ANAHEIM, Calif. — George Steinbrenner not only made the Yankees a championship team, he made other teams better by raising the bar.
“He has obviously done so much for the city of New York and for the Yankees,” Andy Pettitte told The Post yesterday after learning about Steinbrenner’s death at the age of 80. “He has meant as much to baseball as anybody, I believe. Because he has not only pushed our organization, he has pushed other organizations to be greater, so he’s raised the bar. He was a pioneer for baseball.”
Pettitte was part of five Yankees world championship teams. He left for three years to go to Houston, but he returned in 2007. Steinbrenner welcomed him back and stood by him no matter what.
“He was great to me always in the good times and the bad,” Pettitte said. “He always treated me well. I know he was hard on a lot of people. He was tough on me, too, at times. But he was always fair to me, always a big supporter of mine, helped me out an awful lot. This is a sad day.”
Steinbrenner wasn’t just an owner; he was part cheerleader, too. And that is a part of The Boss the players loved. The Boss always kept things interesting in the clubhouse.
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Pettitte did not return to the same Steinbrenner he knew his first go-round with the Yankees, and that was sad, the lefty said.
“I just miss him being around, motivating us, patting us on the back, knowing how badly he wants to win,” Pettitte said.
Later, in a group interview with reporters at Angel Stadium, Pettitte said of Steinbrenner, “He was an encourager. George used to hand me Bible verses before some of my playoff starts and stuff like that.”
It worked. Pettitte is 18-9 lifetime in the postseason.
“He was tough, but he was always there to support you,” the All-Star added. “I don’t think enough is said about the support that he would give you. It was tough support. Sometimes the tough support doesn’t quite get the limelight.”
Steinbrenner, who lived in Tampa, used to love to meet the young Yankees who were playing in the Gulf Coast League.
“He was down there all the time and I was like a 19-year-old kid,” Pettitte recalled. “The encounters back then for me was just, ‘Yes, sir, yes, sir.’ Then you get to know him and the discussion would become a little bit deeper.
“Coming up in the organization, he was The Boss and he was going to trade you if you were a young player and this and that, so you’re kind of almost scared. But once you got up, he was great to play for.”
Pettitte said winning a championship last year was special in many ways.
“It was like let’s do this for Steinbrenner and let’s do this for the fans,” he said. “That is what was driving us.”
You can expect the same kind of drive this year in the second half from the Yankees, beginning Friday at Yankee Stadium.