On the Couch : By Dr. Richard Lustberg

An Analysis of Current Topics and Issues in Sport
February 1996

Based on all the hoopla and tumult created by the recent change in Yankee management, you would think no one has ever gotten fired or has left a job in this country, let alone in sports. News coverage of the Buck Showalter/George Steinbrenner affair exceeded that of the government shutdown.

The termination of hardworking everyday people, as well as big time executives, happens all the time in America. TWA and Grumman employees are given no advance notice and are escorted out the door on the spot by security guards when they are terminated. Recently, a woman with a critically injured son was given her walking papers by her boss at her son’s hospital bedside. And yet the media and the public continue to react to the Steinbrenner/Showalter kind of events with an outrage that borders on hysteria and discuss it in a manner that suggests getting fired or quitting were some sort of aberration of human behavior.

Don’t we all know people who work with difficult bosses? Who among us hasn’t been demeaned or controlled by a boss, or fired from a job? Who hasn’t seen an employee let go in a rift with management? Both the person who lost his job, as well as the remaining workers, often feel a sense of loss, betrayal and depression. Showalter went on to sign a multi-million dollar contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks and an eternity of security. How often does this happen to the everyday worker?

Despite pundits who claim otherwise, I guarantee you Steinbrenner does not sit in his office conjuring ways to make the New York Yankees a bad organization and, consequently, agitate his customers. Rather, I guarantee you Steinbrenner believes his decisions are in the best interests of the team as well as himself. Does he miscalculate? Sure. Who doesn’t? But it may not be for the reasons the media and fans assume.

Steinbrenner, by all accounts, is a controlling, domineering individual who is mercurial and often demeaning to his employees. He is a micro-manager who interferes in areas in which he lacks expertise such as managing baseball games and making trades.

Controlling people are usually anxious, fearful individuals who cannot tolerate these feelings during times uncertainty or ambiguity, which is most of the time. In order to prevent feeling out of control, they become overbearing and demanding in an attempt to rein in these threatening impulses. These feelings often lead to impulsive decisions, the kind we have come to expect from Steinbrenner.

Decisions based on psychological need and emotion, which lack personal knowledge and objectivity, can easily become disastrous. Just the kinds of decisions we expect from Steinbrenner. How else are we to explain the treatment of Billy Martin and the firings of Dick Howser, Lou Piniella and Showalter?

Steinbrenner’s public personality is certainly complex. He has been described as an arrogant man who craves headlines in the city’s sports sections. The timing of his decisions are legendary for achieving those goals. However, what is a great marketing tool is also a way to achieve the public recognition he craves and desires. The desire to be perceived as a competent, powerful individual has given way to a public perception of pompous, publicity-seeking, demeaning persona, all seen in the makeup of a very insecure, needy individual.

By all accounts, Showalter is a very good baseball manager. He was respected by the press and media and adored by the fans. Probably all the more reason to get rid of him, given Steinbrenner’s need to eclipse his greatest stars. But Showalter is not without faults. Some Yankee beat writers indicated he too has controlling aspects to his personality. Frequently, people who are similar in this regard have difficulty getting along because they cannot tolerate traits in others that they feel judgmental about within themselves. Only one person can have control in a duo of his nature, and who did you think this was going to be?

Many have also commented on Steinbrenner’s generosity to charities and that is certainly to be commended. Also admirable is his grace and generosity towards former heroes and stars. Is this generosity directed at people he feels superior to? The list of terminated people collecting salaries from the Yankees is a long one. This leaves them in Steinbrenner’s debt and service.

Steinbrenner has every right to run his organization the way he wants, although he seems unwilling to see that his constant changing of managers and the treatment of his employees has an effect on the public’s perception of him as an individual. Besides lacking common courtesies, Steinbrenner lacks personal boundaries. Stories of his calling employees at all hours of the night abound. People appear to be treated as interchangeable parts rather than as living human beings. People who objectify others often tend to be self-protective and seem unrelated. Maybe they only become human to George Steinbrenner when they are in peril, turmoil or need.