Last week New York Yankees owner George Steinbrenner died due to a massive heart attack, or so we are supposed to believe. I on the other hand think that there was some serious foul play involved. Here are my list of suspects:
Suspect #1 - Bill Madden
Bill Madden is a well known sportswriter and the author of Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball which is a biography piece on George Steinbrenner. The book was released in mid June and received mediocre reviews from a number of publications and seemed as though it was destined to be lumped in with all the other sports books on the shelves at Chapters that eventually get marked down to $6.99. I read the book and there isn't anything particularly groundbreaking about it. In fact 95% of the content can be found on Steinbrenner's wikipedia page.
However since Steinbrenner died Madden's name has been popping up everywhere as he was the last person to write about Steinbrenner and thus the last person to sit down with the Yankees owner and do an interview. The sales numbers for the book have also risen considerably and now that Steinbrenner is dead Madden can release a paperback edition with an afterword about the owner's death. A serious windfall is in the cards for Mr. Madden all due to the death of George Steinbrenner
So where was Bill Madden on July 13th? Was he on a book signing tour or was he at the home of George Steinbrenner murdering one of the icons of American sports? Things to consider.
Suspect #2 - The 1991 Denver Broncos
They were a suspect in the 'Who is Eric Cartman's father?' case and have been under constant suspicion since.
Suspect #3 - George Steinbrenner
Heart attack or suicide? Maybe Steinbrenner killed himself/isn't actually dead in order to achieve the 'Michael Jack effect' or MJE as its known around the globe. The MJE is what occurs when a celebrity who was a terrible person passes away and is only remembered for the good they did.
When Michael Jackson died everyone focused on his impact on the music industry all the while ignoring the fact he molested young boys his whole life.
Steinbrenner could have easily done the same thing. He was a an awful person most of his life as he tortured his employees and dragged countless players through the mud out of spite. He even went as far as to hire a man to dig up dirt on Dave Winfield so he could sue him and discredit his charitable foundation. Yet all everyone is focusing on is how he did whatever it took to win and how he changed baseball forever.
No one wants to mention that he was kicked out of baseball on two separate occasions, once for the Winfield incident and the other for being heavily involved in the Watergate scandal and then lying about it. Stienbrenner was a pretty shitty guy but now no one will ever talk about that. He will go down in sports history as the man that changed baseball forever due to his free spending ways.
Maybe Steinbrenner's heart didn't explode. Maybe he is down in Miami sipping Pina Coladas with LeBron and 2pac. Just a theory.
Suspect #4 - Hank/Hal Steinbrenner
The sons of the former owner managed to avoid New York federal estate taxes because their father died six months after the tax expired. Because of this the two men were able to save over $500 million and were able to keep the Yankees.
Now you may be saying 'why would they kill him if his continued life allowed them to keep their money?' Simple answer: with the money secured they could kill their father and gain full control of the most storied franchise in North American sports and live like kings. They could also use their new ownership roles to sell the team and make billions something that could not happen if George were alive.
Think that's a stupid answer then check this out. If George had died in 2011 instead of 2010 then the estate tax would have gone up to $600 million rather than $500 million. Therefore there was only a 12 month window in which George Steinbrenner could die and not financially cripple his family.
Hank and Hal obviously knew this fact and may have concocted this whole heart attack story in order to avoid suspicion.
Would you kill your 80 year old father for $600 million? Cause Hank and Hal Steinbrenner might have.
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1 comment:
Madden does an excellent job of investigative journalism in digging out Gabe Paul's secret audiotaped diary and in interviewing scores of people who worked with Steinbrenner. He provides a clear, unbiased narrative. This is not the official Steinbrenner biography, and Madden goes out of his way to be fair.
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