This is an excerpt from the upcoming \u201cThe Bosses of the Bronx\u201d by Post columnist Mike Vaccaro, covering the more than 50 years of Steinbrenner ownership of the Yankees. It releases\u00a0March 24 from Harper Books. This is the first of three excerpts that will appear in The Post.<\/p>\n
THIS WAS GEORGE Steinbrenner\u2019s moment. This was his play. The morning after the Yankees were swept out of the 1976 World Series by the Reds he called a meeting at Yankee Stadium. He listened to his lieutenants\u2019 thoughts. There would be 22 players taking part in the first class of free agency, a bonanza that would kick off in November.<\/p>\n
Steinbrenner knew this was the time to flex the Yankees\u2019 big-market muscle and didn\u2019t plan on being bashful. His partners had already begun to bitch about how often they were asked for cash calls, frustrated at their modest dividends. Many had already thrown up their hands, sold their shares back to Steinbrenner.<\/p>\n
If they were replaced, it was by investors of smaller measure, and quieter voice. It allowed Steinbrenner to consolidate his considerable powers. The Yankees were already making money, thanks to much-improved attendance and a favorable stadium lease that allowed a generous share of parking and concessions.<\/p>\n
He had cash to spend. He intended to spend it.<\/p>\n
The Bosses of the Bronx Harper Collins <\/p>\n
Now it was about identifying the players to whom he would write those checks. Gabe Paul piped up first. In a few weeks he would be named baseball\u2019s Executive of the Year for 1976 by UPI, the crowning achievement of his 50-year baseball life.<\/p>\n
\u201cBobby Grich is the best player,\u201d Paul said of the Orioles\u2019 second baseman, who\u2019d played out his option. \u201cWe\u2019re good at second, but he\u2019s got the range to play shortstop, and we desperately need a shortstop.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steinbrenner wrote down the name.<\/p>\n
\u201cI agree on Grich,\u201d rasped Billy Martin, puffing a pipe, his voice a scratchy mess since he\u2019d been ejected from Game 4 the night before, one more last-stand fight for one more lost cause. \u201cAnd I also think Joe Rudi would be a perfect fit for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steinbrenner nodded.<\/p>\n
A few more names were tossed out. Steinbrenner listened impatiently.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about Reggie?\u201d Steinbrenner finally asked.<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t really asking. Paul knew he could explain why any of the other players would be better fits and the boss would respond as if he were talking in Japanese. Martin desperately wanted to recite the list of red flags he\u2019d assembled on Jackson through the years, from his ego to the fact that he wasn\u2019t near the fielder Rudi was. But Martin knew anything he said now he\u2019d probably see on the back page of the Post in June Maybe sooner.<\/p>\n
\u201cThose guys are good,\u201d Steinbrenner said. \u201cBut they aren\u2019t stars.\u201d<\/p>\n
The men nodded.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey don\u2019t put fannies in the seats. Reggie Jackson will put fannies in the seats.\u201d<\/p>\n
The meeting adjourned.<\/p>\n
The courtship commenced.<\/p>\n
This Oct. 8, 1976 , file photo shows George Steinbrenner, left, principal owner of the New York Yankees, chatting with Reggie Jackson, now a free agent, at Royals Stadium in Kansas City. AP<\/p>\n
AFTER LUNCH AT 21 \u2013 Reggie was unimpressed; his steak had been overcooked \u2013 Steinbrenner bypassed the taxi line.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s take a walk, Reggie,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Here is where Steinbrenner allowed New York to do the recruiting. They walked past the Plaza Hotel; as if on cue, the drivers of the horse carriages started calling his name, exhorting him: \u201cSee ya in the Bronx, Reggie!\u201d<\/p>\n
As they walked along Central Park South, cabbies honked their horns.<\/p>\n
\u201cSign him, George!\u201d they crowed.<\/p>\n
Pedestrians pleaded with him to make New York his new home, and a gaggle of schoolkids handed him scraps of paper from their spiral notebooks to sign.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were falling in love,\u201d Jackson would say. \u201cNew York with me, me with New York.\u201d<\/p>\n
This lovely stroll out of a movie culminated at George Steinbrenner\u2019s apartment on the tony Upper East Side, and that\u2019s where reality splashed both men cold in the face.<\/p>\n
\u201cReggie,\u201d Steinbrenner said, \u201cwe\u2019d like to offer you two million dollars over five years.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jackson\u2019s thousand-watt smile dimmed. The Expos had offered Jackson $5 million if he\u2019d be willing to take his talents north of the border. He wasn\u2019t sure about playing in Canada, and he was less sure about switching leagues, and he really wasn\u2019t crazy about the weather there.<\/p>\n
Still, five mil was five mil.<\/p>\n
\u201cGeorge,\u201d Jackson said, \u201cWhat I want is three million dollars. And a Rolls-Royce.\u201d<\/p>\n
The men agreed to meet at the O\u2019Hare Hyatt in Chicago two days later. Steinbrenner felt confident as he walked into the hotel . . . until he saw a few of his fellow owners milling about the lobby and realized they weren\u2019t in town to visit the observation deck of the Sears Tower.<\/p>\n
He\u2019d come hoping Jackson would agree to meet in the middle at $2.5 million and now realized he\u2019d better lead with his best offer. He did: $2.9 million.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat about the Rolls, George?\u201d<\/p>\n
Slugging outfielder Reggie Jackson tries on his new Yankee hat after signing a five-year, estimated $3 million contract with the New York Yankees here November 29th. Bettmann Archive<\/p>\n
Steinbrenner grabbed a cocktail napkin, wrote down the details. And the final official figure: $2.96 million, with the sixty grand added on to cover the car. Jackson took the napkin, scrawled, \u201cI will not let you down. Reginald M. Jackson. <\/p>\n
Steinbrenner kept that paper linen under glass in his office the rest of his days. He\u2019d bagged his star\u2014or, as Jackson himself preferred to be called, his \u201csuperduperstar.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHE HUSTLED ME, man,\u201d Jackson would say a week later inside the Versailles Terrace Room of the Americana hotel. He wore a Yankees cap and a brass-buttoned three-piece suit of gray flannel as he was officially welcomed to the Yankees. He wore black alligator shoes, sported a bracelet with his name spelled in gold, and made sure to wear one of the championship rings he\u2019d earned in Oakland.<\/p>\n
\u201cGeorge Steinbrenner outhustled everyone else. He dealt with me as a man and as a person. I feel like I\u2019m a friend of his. He\u2019s like me. He\u2019s a little crazy, and he\u2019s a hustler.\u201d<\/p>\n
On the grandest day of his nearly four years owning the Yankees, with his entire plan falling into place just as he\u2019d planned it, Steinbrenner opted for humility: \u201cAnyone can sell New York. That\u2019s really all I sold him.\u201d<\/p>\n
Thurman Munson, the captain, was there, as was Roy White, the longest-tenured<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Yankee. Together they put the cap on Jackson\u2019s head and helped him into a pinstriped Yankees jersey. It was all smiles and hugs, and in his prepared remarks everyone heard a Jackson who was humble, grateful, eager to fit in.<\/p>\n
Later, as Jackson chatted up a smaller group of writers, Munson and White overheard\u2014and then read\u2014something else entirely: call it the first solo guitar riff of Jackson\u2019s Yankees career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t come to New York to become a star. I brought my star with me.\u201d<\/p>\n
He delivered all 16 words with what one of the men around him, columnist Dave Anderson of The New York Times, would call \u201cperfect notebook speed.\u201d<\/p>\n
White looked at Munson. Munson looked at White.<\/p>\n
They rolled their eyes.<\/p>\n
BILLY MARTIN WASN\u2019T at the Americana. He wasn\u2019t invited and didn\u2019t much want to be there anyway. Living in the Sheraton Hotel across the river in Hasbrouck Heights, N.J., Martin seethed, as a player he didn\u2019t want began a platonic love affair with an owner he was beginning to mistrust.<\/p>\n
\u201cGeorge was taking Reggie to 21 for lunch, going out to dinner, and I was sitting in my room and he never once called and asked me to come to lunch with him,\u201d Martin fumed.<\/p>\n
Manager Billy Martin of the New York Yankees on the field talking with New York Yankees right fielder Reggie Jackson during a MLB baseball game circa late 1970\u2019s at Yankee Stadium Getty Images<\/p>\n
Before the Yankees could even make it to Fort Lauderdale for spring training Steinbrenner had to deal with a disillusioned Munson, who took to the offseason banquet circuit to lob grenades. Steinbrenner was treated to the first with his morning coffee one morning in February: \u201cI wouldn\u2019t mind being traded to Cleveland [near Munson\u2019s home of Canton, Ohio], or buying out my contract so I can go to Cleveland.\u201d<\/p>\n
Steinbrenner summoned Munson to New York. They reached an agreement: Steinbrenner would add two years to his deal and would allow Munson to live in the offseason in Ohio. As a way to compromise his own feelings about spending so much time apart from his family, Munson began to ponder his options.<\/p>\n
One day, walking out of Fort Lauderdale Stadium with Lou Piniella, he was struck by a Beechcraft Duke aircraft parked at the executive airport next door.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I\u2019m going to start taking flying lessons,\u201d Munson said. \u201cI can get home on off-days that way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Piniella figured his friend was kidding.<\/p>\n
Coming tomorrow: The relationship of George with his final Yankee captain, Derek Jeter, and the transition to son Hank and then Hal as owner.<\/p>\n