With the news that Yankees owner George Steinbrenner has passed away the tributes are starting to pour in. You can find a good rundown of those tributes here but I wanted to pass along one from former Royals GM Herk Robinson. On 810 WHB this afternoon, Robinson reflected on Ewing Kauffman and Steinbrenner.
↵↵↵He and Mr. Kauffman had a pretty good relationship because Mr. Kauffman had a lot of respect for people that would stand up for their rights and they would joke a lot. And he had a tremendous amount of respect for Mr. Kauffman.
↵Of course, George Steinbrenner didn't like small markets. He loved New York and the Yankees. He did so much fo rthe Yankees but he did not like the small markets, like the Royals and Montreal.
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Because he's just died, it's hard to look at Steinbrenner as someone who didn't even want the Kansas City Royals to exist. It wasn't always this year since the two teams had a solid rivalry in the 70s and 80s but recently Steinbrenner wasn't a Royals fan.
↵↵He was a leader of contraction because he didn't want the Kansas Citys and the Montreals coming into New York. He wanted the Bostons to come in more. He was a strong proponent of eliminating some of the weaker franchises with owners who didn't have the means to compete.
↵He and Mr. Kauffman had a great deal of respect for each other and spent time together. They were both the same type of guys, they liked to take chances and look ahead to find better ways to do things.
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