Saturday, May 18, 2013

Ken Davidoff Ranks Best & Worst MLB Owners


Ken Davidoff over at the New York Post every once in a while ranks his current best and worst owners in Major League Baseball and did so again this week, seen HERE. This time around he simply did the best owners in the league and I thought it would be worth a share because Hal Steinbrenner made the list.

Here is the list and Ken's write up for Hal Steinbrenner

1. Mike Illitch, Detroit Tigers
2. Mark Attanasio, Milwaukee Brewers
3. Bill DeWitt Jr. St. Louis Cardinals
4. Stuart Sternberg, Tampa Bay Rays
5. Hal Steinbrenner, New York Yankees


5.Hal Steinbrenner, Yankees. Number five is always tricky, and what makes this list particularly tricky is drawing a line of demarcation in service time. For instance, the Giants’ ownership has done an outstanding job, starting with the construction of Pac Bell Park (now AT&T Park) in 2000. But it hasn’t been the same, continuous group. Larry Baer took over as CEO just last year, and the ownership shares have been fluid; the majority owner is now reportedly Charles Johnson.

Similarly, what do you do with the Yankees and Hal Steinbrenner? Is he a continuation of the greater entity of the Steinbrenner family, as George purchased the club back in 1973? Or does Hal Steinbrenner’s term begin in 2008, when he became the Yankees’ control person? He was involved before then, as George’s health began to fail. And obviously, many of the Yankees’ ownership’s core beliefs are influenced by the late Boss’s core beliefs.

Even if we start the clock at 2008, you note that the Yankees have continued to expand their vast brand via the YES Network, and they continue to win ballgames and qualify for the playoffs even as other teams (the Dodgers, the Phillies and the Red Sox, to name three examples) have displayed that it’s possible to spend upwards of $150 million and be pretty terrible.

If Hal Steinbrenner doesn’t go here, then who? I used to rank the Red Sox’s group number one, but they got the boot after all that has transpired the last couple of years. The Phillies’ Dave Montgomery does an overall good job, yet his baseball operations folks seem to have lost their way. The Rangers’ folks took over the team in late 2010, giving them even less service time than Hal Steinbrenner.

So Hal Steinbrenner it is. I spoke with him yesterday upon the conclusion of the owners’ meetings. Here’s my column.

Read more: FRIDAY FIVE: Best owners http://www.nypost.com/p/blogs/baseballinsider/friday_five_best_owners_EkPuWErwmndgChtuubnmTP#ixzz2TbKbaiYN

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