The Steinbrenners Will Be Fun

Over the last four years or so, the Steinbrenner clan has been remarkably, well, calm. You would have thought after blowing a 3-0 lead to the Red Sox in 2004 that heads would roll. They did not. You would have thought after getting bounced in the first round of the playoffs in 2005 and 2006 that someone would have been sacrificed to the God of the Pinstripes. They were not.

It had become a parlor game with New York’s fine tabloids to try to get a rise out of George Steinbrenner, but there were no eruptions, save for a few silly press releases and some Patton quotes. When Joe Torre was finally shown the door, it wasn’t the apocalyptic moment many had predicted — it was simply time to move on.

But now that Hank and Hal Steinbrenner are assuming control of the organization, the good old days are back. It’s about damn time.

In an interview with GQ’s Nate Penn, Hal Steinbrenner (the relatively quiet one) mostly brushed aside inquiries about the state of the team, his father’s health, and the Mitchell Report. But when Penn brought up the Red Sox the old Steinbrenner fury emerged.

Are you willing to concede that Boston, my favorite team, is the superior organization right now?

No, I will never concede. They’ve got a lot of talent, and you’ve done very well the past few years, but let me put it this way: I don’t think you guys wanted to play us in the ALCS. So I will concede nothing. I think we’re better than you.

Yeah!

That’s the kind of nonsensical bravura we want.