First, the "Voice of God", legendary PA announcer Bob Sheppard dies at age 99.
A fitting and well-deserved tribute.
From mlb.com story by Marty Noble
http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100711&content_id=12178760&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb
His words, deliberately delivered and echoing, served as a baseball "On your mark." Once Sheppard had spoken, the game could begin. He did for elocution what Loretta Young did for elegance, Benny Goodman did for swing, what Rogers and Astaire did for dance and what Mantle did for switch-hitting. Sheppard was from then, and he extended "then" so that it could be appreciated into the 21st century.
When we played baseball on the playground or in the backyard and imitated the sounds of the game, it was Bob Sheppard's introduction of players, complete with the simulated echo, that we all used. Bob Sheppard's voice could also be heard during New York Giants football games.
This is Sheppard's introduction of the Giants prior to the game that would send the Giants to their first Super Bowl vs. the Broncos. Sheppard's introduction was brilliant in its simplicity, with no over the top histrionics. He will be sorely missed.
I have to agree with Tim McCarver here.
"He adds elegance to the game," Tim McCarver said. "The best words to describe his introductions are 'eloquent' and 'elegant.'"
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Then, owner George Steinbrenner, dies yesterday at age 80.
Steinbrenner purchased the Yankees franchise for less than $10 million dollars in 1973 and now the team is worth over $1 billion dollars. This has to rank up there with the 1626 purchase of Manhattan for $24, the Louisiana Purchase by the U.S. Government from France and the 1867 purchase of Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million dollars as among the greatest business deals of all time.
If you look at any one of the metrics employed by the website measuringworth.com that $10M from 1973 would only be worth somewhere between $39M (using CPI or GDP deflator methodology)to $103M (using the relative share of GDP methodology). And yet he turned it into 10 times more if you use the $1 billion dollar value the Yankees would certainly be valued at today.
http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/
Even the price of gold has only appreciated by a factor of about 35 times since 1973. Steinbrenner's Yankees investment has appreciated to 100 times its original value. That's pretty darn good business acumen and execution of a business plan in my book. Thankfully, many others in baseball are beginning to follow the Yankees business plan.
From ESPN.com story by William Nack - "The Reign of 'The Boss' was a wild ride"
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/columns/story?columnist=nack_bill&id=3212872
With George as president, the company flourished, but sports remained an itch he had to scratch. He was a multimillionaire by the early 1970s when he tried to buy the Cleveland Indians for $9 million. Luckily for him, the Indians turned him away at the door. Looking east, he saw that the struggling New York Yankees, barely a .500 team, were for sale -- and that the chairman of the Columbia Broadcasting System, William Paley, wanted out of the baseball business. Steinbrenner might have been spurned by the Indians, but he got his quick revenge, stealing off with the one Indian the team could least afford to lose: general manager Gabe Paul. Paul brokered the deal that gave the Yankees to Steinbrenner and his partners for $8.7 million, a steal given that the franchise would be worth more than $1 billion in less than 30 years.
Whether you loved him or hated him, or his Yankees, he is in the team picture of persons who had the greatest influence on the sport in this generation. Arguably, he and perhaps Marvin Miller had the greatest impact in transforming baseball--sometimes kicking and screaming--into a form of big-time, Hollywood-style entertainment. The big-time revenues and salaries soon followed.
Another big-time loss and serious emotional body blow for the Yankee family.
R.I.P. Bob Sheppard and George Steinbrenner.
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