00:00So why did you want to write this book?
00:02You know, I hear from so many younger Yankees fans, and even a lot of older ones with selective amnesia.
00:07I only kind of remember the George Steinbrenner that we remembered later in his tenure at the Yankees
00:11when he was kind of a waving, kindly old man who was cheered every time he walked into Yankee Stadium.
00:19They don't remember or know about the George in the 70s and the 80s who commanded the back page,
00:23not always for the best, sometimes good, sometimes bad, sometimes got booed in his own stadium,
00:28but was always worth talking about.
00:30I mean, this is a guy who was in the news almost every day of the 37 years that he
00:34ran the Yankees,
00:35and there's just so many stories to look into and to talk about and to retell and tell different stories
00:40about.
00:41That really was my goal.
00:42I didn't realize this, Mike, but I read it in your book.
00:46He was at one point considering moving the team to Jersey. Is that true?
00:50I mean, you know, he was romanced by New Jersey for a while, but really he saved the team in
00:54New York
00:54because when he bought them, the Yankees were a distinct number two team to the Mets.
00:58There was a lot of talk about them moving the Jersey, following the Giants out the door.
01:02New Orleans was trying to lure them because they had just built a Superdome.
01:06The New Orleans Yankees might be an odd nickname,
01:10but one of the reasons he was able to get the team from CBS, and he didn't have the highest
01:13bid,
01:14him and his partners didn't, but they didn't want to be known as the owner of CBS
01:18that allowed the Yankees to leave town.
01:21And so that really appealed to him, and Steinbrenner committed to playing
01:25in the refurbished Yankee Stadium, and while he did romance, you know,
01:28was allowed him to be romanced by New Jersey a little bit over the course of time,
01:31he's also the reason why we have the big new ballpark in the Bronx now
01:34because it was his team that forced New York to want to keep his team forever,
01:38and, you know, you can really credit George with that.
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