13 July 2010

RIP George Steinbrenner: Enjoy your Tax Free Death

Lucky Steinbrenner! I wish I could pick such a timely and fast paced death. While that statement is pretty distasteful, it is unfortunately the truth for the majority of the people on earth. No one really wants to die, but we all hope and pray that our return to the dusts of the earth is always quick and fairly painless. Certainly, if you happen to kick the bucket in 2010 it has the added bonus of being tax free!

Before I continue, I do want to offer my thoughts and prayers, apologetically to the Steinbrenner family. As a humbled Oriole's fan, the Steinbrenner family has my support and condolences in mending their broken hearts.

Mr. Steinbrenner was able to live out two completely American dreams through hard work and determination. He was a self made millionaire and accomplished the prestige associated with owning the most prominent franchise in all of America's Pastime. Having bought the Yankees for a measly ten million dollars in 1973, it's estimated that the team is worth over one billion dollars, a one hundred fold increase. During that time, Steinbrenner won seven World Championships, countless pennants, and saw a massive change of baseball.

Of course, George gave players breaks, broke their careers, and was the quintessential capitalist of baseball. He opposed salary caps, probably despised the "luxury tax," and all the while "hired minorities and fired white managers." (Limbaugh from today's program) It shows, that when the free market is allowed to invest in itself, it can achieve nothing but greatness, even if it is dubbed the "evil empire" for doing nothing but win over the last 40 years.

Unfortunately, in today's world, we see the free enterprise attacked at every angle, in an effort to create a class division and pit us against one another. Perhaps the economic recovery would get this nation moving again if it were allowed to follow the Steinbrenner business model: Pay your employees who perform, well enough to motivate them to achieve great things, sanctions and regulation be damned.

So Mr. Steinbrenner, enjoy your peace, your baseball, and may your heirs enjoy the continued winning tradition of firing / hiring Billy Martin.