Yep, Ninja...George was a big spender and he did have great initial success with free agent splurgings but his constant interference and headline seeking, managing and roster changes did more harm than good a lot of the time. It was the period he was suspended in the mid 1990's that allowed some stability with Gene Michael and young Brian Cashman and once he returned George was mellower and interfered less outrageously, though he would still at times have some battles. Despite the mainly home grown/smart trade route the 1996-2000 Yankees were made up of, the superstars still appealed to George and we wound up with Randy Johnson(mixed results), Roger Clemens (looked successful but turned out steroid aided), Jason Giambi( broke down some after a couple of years, steroids aided) and Alex Rodriguez(we know how that's turned out,lol). Though we did get Hideki Matsui from Japan(very consistent) also gotta remember Hideki Irabu(aka "The Fat Toad"). The success of the Yankees from the time they got back into the playoffs in 1995 after 13 years of getting shut out was mainly because of others(including Buck Showalter and Joe Torre, who credit to Steinbrenner he did hire), the work of Gene Michael who was succeeded by Brian Cashman. Now the Yankees are being screwed with budget flexibility by the ridiculous contracts of Mark Teixeira(two more years to go), Alex Rodriguez (3 more) CC Sabathia (3 more), Brian Mc Cann (four more years) and the inexplicably generous Jacoby Ellsbury one(seven more years)and two more years of Carlos Beltran.
