Perspectives: On Winning and Hal and George Steinbrenner
- Paul Semendinger
- 1 day ago
- 7 min read
by Paul Semendinger
January 8, 2026
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As I noted more than a week ago, there are basically two camps of Yankees fans today. One camp is frustrated by the fact that they Yankees haven't won a World Series since 2009, and the other that is pleased or at least content with the fact that the Yankees are in the hunt each year and often reach the playoffs.
When these fans debate topics, they often talk past each other. The debates go round and round.
I am in the camp where I feel the Yankees, with their great wealth, resources, tradition, and more, should always be putting the best team out on the field. Always. The Yankees aren't a small market team. There is no need for them to cut corners. The objective should be to win. Period. End stop.
The Yankees built their fan base on the idea that the Yankees are winners. They have let that fan base down, tremendously, the last many years.
There are many reasons for this, but the bottom line is the bottom line.
The Yankees, this century, have not been winners. Two World Championships in 25 years is nothing special. At all. That's the cold hard truth.
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I do not expect the Yankees to win the World Series every year. To wish for that would be foolish. That is an impossible standard.
That being said, it is not unreasonable to expect that the Yankees put a team that legitimately could or should win the World Series out on the field every year. The Yankees do not do that. They have not done that for a long time, probably since 2009.
What the Yankees of today do is build teams that could possibly win a World Series if everything goes right. They build teams that have to hope for the best in order to win. That's the wrong approach.
I'd rather they build a team that should win the World Series knowing that they sometimes won't because things don't always go the way they hope. (This approach, by and large, defined the Yankees of 2001-2008. There was no doubt that those teams were built to win.)
The gap between those two approaches is vast.
One side cuts corners and seeks to be good with the hopes to be better.
The other side puts their best foot forward and seeks excellence.
I am always on the side of trying to be one's best.
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The Yankees of today have forged a legacy of being just any other team. The magic of the pinstripes today is gone. Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman have that as their legacy. They tanked the Yankees' championship brand. Again, that is just a fact.
There is very little special about the Yankees of today other than their history, but for young fans (and even old fans) Derek Jeter and Mariano Rivera and the most recent glory days are about as relevant as Reggie Jackson, Mickey Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, and Babe Ruth. It's all ancient history.
Most young fans today, meaning all who are under 35 years old, don't even have a reference of a period they remember when the Yankees were consistently great. We're talking about a generation of fans now. That's a problem for the franchise and their brand long term.
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When this is all pointed out, the fact that the Yankees have not been winners for a long time, some fans argue that the Yankees didn't win in the 1980s.
Ok, fair enough. But what does that have to do with today?
Fans want championships, today. The Yankees of today do not deliver them.
And no matter what anyone wishes to argue, it was clear in the 1980s, that while many of the moves that were made didn't work out, the Yankees were going for it. They were, absolutely.
It can be said that the Yankees of the 1980s went about it wrong, but it also must be acknowledged that they earned from their mistakes and made the Yankees winners again.
Today, Hal Steinbrenner doesn't seem to learn from his mistakes. Brian Cashman either. They double-down on the same approach and the same strategy year-after-year - one that has not worked. This includes sticking with a manager that has the worst postseason record of any Yankees manager - ever.
It is clear that the Yankees of today care more about corporate profits than World Series championships. (But that does not prevent them from selling fans on their past glories to make even more money while they refuse to do what is necessary to bring back the days of past glory.)
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I miss the days when the main focus of the Yankees was to win. Period.
I miss the days when the Yankees refused to let themselves be defined by being good and not great.
I miss the days when the best players wanted to be Yankees.
None of those things are true today.
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As a retort to this, some call out George Steinbrenner's faults, as if that is a rationale for the team's lack of success today.
"George was bad."
"The 1980s were bad."
And etc.
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George Steinbrenner might have been a tyrant. He might have been irrational. He might have been a bad person to work for. We can list his faults. Many have. And they are many.
George Steinbrenner is also the only owner since 1962 to deliver the Yankees any World Championships.
There is no 1977, 1978, 1996, 1998, 1999, 2000, and 2009 without George. That's just a fact.
Some Yankees fans hate on George Steinbrenner and his memory, but the fact is he was the only owner since the JFK administration to bring the team to a World Championship.
It seems that George Steinbrenner did some things well.
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The Steinbrenner haters often mention the time Yankee Stadium erupted in cheers when it was announced that he was suspended.
I have to ask - How would the stadium react today if it was announced that Hal Steinbrenner sold the team?
We all know the answer. The stadium would erupt in exactly the same way - with cheers.
Yankees fans want a winner. Period.
***
Fans can hate on him all they want, but if they despise George Steinbrenner so much and blame him for the late 1980s and early 1990s, logically, they also have to give him credit for the championships.
The Yankees won because their owner cared about winning and wanted a winner and did what was necessary (including spending big) to make the Yankees a winner.
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Did you ever notice that every bad trade the Yankees made during the 1970s and 1980s, especially the 1980s, is blamed on George Steinbrenner, but he gets no credit for any of the good trades they made? Think about that.
One only reads things like, "He traded Rickey Henderson away." But note, he wouldn't have had Rickey Henderson to trade away if he didn't get him in the first place. It just can't be the negative side of everything when it comes to George Steinbrenner, but that is how so many want it.
No one ever says, "He traded for Dave Righetti." They just say, "He traded away Doug Drabek."
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George Steinbrenner is also the only owner who gets blamed for not trading players. We see this all the time. It's a silly and very tired talking point:
"Did you know he almost traded Jeter."
"George wanted to trade Mariano Rivera."
On and on...
Those are such nonsensical arguments because he didn't trade them.
And, wouldn't we want a leader who explores every opportunity and considers every possibility? If Hal Steinbrenner and Brian Cashman have never considered trading Aaron Judge, they're foolish. I am sure teams made offers for Judge before he was great. That's exactly what happened with Jeter and Rivera also.
In addition, there are no guarantees with young players. Sure Jeter and Rivera and Posada and Bernie Williams all worked out, but, on the other hand, one can make a long list of the prospects the Yankees haven't traded, who they should have, for legitimate stars - players they held on to who didn't pan out nor were traded to improve the team.
Yes, George Steinbrenner traded away some great players. He also traded prospects for stars who helped the Yankees win.
Steinbrenner traded some young kids to get the likes of David Cone, Tino Martinez, Jeff Nelson, and Chuck Knoblauch. All those players helped the Yankees win championships. Facts are facts.
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But, the haters want to give Steinbrenner no credit for the Yankees getting good players while at the same time blaming him for considering trading some players and actually trading away others.
The anti-George narrative blames him for the bad trades and him gives no credit for the good ones. Some argue that the great teams were built by Gabe Paul and Gene Michael and Brian Cashman, and George Steinbrenner had no part in any of it, while saying, at the same time, that he ruled with an iron fist and controlled everything. It's a painfully absurd argument.
George Steinbrenner couldn't be all controlling except when good trades and signings were made.
The anti-George arguments would ring truer and be taken more seriously if the good he also did was acknowledged.
***
George Steinbrenner had a great deal of flaws. He did a lot of bad things. The Yankees brand was soured at times during his time as owner. All of that is true.
He also brought championships to the Bronx. He also brought back the team, twice. The Yankees were bad before he took the team over. He made them champions. Then then became bad again. And he made them champions again.
One two separate occasions, George Steinbrenner made the Yankees the greatest team in the sport for sustained periods.
In fact, there is only one major figure that was part of every Yankees World Championship since 1962 - George Steinbrenner. That cannot be denied.
People can hate on him all they want, but the Yankees wouldn't have any of the championships they celebrate and remember without George Steinbrenner.
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All of this is true. Steinbrenner wasn't just the bad guy that so many make him out to be.
I am not justifying any of his actions. I hated much of went on during many of those years. But we also have to be honest and accurate when we look back.
Some people want everything about George Steinbrenner to be completely negative and bad and horrible - and that's just not the truth.
***
Hal Steinbrenner seems to be an upright, good, and decent person. We don't know much about him. He stays out of the limelight. He doesn't seem to have the many flaws, or many of the flaws, his father had. And that's a good thing.
But it would be nice if he had the passion for winning that his father had. He doesn't seem to.
There always seems to be an excuse why his team doesn't win. I'd rather he work harder and demand excellence so that his team does win.
Rather than seeking championships, Hal Steinbrenner seems to focus more on the business of making money. That's great for him and his investors, but it's not great for the fans who support his team with the hopes that they'll win a championship.
