By Mark Durdak

Posted August 27th 2010

Cleveland Browns tailgaters will be in for a surprise come September 19, the day of the first home opener game against The Kansas City Chiefs.

New on tap for this year is a $5 increase for each parking spot in the Cleveland Municipal Parking Lot on South Marginal Road. The cost of each spot will be going up from $15 to $20.

Also new is the time the lot opens. In past years, the lot opened for hardcore tailgaters at 4 a.m. Now, it will be 7 a.m. That has some season ticket holders in a foul mood.

Larry Oliver, 30, a season ticket holder for 10 years, thinks it’s one thing to raise rates, but opening the lot three hours later is unacceptable. Oliver and his friend, Chuck Dean, have started a petition online to show their displeasure.

One of Oliver’s chief concerns is a back up of cars. Plus, friends from around the country come to Browns games to enjoy an experience of a lifetime, he said.

Darnell Brown, Chief Operating Officer for the city of Cleveland, feels for Browns fans.

Brown said Cleveland is trying to keep in line with other cities that have NFL teams for parking lot opening times. The $5 increase will help offset the cost for services rendered, he said. He re-iterated that the rate increase is not about making money.

Cleveland has not had a rate increase since the current administration has been in place.

You can view and/or sign the petition started by Oliver and Dean here:
http://www.petitiononline.com/ClevMuni/petition.html

Posted August 27th 2010

Serena Williams has withdrawn from this year’s U.S. Open, her agent and the WTA have confirmed to FanHouse. The world’s top-ranked player says she has not fully recovered from the foot injury she sustained last month.

Williams injured her foot shortly after Wimbledon in a non-tennis related accident. She needed stitches and has not played on tour since claiming her 13th major victory at Wimbledon in July.

“We regret that Serena Williams is unable to play the U.S. Open and wish her a speedy recovery,” tournament director Jim Curley said in a statement to The Associated Press. “She will be missed, but the tournament is about the competition and the players on the court.”

Williams is a three-time champion at the U.S. Open. She lost last year at Flushing Meadows in the semifinals to Kim Clijsters when she berated a linejudge at the end of her match after a foot fault was called against her.

In an e-mail to FanHouse’s Greg Couch from Williams’ agent, the world’s No. 1 player released the following statement:

“It is with much frustration and deep sadness that I am having to pull out of the U.S. Open. Due to the surgery I had on my foot earlier this month, my doctors have advised against my playing so that my foot can heal. I take great pride in playing the Grand Slam tournaments and have not missed one since 2006. Not being able to be part of this year’s US Open is one of the most devastating moments of my career.

“Playing in front of the electric crowd of New York at the US Open and competing against the best female athletes in the world is always a highlight, and I look forward to getting back on the court and quickly as possible.”

By A.J. Perez

Posted August 24th 2010

Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren appeared in a Florida courtroom to finalize their divorce on Monday, nine months after a late-night car crash led to the discovery of multiple affairs.

Nordegren’s lawyers wrote that the marriage was “irretrievably broken” in the divorce petition. After the hearing at Bay County Circuit Court in Panama City, Fla., the couple pleaded for privacy in a joint statement.

“We are sad that our marriage is over and we wish each other the very best for the future,” Woods and Nordegren said in the statement. “While we are no longer married, we are the parents of two wonderful children and their happiness has been, and will always be, of paramount importance to both of us.

“Once we came to the decision that our marriage was at an end, the primary focus of our amicable discussions has been to ensure their future well-being. The weeks and months ahead will not be easy for them as we adjust to a new family situation, which is why our privacy must be a principal concern.”

The terms of the divorce were not disclosed. Documents obtained from the courthouse by TMZ.com said the couple had been separated “a substantial period of time” and a financial settlement had been worked out between the two in July.

The judge granted the divorce immediately, forgoing the normal 20-day waiting period for a dissolution of marriage request to become final. Bill Beck, a family law attorney in Tampa Bay, said it’s extremely rare for proceedings to move so quickly, especially when there are millions of dollars and children involved.

“I think this shows there have been substantial negotiations going on for quite a while,” Beck said. “The fact that this was an uncontested divorce is remarkable because it suggests that she’s satisfied with whatever she got monetarily and in terms of custody.”

To get the divorce done in one day, the couple traveled nearly 400 miles from the home they once shared near Orlando to the Florida Panhandle.

Woods was introduced to Nordegren by PGA Tour golfer Jesper Parnevik, who employed Nordegren as a nanny. The couple married in October 2004 and had two children, Sam, 3, and Charlie, 1.

Nordegren and Woods both completed parenting classes, according to another filing. Beck said the courses are less about parenting and more about teaching divorced spouses how to deal with one another for the benefit of the children.

According to the documents, the “parenting plan is in the best interests of the minor children,” although the divorce petition didn’t spell out the exact custodial arrangement. Woods and Nordegren, however, likely agreed on a shared custody plan, Miami-based family lawyer William Brady said.

Woods is slated to play at The Barclays at New Jersey’s Ridgewood Country Club later this week, a FedExCup event where Woods will likely need to finish at least 50th to advance in the playoffs. Woods remains No. 1 in the world despite some shaky play of late.

Posted August 11th 2010

CLEVELAND (AP)—Kenny Lofton finally is part of the Cleveland Indians forever.

The outfielder, who spent three separate stints in Cleveland while playing for 11 different major league teams, was enshrined into the team’s hall of fame on Saturday night.

“It’s always good to come back to a city that’s like my second home,” Lofton told reporters before the ceremony. “Every time I come here, I feel the love.”

Lofton was enshrined with the late Cy Slapnicka, the general manager who signed Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Bob Feller. Fans politely acknowledged Slapnicka’s accomplishments as they were presented on the giant scoreboard, then gave Lofton a resounding standing ovation, chanting “Ken-ny, Ken-ny.”

Lofton unveiled his own plaque in the team’s hallowed Heritage Park beyond the center-field wall, then walked to the infield. He was greeted by Feller and several other Hall members, including his former manager Mike Hargrove and 1990s teammates Charles Nagy and Sandy Alomar Jr.

Lofton said the turning point in his career came after being traded to Cleveland at age 24 before the 1992 season. He finished second in AL Rookie of the Year voting, and by 1995 was a key part of a dominant Indians team that went to the World Series for the first time in 41 years.

“It’s the city that got me going,” he said. “We were part of something special, moving into the new ballpark (in 1994) and the fans responding. We knew it had been like a thousand years since they made the playoffs and we were proud to be part of it.”

Lofton’s heart was broken when he was dealt to Atlanta days before the 1997 season for all-stars Marquis Grissom and David Justice. A year later, he re-signed with Cleveland and stayed through 2001 before embarking on a journey that took him to eight clubs in six seasons before returning yet again during the 2007 stretch drive to help the Indians make it back to the playoffs.

“Kenny was the igniter for this team for many years,” said Alomar, inducted last year and now the Indians’ first base coach. “I have a great deal of respect for him.”

Lofton played 17 seasons, but his 10 years in Cleveland were most memorable. In 2,103 career games, he hit .299 with 113 triples, 130 homers, 383 doubles, 622 steals, 1,528 runs and 2,428 hits. In 95 postseason games, including 50 for Cleveland, he scored 65 runs.

He hopes those numbers may be good enough to get into Baseball’s Hall of Fame, and is particularly proud that he played without any illegal boosts during the game’s scandalized Steroid Era.

“I didn’t take any shortcuts,” Lofton said. “I played the game right, played hard and I had fun doing it.”

Two of Lofton’s many spectacular plays top his own personal list of favorites. One was scoring from second base on a wild pitch by Seattle’s Randy Johnson(notes) in the 1995 AL Championship Series. The other was a leaping catch to take a homer away from Baltimore’s B.J. Surhoff. Fans attending Saturday’s game got a souvenir of that play, a special bobblehead doll depicting Lofton, a former basketball player at the University of Arizona, jumping to make the grab.

“I remember that play like it was yesterday,” he said. “The funniest part was seeing the guys in the bullpen when I caught the ball. They were going crazy. I’ll never forget it.”

Lofton, his eyes glistening as he spoke, thanked his family, Cleveland fans and the Indians organization for helping him achieve his career accomplishments. Then, before throwing out the ceremonial first pitch to Alomar, the 42-year-old told fans to stick with the organization.

“You guys will get a championship,” he told Clevelanders who have not won a World Series since 1948. “I guarantee it.”

By Len Satterfield

Posted August 10th 2010

Legendary promoter Don King spoke to FanHouse just hours before playing host to Saturday night’s HBO-televised main event between WBC and IBF junior welterweight (140 pounds) champion Devon Alexander and former WBA king Andriy Kotelnik at the Scottrade Center in St. Louis. The subject: King’s wooing of five-time titlist Floyd Mayweather with the goal of matching him against seven-division king Manny Pacquiao, perhaps in the spring. In order to do so, King invited the unbeaten fighter to his Florida home last week, and has also brought in Mayweather to be a ringside guest for Alexander-Kotelnik. In this Q&A, the 78-year-old King shed light on why he believes himself to be better suited toward working out a deal with longtime rival and Top Rank CEO Bob Arum, Pacquiao’s promoter than Mayweather’s present handlers, Golden Boy Promotions and adviser, Al Haymon, who have twice failed to bring Mayweather-Pacquiao to fruition. Warning: the interview below is transcribed verbatim, and includes some profane language. FanHouse: So I understand that Floyd Mayweather is in St. Louis to be your guest at ringside for Saturday night’s fight?
Don King: Yes he is. I just got off of the telephone with him two seconds ago. He’s going to call me right back again. If he wants me, he knows that I’m there for him. Everything is everything. He can’t lose if he comes to see me, because the price goes up from where he’s at. If he comes with me, the price soars, because, with him, he and I can generate more capital than anyone alive.
Can you shed light on the notion that sometime in the spring of 2009, you and Floyd almost hooked up a few months before his comeback victory over Juan Manuel Marquez?
Yes, so this time, it’s going to be like a family reunion. The last time that he was here I had $45 million on the table for him. That was the last time when he came to see me at my house. I made arrangements with him and his aide, Tommy Smalls. They brought him to me, and he stayed at my house. And he said, “Help me out, man.” So I went to work. He wanted $15 million, and then I found a way to supplement him with another $30 million. So we had made a deal, man. We had a handshake deal and I had already told Bob Arum that before their guys had nixed it, that we would be getting the s**t on [with Pacquiao]. This was before he fought Juan Manuel Marquez. He would have signed with me and I would have had him. He could have fought anybody he wanted to fight because Floyd Mayweather is the best in the world, man. So Manny Pacquiao would certainly be a part of the pie and would definitely be in there. And then, the last day, after the deal was done, he stayed with something that they [his previous promoters] had him going on. And Floyd lost the opportunity of a lifetime. But I just smiled, because you know what. If Floyd wants me, then he’s got me. And if he don’t want me, then I still love him because it’s more than about me and him and some prize fight. Floyd is a generous guy, and a lovable guy. They don’t understand that. They make him look like a piece of s**t, but he ain’t no piece of s**t. So this weekend, wherever I’ll be, he’ll be there also.

So how much have you and Floyd spoken about a potential matchup with Manny Pacquiao?

You know what? I’m not interested in just the Manny Pacquiao fight. I’m interested in Floyd Mayweather. What I try to do is to get him. And when I get him, everything else is included. That’s why they made the mistakes. They’re all into the greed. I’m not in for the greed business, I’m in for the need business.

When you get the man, then you’ve got everything. And I’ve got the man with the plan. Me and Bob Arum can pull this Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao s**t off in two seconds, you know what I’m saying. I’m talking in two shakes of a lamb’s tail. It would be fitting and proper for Bob and I to work on this because we’re used to what it means.

Rather than think about what it seems to be. You’ve got to be able deal with what is real. You’ve got to be able to deal with the hypocrisy in a manner that you understand. If you don’t understand, then you’re apprehensive. They [Mayweather's promoters] don’t speak ghetto-ese like Floyd Mayweather does, do you understand? I mean, that’s like hieroglyphics to them. So they may talk to the man like they’re talking down to the man. Talking around the man. Or looking at the man in a condescending manner, you know what I mean? They look at him like he’s an indentured servant when in actuality he’s the hottest thing on the planet.

That’s what it is. It’s a disrespect of cultures. You must be able to respect people’s cultures and to be able to know what they’re thinking and feeling. You’ve got to be able to stand in their shoes. You’ve got to be able to look out of their eyeballs. Other than that, if you try to convince a man against his will, then he’ll be of the same opinion still.

So you’re saying that you speak Floyd’s language more than Golden Boy Promotions and his adviser, Al Haymon?

I happen to speak ghetto-ese because I’m one of them. Because you know what? We understand. Many people can’t speak hieroglyphics, because that’s what ghetto-ese is to them. They can’t speak it. If you can’t communicate, relate and identify, how are you going to make a deal?

You going to bombard him over the head saying you’re going to make him $40 million? For that kind of money, most (expletive) would turn a trick. But it didn’t work with Floyd Mayweather. So people were like, “Floyd’s got to be a go***mn fool,” and, “Floyd’s got to be insane.”

But your manhood is worth more than $40 million. I don’t talk trash, I talk cash. I understand that because I’ve been without. If I’ve learned one thing, then that’s that the power of your human nature and your pride and your self-worth is worth more than money. Money is a supporter of power, and power is a creator of money.

I mean, his promoters didn’t understand. They already had Bob Arum on one side with Manny Pacquiao, and they say that they’re with him, but at the same time, they don’t defend him. Look how he’s getting beaten up in the press. Look how he’s being castigated and vilified. Nobody knows how to defend him.

Everybody’s looking at him with a jaundiced eye. They’re saying he’s a coward, and he’s a this and he’s a that. They’re finding all kinds of ways to make him out to be like he’s the most selfish individual who has ever existed on the planet Earth when in actuality he’s got a blessing from God that he has the skill and the talent that he can rise above the fray with the creme de la creme.

Floyd Mayweather has the ability to self-promote to the point where they would offer him $40 million. But if he was with me, it would be $100 million. That’s the difference. In addition, he would keep his dignity and his pride intact. They treat him like he’s a cow or a horse, and like he’s property. But you’ve got to get that s**t out the way.

Are you confident that you can sign Floyd Mayweather this time?

No. That’s going to be his prerogative and his decision. But I’m confident of this: I’m confident that I’m available for him. All of them are pursuing what they can do with a Manny Pacquiao fight. I’m pursuing what I can do with a young African-American who has the skill and abilities to be able to help others.

My job is to help other people and not just be able to help him. I can help him to help himself, and then, he has the ability of spreading community unity by being able to say, ‘Yes I can,’ when everyone else says, ‘No you can’t.’ My objective is altogether different.

He has to ask me, I cannot ask him. Then I’ll become a mercenary and reduce myself to the same standard. I’m not the same standard. So if he came with me, then we could fight anybody in the world without fighting Manny Pacquiao and I would still make him a lot of money.

Whoever makes Mayweather-Pacquiao, it’s going to be worth x amount of money. But when I make it, it’s going to be triple that x amount. And remember this: Floyd called me, I didn’t call him. I did not seek him out the last time, and I did not seek him out this time.

Remember that he came to me. Now, if he can do himself and the world a favor, then I would be the most honored and appreciative guy in the world to have another brother that I can promote as a free man. Nothing would please me more.

By Pat McManamon

Posted July 23rd 2010

The Cleveland Browns are again being sued by a former player.

LeCharles Bentley has filed a civil suit in Cuyahoga (Oh.) County Court of Common Pleas against the team. The suit states Bentley “nearly lost his life” because of a staph infection he got while rehabbing from knee surgery at the team’s facility.

The suit contains claims of fraud and negligent misrepresentation against the Browns, and procedurally asks for more than $25,000 in damages.

“The Browns convinced LeCharles to rehab at their facility,” Bentley’s attorney, Shannon Polk, said Thursday. “Nothing required him to do it (there). That wasn’t part of his job. They told him their facility was the best and that they had successfully helped others. But they never told him about a host of unsanitary conditions there and they never told him about the list of others who contracted staph before he chose to rehab there.

“Had the Browns disclosed that stuff to him, had they been straight with him, he would have never agreed to rehab at their training facility.

“The man nearly died from the staph infection he got there.”

Browns spokesman and vice president Neal Gulkis said the team would have no comment at this time.

Former Browns receiver Joe Jurevicius, another Cleveland native whose career also was ended by a Staph infection he suffered while with the Browns, filed a similar lawsuit. It was settled in June, with terms of the settlement confidential. Other former Browns players who had Staph include Kellen Winslow, Braylon Edwards and Brian Russell.

Bentley declined comment, but in his duties as a talk-show host on WKNR-850 in Cleveland, he has discussed what he said were signs Staph was prevalent in the team’s facility. There have been reports that he almost lost his leg to the Staph.

The suit states that former trainer Marty Lauzon and GM Phil Savage both told Bentley his rehab would be complete and safe, and that Bentley had the dressing from his surgical wound changed at the team’s facility. Just less than a month after the surgery, he was diasgnosed with Staph.

The suit alleges the facility was not properly sterilized, and states that Bentley “underwent multiple surgeries and medical procedures designed to eradicate the staph infection, and nearly lost his life.”

Bentley grew up in Cleveland and played at Ohio State before being drafted by the New Orleans Saints in 2002. He played four years for the Saints, then signed with the Browns as a free agent in the spring of 2006.

On the first full-team play of his first training camp, he tore his patella tendon. He had surgery within days. The surgery ended his season; the staph ended his career.

Read More: Browns

By Lonnie White

Posted July 22nd 2010

The idea of LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh manipulating today’s NBA free agency world has certainly generated a great deal of negative feedback.

And now add Earvin “Magic” Johnson to the list of former NBA players who have questioned how James, Wade and Bosh decided this summer to become teammates together with the Miami Heat.

“We didn’t think about it ’cause that’s not what we were about,” Johnson said at Baruch College in New York, according to Bloomberg News. “From college, I was trying to figure out how to beat Larry Bird.”

Johnson, who won five NBA championships playing for the Lakers after he led Michigan State to an NCAA title victory over Bird and Indiana State in 1979, said it was never a real possibility for him to play with Michael Jordan and Bird.

“It was never a question in our mind because nobody has ever done that,” Johnson said when looking back to his era.

James, the two-time reigning NBA Most Valuable Player, has been the main target since he left the Cleveland Cavaliers on July 8 to join Wade and Bosh as free agents. Johnson said James, who failed to win an NBA title in seven seasons playing for Cleveland, will feel the pressure to win even more now.

“I think he will be, one day, a great businessman,” Johnson said about James. “The first order of business for LeBron is to win championships. If you build your brand on the court, then that will take care of the off-the-court brand.”

Johnson’s comments come only days after Jordan told reporters at a weekend golf event that he’d rather beat Johnson and Bird than become their teammates.

“There’s no way, with hindsight, I would’ve ever called up Larry, called up Magic and said, ‘Hey, look, let’s get together and play on one team’, ” said Jordan, the majority owner of the Charlotte Bobcats who led the Chicago Bulls to six NBA championships.

“But that’s … things are different. I can’t say that’s a bad thing. It’s an opportunity these kids have today. In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys.”

Even Charles Barkley, who never played on an NBA championship team, recently chipped in on the debate.

“Mike and I are in 100 percent agreement on this,” Barkley told the Arizona Republic. “If you’re the two-time defending NBA MVP, you don’t leave anywhere. They come to you. That’s ridiculous. I like LeBron. He’s a great player. But I don’t think in the history of sports you can find a two-time defending MVP leaving to go play with other people.”

By Garrett Downing

Posted July 19th 2010

LAKE TAHOE, Nev. – Since LeBron James announced he was ‘taking his talents to South Beach,’ people have questioned what kind of impact that decision would ultimately have on his legacy. Some have argued that the by joining Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh in Miami, James has removed himself from the discussion of the game’s most elite players.

Michael Jordan, one of the best players ever, weighed in on the discussion at a celebrity golf outing in Nevada Sunday.

“There’s no way, with hindsight, I would’ve ever called up Larry, called up Magic and said, ‘Hey, look, let’s get together and play on one team,’” Jordan said. “Things are different. I can’t say that’s a bad thing. It’s an opportunity these kids have today. In all honesty, I was trying to beat those guys.”

Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to six titles. And while he had Scottie Pippen, there is little question the Bulls were Jordan’s team.
Jordan said he had more interest playing against the game’s best players, rather than with them.

“Obviously, when you look at the Dream Team, they were on my team and it wasn’t too much of a competitive thing,” he said said. “I’m a competitive guy, and I like to play against competitive players.”

Another slight against James may have come as Jordan discussed how he would have liked to pay against some of the elite players of the current era. During that discussion, Jordan did not even mention James in that group.

“I’m pretty sure that those guys (Magic Johnson, Larry Bird, Charles Barkley), along with myself, wish that we could have played against the Kobe Bryant’s of this era and Tim Duncan’s of this era.”

Posted July 13th 2010

CLEVELAND — Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert got in another word about the messy, heartbreaking split with LeBron James.

He promised it’s his last one.

It had better be or NBA commissioner David Stern could fine him another $100,000.

On Monday, Gilbert said he strongly disagrees with Rev. Jesse Jackson’s criticism of his recent comments about James, who announced last week he was leaving Cleveland after seven seasons to join fellow All-Stars Dwyane Wade and Chris Bosh on the Miami Heat.

Shortly after James’ announcement, Gilbert fired off an incendiary letter to Cavs fans, vilifying the 25-year-old and calling his decision to bolt Cleveland as “narcissistic” and “cowardly behavior.” He also guaranteed his team would win an NBA title “BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER ‘KING’ WINS ONE.”

Gilbert took it a step further when he later told The Associated Press in a phone interview that he felt the NBA’s two-time MVP quit on the Cavs during the playoffs the past two years, and that James “has gotten a free pass.” He also said James should be held accountable for his actions.

Jackson responded to Gilbert’s remarks on Sunday by saying the Cavs owner sees James as a “runaway slave” and that Gilbert’s comments put the player in danger.

“He speaks as an owner of LeBron and not the owner of the Cleveland Cavaliers,” Jackson said in a release from his Chicago-based civil-rights group. “His feelings of betrayal personify a slave master mentality. He sees LeBron as a runaway slave. This is an owner employee relationship — between business partners — and LeBron honored his contract.”

In a statement released by the team on Monday, Gilbert tried to put an end to the issue.

“I strongly disagree with Rev. Jesse Jackson’s recent comments and we are not going to engage in any related discussion on it,” Gilbert said. “Going forward, we’re very excited about the Cavaliers and the positive future of our region.”

Gilbert is attending the owners’ meetings in Las Vegas, where Stern fined him $100,000 for the “inappropriate” comments about James.

“He was completely correct in expressing his disappointment,” Stern said, adding that Gilbert’s statement and the sentiments he expressed in a follow-up interview with the AP were “a little bit extreme.”

Stern also said Jackson is a friend and ally to the league, but as with Gilbert, felt the reaction simply went too far.

“However well-meaning Jesse may be in the premise on this one, he is, as he rarely is, mistaken,” Stern said. “And I would have told him so had he called me before he issued his statement, rather than this morning. But he is a good friend of the NBA and our players. Has worked arduously on many good causes and we work together in many matters.”

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.

Posted July 13th 2010

NEW YORK (AP)—Rocky River Native George Steinbrenner, whose big wallet and win-at-all-cost attitude whipped the New York Yankees into a billion-dollar sports empire, died Tuesday. He had just celebrated his 80th birthday July 4.

Steinbrenner had a heart attack, was taken to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Tampa, Fla., and died at about 6:30 a.m, a person close to the owner told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the team had not disclosed those details.

“George was ‘The Boss,’ make no mistake,” Hall of Famer Yogi Berra said. “He built the Yankees into champions, and that’s something nobody can ever deny. He was a very generous, caring, passionate man. George and I had our differences, but who didn’t? We became great friends over the last decade and I will miss him very much.”

In 37-plus seasons as owner, Steinbrenner led the Yankees to seven World Series championships, 11 American League pennants and 16 AL East titles.

“He was and always will be as much of a New York Yankee as Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford and all of the other Yankee legends,” baseball commissioner Bud Selig said. “Although we would have disagreements over the years, they never interfered with our friendship and commitment to each other. Our friendship was built on loyalty and trust and it never wavered.”

Steinbrenner’s death on the day of the All-Star game was the second in three days to rock the Yankees. Bob Sheppard, the team’s revered public address announcer from 1951-07, died Sunday at 99.

New York was 11 years removed from its last championship when Steinbrenner headed a group that bought the team from CBS Inc. on Jan. 3, 1973, for about $10 million.

He revolutionized the franchise—and sports—by starting his own television network and ballpark food company. Forbes now values the Yankees at $1.6 billion, trailing only Manchester United ($1.8 billion) and the Dallas Cowboys ($1.65 billion).

“He was an incredible and charitable man,” his family said in a statement. “He was a visionary and a giant in the world of sports. He took a great but struggling franchise and turned it into a champion again.”

He ruled with obsessive dedication to detail, overseeing everything from trades to the airblowers that kept his ballparks spotless. He admittedly was overbearing, screaming at all from commissioners to managers to secretaries.

His reign was interrupted for suspensions, including a 15-month ban in 1974 after his guilty plea to conspiring to make illegal contributions to President Richard Nixon’s re-election campaign. He was pardoned 15 years later by President Ronald Reagan.

The son of a shipping magnate, Steinbrenner lived up to his billing as “the Boss,” a nickname he earned and clearly enjoyed as he ruled with an iron fist. While he lived in Tampa he was a staple on the front pages of New York newspapers.

“He was truly the most influential and innovative owner in all of sports,” former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani said. “He made the Yankees a source of great pride in being a New Yorker.”

Steinbrenner’s mansion, on a leafy street in an older neighborhood of south Tampa, was quiet Tuesday. Private security guards milled around on the empty circular driveway inside the gates. A police officer turned away reporters along the narrow street. News vehicles lined the other side of the street.

“The passing of George Steinbrenner marks the end of an era in New York City baseball history,” rival Mets owners Fred and Jeff Wilpon and Saul Katz said. “George was a larger than life figure and a force in the industry.”

Steinbrenner was known for feuds, clashing with Berra and hiring manager Billy Martin five times while repeatedly fighting with him. But as his health declined, Steinbrenner let sons Hal and Hank run more of the family business.

Steinbrenner was in fragile health for years, resulting in fewer public appearances and pronouncements. Yet dressed in his trademark navy blue blazer and white turtleneck, he was the model of success.

“Few people have had a bigger impact on New York over the past four decades than George Steinbrenner,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. “George had a deep love for New York, and his steely determination to succeed combined with his deep respect and appreciation for talent and hard work made him a quintessential New Yorker.”

He appeared at the new $1.5 billion Yankee Stadium just four times: the 2009 opener, the first two games of last year’s World Series and this year’s homer opener, when captain Derek Jeter and manager Joe Girardi went to his suite and personally delivered his seventh World Series ring.

“He was very emotional,” said Hal Steinbrenner, his father’s successor as managing general partner.

Till the end, Steinbrenner demanded championships. He barbed Joe Torre during the 2007 AL playoffs, then let the popular manager leave after another loss in the opening round. The team responded last year by winning another title.

“I will always remember George Steinbrenner as a passionate man, a tough boss, a true visionary, a great humanitarian, and a dear friend,” Torre said. “It’s only fitting that he went out as a world champ.”

Steinbrenner had fainted at a memorial service for NFL great Otto Graham in 2003, appeared weak in August 2006 when he spoke briefly at the groundbreaking for the new stadium and became ill while watching his granddaughter in a college play in North Carolina that October. At this past spring training, he used a wheelchair and needed aides to hold him during the national anthem.

Still, the former Big Ten football coach took umbrage when others questioned his fitness.

“I am not ill. I work out daily,” Steinbrenner said in 2006. “I’d like to see people who are saying that to come down here and do the workout that I do.”

When Steinbrenner bought the team, he famously promised a hands-off operation.

“We’re not going to pretend we’re something we aren’t,” he said. “I’ll stick to building ships.”

It hardly turned out that way. Consider his dealings with Dave Winfield. Steinbrenner paid to dig up dirt on the outfielder and derided the future Hall of Famer as “Mr. May” in 1985 after poor performances.

“There is nothing quite so limited as being a limited partner of George Steinbrenner’s,” one of them, John McMullen, once said.

Still, Steinbrenner could poke fun at himself. He hosted “Saturday Night Live,” clowned with Martin in a commercial and chuckled at his impersonation on “Seinfeld.” He gave millions to charity, often with one stipulation, that no one know who made the donation.

Steinbrenner also spent freely on the likes of Jeter, Reggie Jackson, Alex Rodriguez, Torre and others in hopes of yet another title. And the team’s value increased more than 100-fold from the $8.7 million net price his group paid in 1973.

“Winning is the most important thing in my life, after breathing,” Steinbrenner was fond of saying. “Breathing first, winning next.”

All along, he envisioned himself as a true Yankee Doodle Dandy. It was fitting: George Michael Steinbrenner III was born on the Fourth of July, in 1930.

He joined the likes of Al Davis, Charlie O. Finley, Bill Veeck, George Halas, Jack Kent Cooke and Jerry Jones as the most recognized team owners in history. But Steinbrenner’s sports interests extended beyond baseball.

He was an assistant football coach at Northwestern and Purdue in the 1950s and was part of the group that bought the Cleveland Pipers of the American Basketball League in the 1960s.

He was a vice president of the U.S. Olympic Committee from 1989-96 and entered six horses in the Kentucky Derby, failing to win with Steve’s Friend (1977), Eternal Prince (1985), Diligence (1996), Concerto (1997), Blue Burner (2002) and the 2005 favorite, Bellamy Road.

To many, though, the Yankees and Steinbrenner were synonymous. His fans applauded his win-at-all-costs style. His detractors blamed him for spiraling salaries and wrecking baseball’s competitive balance.

Steinbrenner never managed a game, but he controlled everything else. When he thought the club’s parking lot was too crowded, Steinbrenner stood on the pavement—albeit behind a van, out of sight—and had a guard personally check every driver’s credential.

Steinbrenner made no apologies for his bombast, even when it cost him. He served two long suspensions: He was banned for 2 1/2 years for paying self-described gambler Howie Spira to dig up negative information on Winfield, and for 15 months following a guilty plea for his conduct during the Watergate era.

“I haven’t always done a good job, and I haven’t always been successful,” Steinbrenner said in 2005. “But I know that I have tried.”

Steinbrenner negotiated a landmark $486 million, 12-year cable television contract with the Madison Square Garden Network in 1988 and launched the Yankees’ own YES Network for the 2002 season.

The Yankees later became the first team with a $200 million payroll, provoking anger and envy among other owners. After the 1982 season, Baltimore owner Edward Bennett Williams said Steinbrenner hoarded outfielders “like nuclear weapons.”

He also changed managers 21 times and got rid of more than a dozen general managers. When a Yankees’ public relations man went home to Ohio for the Christmas holiday, then returned in a hurry for a news conference to announce David Cone’s re-signing, Steinbrenner fired him.

After Steinbrenner dismissed Berra as manager 16 games into the 1985 season, the Hall of Famer vowed he wouldn’t go to back to Yankee Stadium for a game until Steinbrenner apologized.

One night in 1982, reliever Goose Gossage let loose and called Steinbrenner “the fat man.” And in 1978, Martin said of Jackson and Steinbrenner: “The two of them deserve each other—one’s a born liar, the other’s convicted.”

There was no denying the results, however.

When Steinbrenner bought the Yankees, they had gone eight seasons without finishing in first place, their longest drought since Babe Ruth & Co. won the team’s first pennant in 1921.

“George has been a very charismatic, controversial owner,” commissioner Bud Selig said in 2005. ” But look, he did what he set out to do—he restored the New York Yankees franchise.”

Former AL president Gene Budig sometimes was on the wrong end of Steinbrenner’s barbs. After he left office, Budig maintained a friendship with him and even promoted Steinbrenner for the Hall of Fame.

Steinbrenner liked to quote military figures and saw games as an extension of war. No surprise that in the tunnel leading from the Yankees’ clubhouse to the field, he had a sign posted with a saying from Gen. Douglas MacArthur: “There is no substitute for victory.”

Steinbrenner also had a soft side. He sometimes read about high school athletes who had been injured and sent them money to go to college. He paid for the medical school expenses of Ron Karnaugh after the swimmer’s father died during the opening ceremony at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

Steinbrenner kept older friends from his football days on the payroll, had a way of rehiring those he had once fired and liked to give second chances to those who had fallen from favor, such as Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden.

“I’m really 95 percent Mr. Rogers,” Steinbrenner said as he approached his 75th birthday, “and only 5 percent Oscar the Grouch.”

While Steinbrenner grew up in the Cleveland area as a Yankees fan, his first passion was football. He fondly recalled watching the Browns on cold winter days and many believe the NFL’s must-win-today mentality shaped how he approached all sports.

Steinbrenner was raised in a strict, no-nonsense household headed by his father, Henry. The oldest of three children, Steinbrenner attended Culver Military Academy in Indiana. At Williams College, he ran track, specializing in hurdles.

After that, he enlisted in the Air Force. Steinbrenner always was partial to the military and at Yankee Stadium, men and women in uniform were admitted free.

Following his discharge, he enrolled at Ohio State, pursuing a master’s degree in physical education. It was his intention to go into coaching, but after working at a high school in Columbus and at Purdue and Northwestern, he turned to the business world. Steinbrenner married Elizabeth Zieg in 1956 and they had four children.

In 1963, Steinbrenner purchased Kinsman Transit Co., a fleet of lake ore carriers, from his family and built a thriving company. Four years later, Steinbrenner and associates took over American Shipbuilding and revitalized the company.

It was in Cleveland that Steinbrenner met veteran baseball executive Gabe Paul and became involved with the group that bought the Yankees. With 13 partners, Steinbrenner purchased the team from CBS Inc.

“When you’re a shipbuilder, nobody pays any attention to you,” he said. “But when you own the New York Yankees … they do, and I love it.”

With that, the Bronx Zoo days began. It was while he was under suspension that the Yankees ushered in baseball’s new free-agent era by signing Catfish Hunter to a $3.75 million contract. Even though he was officially barred from participating in the daily operation of the team, no one believed Steinbrenner was not involved in that deal.

For the first five years of the free agency, Steinbrenner signed 10 players for about $38 million. Steinbrenner’s $18.2 million, 10-year deal with Winfield was the richest free agent contract in history.

During those days, Yankee Stadium underwent a $100 million facelift and reopened in 1976. That year, the Yankees won the AL pennant, but got swept in the World Series by Cincinnati’s Big Red Machine. The Yankees surged back to win the World Series in 1977 and 1978 and the pennant in 1981.

While the team’s roster and front office kept changing the one constant for most of Steinbrenner’s time was winning. Asked his formula for success, he said: “Work as hard as you ask others to. Strive for what you believe is right, no matter the odds. Learn that mistakes can be the best teacher.”

In addition to his sons, Steinbrenner is survived by his wife, Joan, daughters Jennifer and Jessica and 13 grandchildren.