As the world of baseball mourned the death and celebrated
the life of legendary New York Yankees owner and manager George Steinbrenner
last week, I couldn’t help but think of the strong connection that exists
between sports and politics.
Especially in Steinbrenner’s case.
Some baseball fans may not know that George Steinbrenner was
a lifelong Republican. He contributed generously to the campaigns of Rudy
Giuliani, George W. Bush, Richard Nixon, and George H.W. Bush over his
lifetime.
More notably, Steinbrenner was also an entrepreneur. He was
a great businessman – a word that is all too often a dirty word in
politics today. But as an entrepreneur and great businessman, he believed
in people. He believed in the American spirit. He believed that if you worked
hard enough, if you had the vision to make it happen, that anything was
possible. That is the American way. That, too, is the Republican way.
Like many great American success stories, Steinbrenner took
an incredible risk on a team in the doldrums and turned it into the greatest
living franchise of all time. He purchased the struggling Yankees for
less than $10 million and turned it into a billion-dollar empire. More
importantly, he turned the New York Yankees into "America’s
team" – so much so, that in the immediate days following 9/11, as a
Nation we looked to the Yankees to lift us up and show the World that we
hadn’t lost our spirit. We watched as President George W. Bush
threw out the opening pitch in an open-air stadium in front of 80,000 fans in
the greatest nation in the world, in front of the #1 team in the world.
All of this was possible because one man had a vision for greatness.
What Steinbrenner did for the Yankees, I believe the
Republican Party can do for this Country – and for this State.
This country – and California – are most
certainly in the doldrums. We are, in essence, the ‘73 Yankees.
Taxes are at an all-time high, spending has careened out of control, and more
than 2 million Californians cannot find a job. But I believe, like
Steinbrenner, the Republican Party can show people the way. We are the
Party with the vision, we believe in people over Government programs, and we
believe that if you work hard enough, anything is possible.
I look upon this November’s Elections as a World
Series of sorts. We are at a time in our Nation – and in our State
– where the bases are loaded, the eyes of the Nation are upon us, and our
fans are expecting greatness from us. We can’t let them down.
Steinbrenner once said, "Second place is really just
for the first loser." Let’s not lose this Fall. Instead,
let’s give the American people – and Californians – what they
deserve: a better shot at life, jobs, and the ability to raise a family
and enjoy some prosperity and peace of mind.
Above all else, let’s give the other team hell.
It’s what Steinbrenner would have wanted.
Play ball.