George Steinbrenner was famously known for his quotable rants and angry tendencies that resulted in frequent firings during his time as owner of the Yankees, but there was a time his rage nearly resulted in some collateral damage at the expense of Sweeny Murti.
As Murti recalled in SNY’s Bronx Backstories, a group of reporters huddled around Steinbrenner during spring training in 2006 to hear The Boss vent about the World Baseball Classic, which poached his stars like Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez from the roster while the team was gearing up for another year in contention.
“Mr. Steinbrenner didn’t like that very much, and he wanted to make sure we all knew about it,” Sweeny said. “Reporters gathered around him as he was seated on a golf cart in a hallway outside the Yankee clubhouse. He ranted and raved about the World Baseball Classic basically stealing his best players.”
Well, Steinbrenner briefly lost focus of the golf cart he was operating as he continued to express his frustrations with the WBC, and Sweeny found himself in harm’s way.
“At one point, he kind of taps the gas on his golf cart and lurches forward a little bit,” Sweeny said. “Nobody else really noticed much, but I did because I was standing in the front. He rolled up onto my right foot. I even heard it back later when I was listening back to the recording of it. I made mention of it to some of my other friends of the media, and guess what? They put it in their stories. It was on the front page of the Daily News…They made it sound lime he sideswiped me and drove away laughing maniacally. It wasn’t quite that bad.”
Sweeny jokingly asked some Yankees staffers if the name of the stadium or the team name itself would be changed to Sweeny’s name as the result of a massive lawsuit, but really, he just learned a lesson to stay out of The Boss’s way when he’s angry.
“Always be where George Steinbrenner speaks. He’s the story. I knew that ahead of time,” Sweeny said. “What I learned after? Don’t stand in front of a vehicle that might run you over.”
As for the WBC, Jeter returned and put together one of the best seasons of his career, while Rodriguez batted .290 with 35 home runs. Hopefully that calmed Steinbrenner down.
Follow Ryan Chichester on Twitter: @ryanchichester1
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