Icon: George Steinbrenner

Legends Field, spring training 2005. [Photo: Tony Gutierrez/AP]

(Steinbrenner, reportedly in ill health, would not agree to be interviewed in person. He answered questions via e-mail.)

I did play baseball as a kid. I also played football, basketball, was a member of the swim and track teams. My father was an outstanding athlete, and he encouraged me to attempt to excel at every sport. Growing up, I would say I enjoyed playing football more than any other sport.

My earliest experience in business was when my father bought a few chickens for my sisters and I to raise. We sold the eggs to neighbors and friends, and everyone loved our eggs because they were so fresh. Soon we expanded the business to selling “dressed” chickens. The “dressing” of the chickens was awful, and I knew then and there that I wouldn’t be in the chicken business. I had to keep the books and then divide and distribute the monies earned between my sisters and me. As children, we weren’t given an allowance. We always had to earn our spending money.

I was very fortunate to have been blessed with outstanding parents. I can’t say enough about their parenting skills. Seventy-seven years later, and I’m still singing their praises and applying lessons that they taught me. Unfortunately, I am also applying things they didn’t teach me. I did well because of them, and I always remembered what my father told me: “Always surround yourself with people who are a lot smarter than you are” and “always pay close attention to your losses — that is where the greatest lessons are learned.”

(On his biggest realization about managing a business): How hard it was and how volatile I would let myself become when I became frustrated.

(On his biggest realizations about managing a team): The two greatest were the extent to which I would go in order to win and the sheer scope of my loathing to lose.

The shipping business was my father and grandfather’s business. I did leave a job coaching football to return to Cleveland to run and grow the shipping business, and I was fairly successful. However, my passion for sports always lingered, and when the Yankees became available for purchase, I jumped at the opportunity to buy them, and I’ve never looked back with any hint of regret.

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