The absentee owner … or not

Michael Burke and George Steinbrenner on Jan. 3, 1973

At a press conference 51 years ago today in which he promises to be a hands-off owner – insert giggle here – Cleveland-based ship builder George Steinbrenner is introduced as the leader of a group of investors buying the New York Yankees from CBS for $8.8 million.

Joining Steinbrenner, right, for the announcement is Michael Burke, a spy for the United States during World War II who 30 years later serves Steinbrenner as the Yankees’ team president.

“We plan absentee ownership as far as running the Yankees is concerned,” Steinbrenner says at the time. “We’re not going to pretend we’re something we aren’t. I’ll stick to building ships.”

Steinbrenner, of course, quickly and obsessively becomes hands-on as the Yankees’ new owner, and remains so up to his death in 2010 at the age of 80.

As for that $8.8 million investment, the franchise today remains in the Steinbrenner family and is valued at – let’s see here, you carry this number to that column, do some fast multiplication and then move all of those numbers to the next column – hmm, $7.1 billion.

Give or take a million here or there.