The Boss is Gone.

George Steinbrenner and Billy Martin

No, not Bruce. Not as far as I know. No, George M Steinbrenner III, "The Boss" of the NY Yankees, died this morning of a massive heart attack. He was 80 years old.

Love him or hate him he was the most successful owner in MLB during that time. An era that saw the institution of free agency. It is baseball so let's do it by the numbers:

• He bought the team in 1973 for $8.7M (per ESPN, the Trib article says $10M).
  
• Per ESPN, the team is worth in excess of $1.5B today
  
• His Yankees won 7 World Series,
  
• 11 AL pennants,
  
• 16 AL East Division titles
  
• There were 22 managerial changes in 37 years of ownership.
  
• Billy Martin was hired and fired as the manager 5 times
  
• The Yankees have spent in excess of $1.8B on free agents since 1990.