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Every Fourth of July it has become ritual here to remind New York that George Steinbrenner, now deified in death, was born on the Fourth of July. Yup, a real live nephew of my Uncle Sam.
Recently, The New York Times and the Associated Press published stories that revealed, through newly declassified government documents, that Steinbrenner, although a twice-convicted felon, was an FBI informant.
The help he provided the FBI apparently led to his Presidential pardon.
Missing from these stories, however, is the fact Steinbrenner’s close relationship with the FBI was mutual, very mutual.
In fact, there’s good reason to believe the 1990 arrest and prosecution of Howard Spira as part of the Steinbrenner/Dave Winfield saga, was a personal favor, a gift to Steinbrenner from his friendly, local Tampa, Fla. FBI.
Spira, at the time of his arrest, was identified widely in the news media — especially by those eager to endear themselves to Steinbrenner or stay on his good quote-giving and off-the-record side — as a mobster, a shady gambler, a character in a Mickey Spillane novel.
But Spira was nothing close.
Spira was a deeply troubled, clinically ill, childlike misfit, the kind that good guys and bad guys alike easily identify as someone to pity, then assiduously avoid. He was no more an underworld operative than Mister Ed was a talking horse.
But he was a Dave Winfield go-fer. As such, Steinbrenner, whose eagerness to discredit and disgrace Winfield became an obsession, embraced Spira as an easy means to his naughty ends.
Enter Phil McNiff.
McNiff was the former head of the Tampa branch of the FBI and a pal of Tampa-based big shot George Steinbrenner. When McNiff packed it in with the Feds, Steinbrenner hired him as the Yankees’ executive VP.
So tight was Steinbrenner with the Tampa FBI that Steinbrenner’s private box at Buccaneers’ home games would be populated by his special guests, local FBI agents and administrators. The Tampa FBI was granted special discounts for functions at Steinbrenner’s Tampa Inn hotel.
McNiff was in on the game to milk Spira. He and Steinbrenner allowed Spira to feel that in exchange for dirt on Winfield, they might have bigger things in mind for him, perhaps a position with the Yankees or with Steinbrenner’s ship building business.
Being delusional, Spira was deluded easily.
As Steinbrenner testified in court, he put McNiff in charge of Spira. And McNiff certainly didn’t prevent Steinbrenner from writing Spira that $40,000 check for services rendered. On the contrary, McNiff seems to have further teased Spira’s mangled mind by sending or handing him business literature published by Steinbrenner’s American Ship Building.
Again, neither Steinbrenner nor McNiff — nor any minimally logical person — would have seen Spira for anything beyond a pathetic, easily manipulated and mentally-diseased soul. But, again, Steinbrenner’s quest to “get” Winfield was so inflamed that a Howard Spira was worth his time, effort and money.
Shortly after Spira was arrested for trying to extort more money from Steinbrenner, a New York law enforcement source told me the Tampa FBI called the New York FBI to make the pinch on Spira. But, the source continued, when the New York FBI looked into this dark-side gambler who was shaking down the owner of the Yankees, they concluded Spira couldn’t shake the prize from a box of Cracker Jacks.
Thus, the job belonged to Steinbrenner’s friends at the Tampa FBI. Arrested in the Bronx, Spira was indicted in Tampa.
It’s important to note that after Spira’s conviction in 1991, the judge sentenced him to two years in the Federal pen in Butner, N.C. — specifically in the prison’s psychiatric facility.
And, while in Butner’s psych unit, Spira still believed Steinbrenner would hire him, likely as assistant general manager of the Yankees. I know this because he told me when he called from prison. He called several times, until I could no longer indulge his delusions.
And though so many Steinbrenner confidants in the media painted the Yankees’ owner as a victim of the now notorious underworld figure Howard Spira, Fay Vincent — MLB’s previous commissioner — suspended Steinbrenner, for a second time, from baseball.
It can’t be over-emphasized: Any halfway intelligent person wouldn’t have given Howard Spira more than brief sympathy and five bucks bus fare before demanding that he leave their office. Spira was that instantly recognizable as neurologically impaired, an extraordinary lunatic.
But Steinbrenner wrote him a big check. And his right-hand man in the plan was his pal, Phil McNiff, former head of the Tampa FBI.
Steinbrenner and McNiff did not put an innocent man in prison. But they did put a sick man, a very sick man, in prison.
You know who else was born on the Fourth of July? Rube Goldberg. He was the cartoonist who drew convoluted, wild-headed and illogical contraptions — all of it designed just to catch a mouse.
Sny involved in MLB Network switcheroo
Here’s the deal:
This Friday at 10 p.m. on SNY, Mets-Giants. The game also will be on MLB Network, but blacked out here.
On MLBN, Bob Costas and Al Michaels will be together for the first time to call a baseball game. Michaels, who broke in as baseball play-by-player, hasn’t called a baseball game since 1995.
But Costas and Michaels will call an inning or two on SNY, same to San Francisco’s audience over Comcast SportsNet Bay Area.
When they work the game for SNY, Gary Cohen and Ron Darling will move to MLBN. When they call the game to San Fran, Giants’ TV men Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow will switch to MLBN.
Why? Why not?
* Speaking of San Francisco, Brandon Tierney, recently let go by 1050 ESPN, has landed the 2-6 p.m. weekdays gig at San Fran’s 95.7-FM all-sports station.
* Lotsa e-mailers, but especially military vets, are urging Michael Kay to fix his Yankees Old-Timers’ Day index card for Jerry Coleman. Coleman is not the only major leaguer to serve in two world wars (World War II and Korea). Ted Williams did, too.
* Lookalikes: Reader Paul Bosco submits Rory McIlroy and actress Erin Moran (Joanie Cunningham on “Happy Days” and “Joanie Loves Chachi”).
* I’ve been told lately that my bashings of John Sterling reflects an anti-Yankees bias. Yep, if Sterling called Mets games I’d be a big fan.