Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Mercedes-Benz takes the aviators off of George Steinbrenner's dead eyes.


(click ad, via) Did George drive a Mercedes? Who cares? Mercedes-Benz certainly doesn't. "The Boss" of course was known for his ubiquitous aviator sunglasses. That, and the fact that he, more than any other individual, turned baseball from a pastime into a business. He was a winner? The Yankees World Series winning percentage was twice as high before his reign. Ad by New York agency Merkley+Partners. Previously: Levi's quickly puts its jeans on Ted Kennedy's dead legs. Previously: I hate the Yankees. (No, I am neither a Mets nor Red Sox fan. I used to be a baseball fan).

5 Comments:

Blogger Russell Kahn said...

"The Yankees World Series winning percentage was twice as high before his reign."

There is no way this statement makes sense. The Yanks won 56.6% of their games under Steinbrenner, the highest winning percentage in baseball.

So you're saying they won 113% of their games before he took over?

12:15 PM  
Blogger copyranter said...

The Yankees won the World Series about 40% of the years between 1923 and the year before Steinbrenner took over. Since then, they've won approximately 19% of the years. Look it up.

12:51 PM  
Blogger Russell Kahn said...

Winning percentage is usually applied to, um, the percentage of games won.

I get that you're trying to compare percentages of Championships won, but the game changed quite a bit when MLB added the LCS round in 1969 and then the LDS round in 1995. The odds of winning the World Series dropped dramatically; now you could have the best record in baseball and easily not make it to the World Series. So the comparison isn't fair.

Also, you're going to choose 1923 as the first year of the range to prove the 40% success? The year they first won the WS? Well, that's just cherry-picking. I could start from 1963 and say the Yanks had 0% success with winning the WS in the decade before George bought the team.

At least start from 1903, when the team moved in New York. Then their WS success rate is "only" 28%.

The answer to your question "He was a winner?" is Yes. Undoubtedly.

10:30 AM  
Blogger copyranter said...

They weren't the Yankees in 1903.

Steinbrenner was a felon, and he had to be sued before he made the old Stadium wheelchair accessible. Quite the "winner."

10:56 AM  
Blogger Russell Kahn said...

Okay, so start at 1913 then. But starting at 1923 doesn't make any sense.

Hey, I never said that Stein was a good guy. He did plenty of shady things. But in the time that he owned a baseball team, his team won more than twice as many Championships as any other team. By any standard, that defines him as a winner.

11:38 AM  

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