Another Mets fan here, hahahaha.

Anyhuma, I was shocked to hear that he died - the end of an era. Steinbrenner was an unique guy who helped bring about change in how baseball teams were run and had a mouth to create some controversy - which Hank has inherited. Though what many people fail to remember is that good ol' George had been suspended, by Commissioner Bowie Kuhn, for 2 years in 74 for illegal contributions to the Nixon campaign (which got reduced to 15 months).

Then in 1990 the Dave Winfield controversy erupted in which George was banned for life by Commissioner Fay Vincent, however, 3 years down the road George was reinstated - 1 year after Selig took over. Why the reversal? The owners didn't want the commissioner to have too much power so they kicked out one puppet and put in another puppet. Most of us, if not all, were too young to remember but my father has said that if Bart Giamatti had been been alive George's ban would have sticked. Giamatti was the commissioner who got Pete Rose banned, though he died within the year of taking the commissioner's job, so it was Fay Vincent who was there to finalize the deal. Giammatti would not have tolerated Steinbrenner's actions as Giammatti was lining up to be a powerful commissioner that would have kept the integrity of the game.