Best George Steinbrenner Quotes

#1. From 1973 to 1982 I ate the exact same lunch everyday . Turkey chili in a bowl made out of bread . Bread bowl George. First you eat the chili then you eat the bowl . There's nothing more satisfying than looking down after lunch and seeing nothing but a table.

George Steinbrenner

#2. I am dead set against free agency. It can ruin baseball.

George Steinbrenner

#3. If I were sitting down with George Steinbrenner (to discuss a salary) and based on what Dave Winfield got for his statistics, I'd have to say, 'George, you and I are about to become partners.'

Joe DiMaggio

#4. Once in a while, I played second base; once in a while, outfield. But those were just pickup games and softball leagues. So when I bought the Yankees, I tried to stay one pace ahead of the players.

George Steinbrenner

#5. We are the New York Yankees

George Steinbrenner

#6. I don't want to be in the Hall of Fame. I don't think owners should be.

George Steinbrenner

#7. Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing. Breathing first, winning next.

George Steinbrenner

#8. I will never have a heart attack. I give them.

George Steinbrenner

#9. I was often misquoted. I was supportive of my managers, even though they all may not think so.

George Steinbrenner

#10. He says all the right things, like it's Jeter's team. I want to correct him on that - it's my team.

George Steinbrenner

#11. Why would you want to stay manager and be second-guessed by me when you can come up into the front-office and be one of the second-guessers?

George Steinbrenner

#12. Ruth was probably the greatest athlete to perform in any sport. Never has there been anybody like him.

George Steinbrenner

#13. Irabu is a fat, pus-y toad.

George Steinbrenner

#14. I'm not a win at all costs guy. Winning isn't everything. It's second to breathing

George Steinbrenner

#15. People don't own teams to lose money. If you ask any owner whether they would rather make $20 million and come in last place or lose $20 million and win a World Series, there's only one guy who honestly would take that championship: George Steinbrenner. Nobody else.

Bronson Arroyo

#16. Is it in the best interest of baseball to sell beer in the ninth inning? Probably not. The rule has got to be more clearly defined. And then some process should be set up where the judge is not also the appeals judge.

George Steinbrenner

#17. I never minded George Steinbrenner spending obscene amounts of money to put the best product on the field.

Jay Mohr

#18. We plan absentee ownership as far as running the Yankees is concerned.

George Steinbrenner

#19. As I have said many times - my father was a great fan of Bill Dickey's and he certainly loved the Yankees. I hope that he would be pleased.

George Steinbrenner

#20. I used to be very hands-on, but lately I've been more hands-off and I plan to become more hands-on and less hands-off and hope that hands-on will become better than hands-off, the way hands-on used to be.

George Steinbrenner

#21. You shouldn't have any betting in the locker room at all, whether it's baseball or it's horses. You can't beat the horses. You can't beat any kind of gambling because they have the odds.

George Steinbrenner

#22. To be manager of the Yankees under the malevolent dictatorship of George Steinbrenner is like being married to Zsa Zsa Gabor - the union is short and sweet.

Robert Rubin

#23. The owner of the New York Yankees, Mr. George Steinbrenner who I had the greatest respect for, I want to thank him for giving me the opportunity to win that special ring in 1996.

Wade Boggs

#24. My best and worst boss was the same man - my father. He never - and I mean never - took 'I can't' for an answer. He taught me the value system that, to this day, I have continued to practice.

George Steinbrenner

#25. It was the class and dignity which he led his life that made him part of all of us. I will forever treasure the close friendship we shared over the years.

George Steinbrenner

#26. In the 1970s, professional sports found a different breed of team owner in George Steinbrenner of the New York Yankees.

Don Yaeger

#27. I don't think that anybody should be suspended for life for anything, other than murder. How is it helping someone to say, 'You're done forever, your life's over'?

George Steinbrenner

#28. Surround yourself with amazingly intelligent men and women. The people I work with not only are smarter than I am, possessing both intellectual and emotional intelligence, but also share my determination to succeed. I will not make an important decision without them.

George Steinbrenner

#29. I won't be active in the day-to-day operations of the ball club at all.

George Steinbrenner

#30. If I were playing today I'd do what Joe DiMaggio said. I'd go knock on the door at Yankee Stadium and when George Steinbrenner answered I'd say, 'Howdy, pardner.'

Mickey Mantle

#31. Don't talk to me about aesthetics or tradition. Talk to me about what sells and what's good right now. And what the American people like is to think the underdog still has a chance.

George Steinbrenner

#32. David Cone is in a class by himself with three or four other players

George Steinbrenner

#33. What happens is that all your life you operated businesses in such a way that you could one day afford to buy a baseball team. And then you buy the team and forget all the business practices that enabled you to buy it.

George Steinbrenner

#34. People keep coming up to me and asking, 'How does it feel to be banned for life?' Banned for life. I wasn't banned for life. There was never a word of suspension, probation or ban in that agreement. It was never meant to be part of it.

George Steinbrenner

#35. I haven't always made the right decisions.

George Steinbrenner

#36. Winning means everything ... You show me a good loser and I'll show a loser.

George Steinbrenner