy rings. They kind of distract you while you're smoking. The red and yellow are nice. It looks good against the brown of the cigar. The Maduro, I like the Maduro wrapper. The darker the better, that's what I say. Of course, the Claro's good too. That's more of a pale brown, almost like a milky coffee. (George exits) I find the ring size very confusing. They have it in centimeters which I don't really understand that well...

(Seinfeld, Season 6, Episode 10, December 15, 1994)

The end of baseball as we knew it

Joining similar works such as Man on Spikes and Chance, there is Season's End (Little, Brown & Co: 1992), by Tom Grimes. Like the aforementioned novels, Season's End is a career study of a star player. In the case of Season's End, the player is infielder Mike Williams: the "best pure singles hitter", ever. Grimes re-tells Williams while navigating through the tumultuous period in baseball from the mid-1970s to the beginning of the 1980s. When we are introduced to Williams we find him re-signing his contract just as the reserve clause is overturned in Federal Court. From this point on Williams' life in baseball changes dramatically. As Williams describes his ordeals with trying to earn what he's worth, struggling through slumps, the demands from his team, his agent, and his family, we are also cast back to stories of where Williams came from and how he ended up in the situation he finds himself.

Mike Williams is a complicated character. On one hand he is a rather simple individual, only wanting to play baseball his way: one base hit at a time. He appreciates the money he receives, but does not exhibit the level of greed others have (or wish Williams to possess). But Williams is also very introspective. He sees the beauty of the game; that it was timeless and could conceivably go on forever. And he sees through the various games both his agent and team owner play to one-up each other over salary and public relations. He also displays moments of weakness in regards to women and other vices, yet recognizes the self-destructive nature of his actions.

While Season's End is about the life and times of a major league ballplayer, it is equally a tale of how the end of the reserve clause and the emergence of free agency affected the game of baseball. Agents moved to the forefront and players became grossly overpaid as owners were faced with bidding against each other. And, with higher salaries came demands by the fans to see perfection. As Williams, himself, puts it: "The money, the greed, the insatiable appetite of the fans -- they became larger than the game, the field ceasing to be a sanctuary and become, instead, a place to dwell on our bitterness and frustration." In effect, baseball as Williams knew it, was over.