Outrageous George
By Geoff Marks
On Tuesday, July 13th, ESPN aired their "ESPN25 Most Outrageous Sports Characters" in celebration of their twenty-fifth anniversary. In a list that included some of the most extreme, controversial characters (Tonya Harding, Dennis Rodman, John Rocker ) in sports history, guess who was included? Who else but George Steinbrenner, sixth most outrageous character in sports history.
What could George do to earn himself such a honor? Well many things actually. George is famous for his will to win, he'll do almost anything to get himself a world series. He wants everything to be perfect on his team, and if you're not, he'll just fire you. Billy Martin was fired five times by George. Steinbrenner is also known for his stubbornness which makes him an unlikable person for many. In fact, the reason former Yankee pitcher Andy Petite did not return to the Yankees was because George refused to take him out to dinner one night. But most of all George is reknowned for his spending of millions of dollars to buy top baseball players from other teams, or to block trades offered to other teams.
I guess that George really is suited to being the sixth most outrageous sports character, when the definition of outrageous is - 1. "grossly offensive to decency or morality" - or - "being well beyond the bounds of good taste."
