Ed here: Maureen Dowd has posted what's for me the funniest bit yet about George Steinbrenner. This concerns his run-ins with the Seinfeld crew. Since I can never get enough of George Costanza or his parents this one had me smiling all the way through.
July 13, 2010
Sultan of Swagger
By MAUREEN DOWD
Big George Steinbrenner could be hard on his employees, especially little George Costanza.
In the hilarious fictional Yankees world depicted on “Seinfeld,” Steinbrenner once had Costanza hauled off to a mental institution.
The Yankees owner testified in court that Costanza was a Communist — “as pink as they come, like a big juicy steak.”
The mercurial billionaire made poor Costanza fetch eggplant calzones and listen to paranoid rants, including one about Babe Ruth: “Nothing more than a fat old man with little girl legs. And here’s something I just found out recently: He wasn’t really a sultan!”
The Steinbrenner doppelganger — shown only from behind and voiced by the brilliant “Seinfeld” co-creator and Yankees fan, Larry David — even scalped his own tickets.
“Who else could be a memorable character on a television show without actually appearing on the show?” Jerry Seinfeld told the OnTheRedCarpet blog after hearing that the larger-than-life Steinbrenner had died of a heart attack on Tuesday, the day of the All-Star Game.
But how did the Yankees owner feel about Big Stein, his oddball yet finally lovable caricature in “Seinfeld”?
for the rest go here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/14/opinion/14dowd.html?hp
The Dowd piece was great, especially the ending. The Nora Ephron parody of the Larsson books in THE NEW YORKER was good, too.
ReplyDeleteI loved the episode where Steinbrenner was in George's office singing "Heartbreaker/Heartbreaker/Heartbreaker don't you mess around with me," and waited for George (who was hiding under the desk)to show up because he wanted to know what the name of that song.
ReplyDeleteAs for the real Steinbrenner, I think Yogi Berra may have summed it up best when he said: "He was born on third base and has gone through life thinking he hit a triple."
That's a GREAT quote, Deb. Thanks. I love it.
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