The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
STEINBRENNER DEAL ALMOST DONE IN ’71
Ship building magnate’s bid to buy Tribe fell apart at the last minute 49 years ago
“What if?” has always been a way to open a discussion on how world history might be different.
What if Christopher Columbus hadn’t liked sailing? What if Thomas Edison never invented the light bulb? What if The Beatles had been a barbershop quartet?
Over the next few weeks, with the sports world on lockdown because of the novel coronavirus, we will be writing a series of “What if” columns reflecting on how singular moments might have changed the course of Cleveland’s pro teams had they occurred differently.
Today’s question: “What if George Steinbrenner bought the Indians instead of the Yankees?”
Would the drought without a World Series championship, now 72 years and counting, be over by now? Would Francisco Lindor have a 10-year contract to stay with the Indians, as he says he would love to do?
It almost happened for Steinbrenner and the Indians in 1971, and would have happened, had Vernon Stouffer not reneged on a handshake agreement, according to accounts appearing in the biography “Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball.”
“You and your friends are trying to steal my team.” — Vernon Stouffer, as quoted in “Steinbrenner: The Last Lion of Baseball”
Steinbrenner was born — on July 4, appropriately — in 1930 in Rocky River, and in 195455 got his master’s degree in physical education from Ohio State, where he met his future wife, Elizabeth Joan Zieg. He started his fortune as the owner of American Ship Building Company. The company’s main yard was in Lorain.
So Steinbrenner was thinking of more than just an investment when he arranged to buy the Indians from Jimmy Stouffer, a classmate of Steinbrenner’s at Culver Military Academy in Indiana (prior to Ohio State), for $8.6 million. Steinbrenner wanted to revive his hometown team, which finished 75-87, 86-75, 62-99, 7686 and 60-102 on Vernon Stouffer’s watch.
The sale of the Indians was to occur on Dec. 6, 1971. Steinbrenner had called a news conference at his American Shipbuilding office in Cleveland for that night to make the announcement. But at 5 p.m. the deal fell apart when Jimmy Stouffer’s father, Vernon Stouffer, called it off.
“You and your friends are trying to steal my team,” the biography’s author, Bill Madden, quotes
Vernon Stouffer saying. “You’ve already leaked the sale price to the press. I know I can get at least $10 million for it. So forget about it. I won’t be pressured. I’m not selling to you.”
Steinbrenner was disappointed, but not done. He bought the Yankees from CBS in January, 1973, for $8.7 million.
Stouffer ended up selling the Indians to Nick Mileti for $9.75 million less than four months later on March 22, 1972.
It is impossible to project whether the Indians would have had the same success had Steinbrenner owned them as the Yankees did under his guidance, but it is fair to wonder, because the title of his biography is aptly named.
“Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing,” Steinbrenner is quoted saying in baseball-almanac.com. “Breathing first, winning next.”
Steinbrenner died in 2010 at age 80. The Yankees won the World Series six times while he controlled the team — 1977, 1978, 1996 and 1998-2000. The Yankees last won a World Series in 2009.
George Steinbrenner was alive, but by then his son, Hal, was running the team because George Steinbrenner was in declining health.
The Yankees are worth $4.6 billion according to Forbes — a hefty return for $8.7 million.
Steinbrenner famously reinvested money he made owning the Yankees back into the ball club so he could buy and keep players to satisfy his hunger to win.
Would the Indians be worth $4.6 billion today if Steinbrenner successfully bought them 49 years ago and the Steinbrenner family still owned it today? No way. But, as last reported, the Indians are valued at $1.15 billion, according to Forbes.
The Dolan family bought the Indians from Dick Jacobs on Nov. 4, 1999, for $320 million. They are in their 21st year as owners, making them the longest tenured stewards of the Indians fortunes among the 16 individuals or groups that have controlled the team since the Indians became a charter member of the American League in 1900.
The Indians have had 11 owners since 1948 when they won the World Series with Bill Veeck in charge, and the chance to be at the front of another parade has eluded them all — five owners since Mileti sold the Tribe to Ted Bonda five years after buying them.
We’ll never know how different the last nearly 50 years of the Indians history might have been if Vernon Stouffer hadn’t rebuffed Steinbrenner.