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Anaheim, California. The Yankees had more players in Tuesday’s Major League Baseball All-Star Game than any other team.

They are the reigning World Series champions, with the best record in baseball. They have a gleaming new stadium in the Bronx and a thriving cable television network. Their empire is fully restored, the way George Steinbrenner wanted.

Steinbrenner, 80, left the stage on Tuesday, just as Major League Baseball prepared for its annual summer showcase.

The principal owner of the Yankees since 1973, he was the second grand figure of the franchise to die in three days. Bob Sheppard, the public-address announcer at Yankee Stadium from 1951 to 2007, died on Sunday at the age of 99.

Inevitably, their deaths will set a somber tone at Yankee Stadium for Saturday’s Old-Timers’ Day, one of many traditions of which Steinbrenner was an extremely proud caretaker.

As demanding as he was in his heyday, nobody questioned Steinbrenner’s reverence for the Yankees, who wore black armbands on Tuesday and will continue to wear memorial patches for the rest of the season.

“I know he was controversial,” MLB Commissioner Bud Selig said. “I know all the arguments. He was clearly a giant in this sport. After all, when he took over the Yankees, the Yankees were struggling for the first time.

It was absolutely remarkable. I’ll say this: Nobody loved his team more than he did.”

Steinbrenner, who once invested in Broadway plays, always had a knack for theatrics. On the day of Game 7 of the 1985 World Series, between St. Louis and Kansas City, he replaced Billy Martin with Lou Piniella as manager.

Five years later, on the night Piniella’s Cincinnati Reds won the World Series, Steinbrenner hosted “Saturday Night Live.”

On Tuesday, with the baseball world concentrated in one place, Steinbrenner’s death had an added poignancy that resonated even with players who never knew him.

The flags at Angel Stadium flew at half-staff, and a moment of silence was planned.

“It’s kind of ironic that it happened on a day like this,” said Ryan Braun, the young outfielder for the Milwaukee Brewers. “It gives everybody an opportunity to reflect on how great he was to the game.”

Most of the Yankees’ All-Stars did not know the hard-driving Steinbrenner of old. That persona faded a few years ago, as his health deteriorated.

Those who knew him best held a news conference before batting practice on Tuesday — first Andy Pettitte, Alex Rodriguez and Manager Joe Girardi, and then, by himself, Derek Jeter spoke to the press.

“It’s tough, because he’s more than just an owner to me,” said Jeter, whom Steinbrenner named the team’s captain in 2003. “He’s a friend of mine. He will be deeply missed.”

Jeter was planning to visit Steinbrenner in Tampa, Florida, sometime in the next two days and last saw him at the home opener in April, presenting him with his championship ring in the owner’s suite at Yankee Stadium.

“Those are the memories that you remember, the intimate moments,” Jeter said.

Jeter first met Steinbrenner in 1992, when he was 18 and had just signed as the team’s first-round draft pick. From the start, Steinbrenner made clear his expectations: “We expect big things from you,” he said.

Twelve years later, when he had slowed a bit, Steinbrenner gave another newcomer, Rodriguez, the same greeting.

“He wrote me a note, and it was hand-delivered by a clubhouse kid, and at that point I got a little nervous,” Rodriguez said. “I still have this note. In the end, he basically said, ‘I’m counting on you,’ with capital letters and an exclamation point. So I think, to this day, we are still playing for him, not to let him down.”

Steinbrenner famously challenged his players, doubting Girardi’s ability to replace the power-hitting Mike Stanley as catcher in 1996, and urging a trade of Pettitte as he struggled in 1999. But the players often saw a softer side that surprised them.

In his first spring with the team, Girardi and his wife were walking their dog on the carefully manicured grass at the Yankees’ complex. Girardi saw Steinbrenner and cringed, expecting a scolding. Instead, Steinbrenner sat with the Girardis and asked about the dog.

“That was the first time I saw that he wasn’t everything he was painted to be; there was a gentle side to this man,” Girardi said.

Steinbrenner was famous among players for gestures designed to help them meet his outsized expectations.

Early in his career, Jeter said, he was doubled off third base on a line drive. After the game, Steinbrenner yelled at him for the mistake. It did not matter that the Yankees had won. Steinbrenner had no tolerance for failure.

“That rubbed off,” Jeter said. “Whether it was the players, the front office, the people working at the stadium, it didn’t make a difference. He expected perfection.”


The New York Times