November 28th, 1974: The Boss Is Tossed

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Former Yankees’ owner George Steinbrenner was many things: hard-headed, demanding, egotistical, loyal, and thanks to some off the field activity, a convicted fellow for quite some time. Steinbrenner was a dyed in the wool Republican, he made no bones about making sure his political candidate was heavily funded from the Steinbrenner coffers. Well, as with anything else that The Boss did, he pushed the envelope as far as he could, and in 1974, was found to have pushed it too far.

President Richard Nixon was running for re-election in 1972, and although he was heavily favored, that did not stop the yet-to-be Yankees’ owner from going over the top with his campaign contributions. So much so, that Steinbrenner broke federal laws in the amounts and ways that he donated to President Nixon’s re-election campaign. Through both personal and business contributions, Steinbrenner was deemed to have made illegal contributions, a charge that saw him please guilty to the contributions charge, and a felony charge of obstruction of justice. The Boss was not going to cut his own throat by cooperating with federal authorities who were investigating the incident.

As a result of the convictions, George Steinbrenner was personally fined $15,000 by the federal courts, and his business, another $20,000. Unfortunately for Steinbrenner, the case took a couple of years to be investigated and come to a conclusion. By the time it did, he was already the principal owner of the Yankees. When Commissioner Bowie Kuhn was made aware that one of his team owners was now a convicted felon, he had no other choice but to hand down punishment. Kuhn suspended Steinbrenner from baseball for a term of two years. Kuhn later commuted the suspension to 15 months, and The Boss was back to running his Yankees with an iron fist.

In one of his most famous quotes, which led to his first dismissal (although he officially resigned before he could be fired by then-General Manager Al Rosen), five-time Yankees’ skipper Billy Martin quipped: “The two were meant for each other. One’s a born liar, and the other’s convicted.” in regards to the bickering triangle that had developed between himself, Steinbrenner, and outfielder Reggie Jackson.

While Steinbrenner was out on suspension, Al Rosen and the minority owners of the Yankees, the men who had helped Steinbrenner purchase the team only a year prior, ran the day-to-day operations while awaiting the return of The Boss. Steinbrenner remained a convicted felon until 1989, when as one of his last official acts as President of the United States, Ronald Reagan pardoned Steinbrenner of his convictions involving Nixon back in the early to mid 1970s.

Unfortunately for Steinbrenner, his first suspension wouldn’t be his last, as he would soon be out of baseball again during the first part of the 1990s, for his involvement in paying gambler Howard Spira to dig up dirt on former Yankees’ outfielder Dave Winfield. The suspension, allowed then-GM Gene Michael and manager Buck Showalter to take a Yankees’ team, that had been run into the ground by Steinbrenner’s irrational personnel changes and moves, to rebuild the team and set the foundation for what would become the 1990s/2000s dynasty led by Joe Torre, Derek Jeter, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera, Andy Pettitte and Bernie Williams.

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Turn Back The Clock-November 28th, 1974-The Boss Is Tossed

By Billy Brost | Nov 28, 2014