[dfwgator]

All I'll say is that these accolades are amusing given that his name was a swear word among Yankees fans from about 1982 to 1995.

Amazing how a few World Series titles can change everything. It's a classic "Rise and Fall and Rise Again" story.

[Alberta's Child]

Good point. I'd also suggest that by the time the mid-1990s rolled around, Steinbrenner had left the management of much of the team's operations (including player personnel decisions) in the hands of a very capable group of baseball people. Even without the championships, there's no question that the circus-like atmosphere surrounding the Yankees in the late 1970s and through the 1980s had largely disappeared.

It's also worth noting that the dominant Yankee teams of the late 1990s had very few big-name free agents on them. They were built around a core of home-grown Yankee talent (think of Derek Jeter, Bernie Williams, Jorge Posada and Mariano Rivera) surrounded by role players who made timely contributions on the field (Scott Broscius, Darryl Strawberry, Jim Leyritz, etc.).