A New Book Chronicles George Steinbrenner and the Dynasty He Built in the Bronx

George Steinbrenner once called a New York Post reporter at 3:30 in the morning – from the other side of the country, no less – just to chat. He was driving to the Yankees' spring training facility in Tampa, and apparently felt that was no excuse not to make a connection with a columnist covering the 2003 Super Bowl. That anecdote alone tells you almost everything you need to know about The Boss.

A new book by New York Post columnist Mike Vaccaro, "The Bosses of the Bronx," chronicles the extraordinary reign of George M. Steinbrenner III and the franchise he transformed into a global sports empire. Vaccaro, who spent over two decades covering New York sports from a courtside perspective, delivers a narrative that reads less like a biography and more like an endless series of soap operas – all set against the backdrop of baseball's most decorated stadium.

When Steinbrenner purchased the Yankees from CBS in January 1973 for $8.8 million, the team was already legendary but flagging. Under his stewardship, the Yankees would win seven World Series titles, anchored by icons like Reggie Jackson and Derek Jeter. But championship banners came with near-constant drama.

Steinbrenner was suspended from baseball twice – first for two years in 1974 for illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon, then handed a lifetime ban in 1990 for paying a gambler to discredit star outfielder Dave Winfield. Both times, he clawed his way back. Both times, baseball – and the Yankees – were better for it, though the turbulence was ceaseless.

Vaccaro describes the Steinbrenner-Billy Martin dynamic as the engine driving most of that chaos. Martin served as Yankees manager five separate times, and according to the book, was in line for a sixth stint before his tragic death in a Christmas Day car crash in 1989. "Both of them hated losing even more than they liked winning," Vaccaro notes. "It was sort of their driving fossil fuel."

What emerges from these pages is a portrait of a man who was impossible to ignore – a pitchman who could sell New York to free agents one day and film Pepto-Bismol commercials with his own manager the next. He insisted on being called "The Boss" from day one, a title that rankled Martin to no end.

The book also details how Gene "Stick" Michael protected the Yankees' core during Steinbrenner's second exile in the 1990s, turning down a trade that would have sent a group of prospects including Derek Jeter, Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Bernie Williams to Oakland for Rickey Henderson. The decision quietly laid the foundation for a dynasty.

Today, the Yankees are valued at an estimated $7 billion to $10 billion, anchored in a gleaming new stadium and a brand that transcends sport. Hal Steinbrenner now runs the franchise his father built, inheriting both the expectations and the pressures that come with them.

"Yankees fans are passionate – spoiled, maybe, too used to success," Vaccaro reflects. "They really have a serious belief about what the Yankees should be – which Hal does have."

Whether readers view George Steinbrenner as a visionary or a chaos agent likely depends on which chapter they open. But there's no arguing he made the Bronx – and baseball itself – far more interesting for four decades.