Remembering George Steinbrenner: A Female Umpire’s Perspective

By Guest
Updated: July 19, 2010

Here’s the abstract of the article originally titled “Remembering George” from professional umpire, Perry Barber’s website “Dishing It… and taking it, too”.

Image of George Steinbrenner provided by Perry Barber

March, 1990: After twenty-eight years with the New York Mets, my friend and mentor Arthur Richman had recently matriculated to the Yankees‘ front office at his good pal George Steinbrenner’s insistence. One of the first things Arthur did upon assuming his vice-presidential duties was hire me to umpire some Yankees spring training games in Fort Lauderdale. I met Mr. Steinbrenner on quite a few occasions: here’s a photo of him my husband at the time, Tom Vris, took while he was sitting next to him in the stands at a split-squad game I was working over on one of the practice fields at Legends Stadium in Tampa in 1996. And here’s a shot of me working the actual game, a Cincinnati Reds@Yankees affair featuring Jimmy Key, a high-priced rehab project coming off the disabled list, on the hill for the Bombers. The Yankees are obviously on offense in this picture, and I can’t positively identify the batter behind me who appears to be on his way up to the plate while eyeing me as if I were an alien, but it may be Ruben Rivera.