N.Y. Times: Kissinger: Sitting With DiMaggio and Steinbrenner (RR)

It was a Greek tragedy. Nixon

Steinbrenner was fulfilling his own nature. Once it started it could not end otherwise.

After George Steinbrenner became owner, my visits took place under his aegis. I developed vast affection for his capacity for friendship, which matched his fierce pride in his team. We often sat next to each other. During a playoff series game with the Red Sox, Mike Mussina was cruising along with a no-hitter and an eight-run lead when Boston got a hit in a late inning. I pointed out to George that this might be a good thing because the Yankees could now take Mussina out and rest him for a later start in the series. But, for George, there was no way a Red Sox hit could ever be considered a good thing. George was in the process of explaining this to me in his usual emphatic way, when the Red Sox underlined his point by scoring a bushel of runs. Luckily, the rally ended, the Yankees won the game and harmony was restored.

I will always have a warm spot in my heart for Yankee Stadium. This is where I grew to love this quintessentially American game, with its sudden bursts of drama, punctuated by periods of calm, which permit reflection on the subtle positioning of players, the minute adjustments that mark the difference between excellence and mediocrity, before a new drama subsumes all reflection in the emotion of the moment. I will miss the Stadium and its memories, but I am confident that the Yankees will add many experiences in their new surroundings which I shall cherish.