While players always catch the most limelight in MLB, the league has had a few off-field personas in its history who gave the players a run for their money. The Yankees’ yesteryear owner, George Steinbrenner, leads that pack. The height of success the Yankees witnessed under his ownership is unmatched by any team, including the present-day Yankees. Yes, Steinbrenner had his own share of negative events, but that shouldn’t come in the way of his journey to Cooperstown, sports columnist Mike Vaccaro feels.

“The teams that he owned won 7 championships – every other owner in the Hall combined won 9,” Vaccaro commented about George Steinbrenner via the Dan Patrick Show.

Well, during George Steinbrenner’s 37-year tenure as owner of the Yankees (1973–2010), the franchise achieved the highest winning percentage in MLB (.566). Under his leadership, the team restored its historical dominance by capturing 7 World Series titles and 11 American League pennants. That’s not all, Steinbrenner’s stint with the Yankees was all about records.

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Under him, the Yankees set an all-time single-season attendance record for a professional sports franchise with 7,325,051 fans in 2006. And with how he managed the team, the value also skyrocketed. He purchased the team for $10 million in 1973; by the time of his death in 2010, the franchise’s value was estimated at $1.6 billion.

Steinbrenner was not about investing in the roster and targeting the championship, but more than that. Under his leadership, the Yankees were all about starting new trends in MLB. For example, the Yankees were the first to sign a 12-year, $500 million TV deal with MSG in 1988. “It changed local broadcasting; nobody had ever seen anything like it,” MLB commissioner Rob Manfred said.

So, what’s stopping the current crop of MLB team owners from replicating the style of Steinbrenner? “No shot” in today’s world, said Vaccaro. “As younger owners ascend, they become more familiar with the ways of social media. They like what they’ve got. They don’t want to risk it.”

The Red Sox owner, John Henry, and the Pirates owner, Bob Nutting, often get called out for not doing enough and just focusing on profit.

Typical of his dominant and autocratic leadership style, Steinbrenner always strived to have the best for his team. For instance, Catfish Hunter, Reggie Jackson, and Dave Winfield are some of the names that Steinbrenner signed. The Yankees’ financial muscle flexing made the then-Red Sox president, Larry Lucchino, coin the Yankees as the “evil empire.”

However, while Steinbrenner has the resume to be eligible for the Hall of Fame, especially given how his initiatives changed MLB forever, a few negative events stand in between.

For reference, in 1974, Steinbrenner pleaded guilty to making illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon’s re-election. He was suspended for two years (later commuted to 15 months). Then again, in 1990, Steinbrenner paid Howard Spira, a gambler, to dig up dirt on Dave Winfield. This led to a ban from day-to-day management by then-Commissioner Fay Vincent, though he was reinstated in 1993.

Still, considering how George Steinbrenner is considered the benchmark of managing an MLB team to date, he should be placed in Cooperstown posthumously.

The Yankees might be the ones missing George Steinbrenner the most

Since George Steinbrenner died in 2010, his son Hal Steinbrenner has taken over the Yankees. However, while it was expected that the Steinbrenner era would continue, the reality was different.

The Yankees last won the World Series in 2009 under George Steinbrenner, and since then, there’s been nothing. “Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing,” George Steinbrenner said in 1998. That reflected in his leadership. Every offseason came, and the Yankees left nothing behind to catch the biggest fish.

For instance, in 1980, he made Dave Winfield the highest-paid player in sports history with a 10-year, $23 million deal! In contrast, Hal Steinbrenner adopted a different, more patient approach. “Would it be ideal if I went down [with the payroll]? Of course,’ Hal Steinbrenner said last year. He would’ve preferred to cut down the Yankees’ payroll. “But does that mean that’s going to happen? Of course not. We want to field a team we know could win a championship — or we believe could win a championship.”

Unlike his father, who meddled in daily decisions, Hal focuses on the business aspect and delegates baseball operations to Brian Cashman. It’s well-known that fans frequently call out Cashman for not doing enough. For example, recently, Cashman faced scrutiny for leaving names like Jasson Dominguez out of the active roster.

So, just when the Yankees are trying to regain their lost dominance, maybe it’s George Steinbrenner’s leadership that the team and the fans are currently missing.