New Yankee Stadium is the House that Gene Michael Built

Overall, having the highest paid team hadn't worked for George Steinbrenner with the exception of 1977 and 1978. His being banned from baseball enabled Yankee winning to begin. Gene Michael's tenure as general manager from 1990 to 1995 (his second stint in that role) put together

• the dynasty of no-names.
• You may recall in 2001 no Yankees were voted onto the All Star team, still a bunch of no-stars.
• The ones that ended up going were chosen by Joe Torre.

Upon Mr. Steinbrenner's return, they started losing again.

• (Sportspolymath.com): "Being that Steinbrenner wasn’t allowed to communicate with players, managers, coaches or executives,

• it was the perfect storm for Gene Michael to build a winner in New York.

Prior to his suspension, Steinbrenner made one other move. He appointed Robert Nederlander, one of Steinbrenner's limited partners and a complete unknown in the baseball world, as the new Managing General Partner during his absence. Nederlander was known for owning theaters in New York, not running baseball teams, so it was a surprise move to say the least. On September 13th, 1990, Nederlander took his place in sports history, and had this to say at his press conference, "Whatever Mr. Steinbrenner did, he did. I intend to operate the club the way I think it needs to be operated. I learned a long time ago to rely on experts. And I'm going to rely on the expertise of our baseball people to make the necessary decisions regarding the baseball operations of this franchise."

Words of an extremely wise man.

While those words were echoing around the House that Ruth Built,

• one could almost hear the Yankees of championships past awaking from their slumber.

In the quiet of the New York Winter, Gene Michael would get to work. He transformed the team in two short years, to one that was strong in pitching, defense and clutch hitting. He also built up the farm system and didn’t trade away top prospects for aging vets.

• During this time, the Yankees produced players like Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Mariano Rivera, Andy Petitte and Jorge Posada from their minor league system. All main contributors to the four World Series championships they won together.

He also traded blue chip prospect Roberto Kelley for Paul O’Neil, in an against the grain move. O’Neil would be the I-can’t-stand-losing personality that the team would later rally behind. He also added Tino Martinez, David Cone, John Wetteland, Chuck Knoblauch, Roger Clemens, Jimmy Key, Wade Boggs, David Wells, Mike Stanton, Orlando "El Duque" Hernández and Scott Brosius.

This Yankee team he was assembling was devoid of what some people call prime time stars. Yeah

• Clemens was a star and so was Boggs, but they were a little past their prime, by the time they wound up in New York.

The only Hall of Famer starter on the team was probably Derek Jeter. They weren’t loaded with power either as they

• defied the term Bronx Bomber,

by only hitting 162 homers in the 96 regular season, Bernie Williams led the team with 29 that year, a far cry from what we see today.

• The team Michael constructed would rule the baseball roost from 1996-2000, winning four World Series in the process. After their loss to the Diamondbacks in 2001 World Series, the Yankees went back to their free agent ways and haven’t been the same since....

Gene Michael listened to the experts he hired and had on staff. Guys like Buck Showalter, Stump Merrill and Bob Watson all contributed mightily to the cause....

In closing, Gene Michael was the single person most responsible for the four World Series championships by the Yankees, and when the history books are written,

• there is a chance his contributions will be glossed over.

When I see the new Yankee Stadium, I can only think of it as “The House that ‘Stick’ built.”"

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