You know who George Steinbrenner reminds me of?

ProPublica uncovers another ethical breach by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas

By Ken Tingley

Lindsay Berra was pissed.

No other way to say it.

She was sitting next to her grandfather, Yogi Berra, while watching the 2015 All-Star game when they introduced what they called “the four greatest living baseball players.”

As Hank Aaron, Johnny Bench, Sandy Koufax and Willie Mays walked out onto the field - baseball legends all - Lindsay was steaming mad. She wanted to know why her grandfather wasn’t there, too.

She recalled him eliminating one of the possibilities, saying, well, I’m not dead.

It’s a reminder that at the heart of the greatest championship run in baseball history was Yogi Berra.

Lindsey Berra threw herself into the documentary “It ain’t over” to make the case Berra was under appreciated as a player, a manager and a coach.

His easy-going nature, comic book features and way of turning a simple phrase into a philosophical observation overshadowed his legacy as a ballplayer who was at the the heart and soul of those winning Yankees teams in the 1960s.

It’s a good documentary.

Lindsey Berra makes her case.

For me, there was an even greater epiphany when Lindsey addresses her grandfather’s 14-year estrangement from the Yankees because of owner George Steinbrenner.

Steinbrenner was an egomaniac owner with little understanding or regard for the game of baseball. He routinely hired and fired people on a whim.

He was a bully because he had money and power as the owner.

Most real baseball fans, most real Yankee fans hated Steinbrenner and the way he operated his baseball team.

He was a blight on the game, but When he died in 2010, his children place an enormous plaque in Monument Park in Yankee Stadium. This monstrosity was seven feet wide and five feet high and dwarfed the accolades to great players like Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and Joe DiMaggio.

But here is the epiphany.

There is a fleeting moment in the documentary during one of the ticker-tape parades down Wall Street that shows Steinbrenner waving to the masses along side another familiar face - Donald Trump.

It clicked for me.

Donald Trump did to politics what George Steinbrenner did to baseball with obviously more consequential ramifications.

It turned out Trump and Steinbrenner were friends during the 1980s when Trump was trying to make his mark in New York.

New York Times reporter Maggie Haberman writes in her book “Confidence Man” about the relationship.

“As he was still trying to figure out how to be a boss of a company, Trump looked upon Steinbrenner – and the ease, even glee, with which he fired people – and other members of Steinbrenner’s social circle as examples. When he had to play an executive on television, Trump adopted Steinbrenner’s voice and recast The Apprentice’s spirit as gleefully punitive.”

Trump regularly told people after he was president that Steinbrenner had been his best friend.

Steinbrenner signed Berra to a two-year contract in 1984, but after a third-place finish and a slow start in 1985, Steinbrenner fired Berra as manager. The Yankees had played just 16 games. Perhaps what was even worse, Steinbrenner had an assistant do the firing.

Publicly, Berra said little about the firing, but inside he fumed. He vowed he would never set foot in Yankee Stadium again while Steinbrenner was there.

That held for 14 years with Steinbrenner refusing to apologize or admit he made a mistake firing Yogi.

That reminded me of someone else, too - Trump.

Steinbrenner finally apologized to Berra and admitted he made a mistake.

It’s the last lesson that Trump can learn from Steinbrenner, and more importantly from someone like Berra.

You have to acknowledge a loss before you can move on.

Supremely unethical

It is hard to believe that the latest bit of unethical behavior by Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is of so little concern to the public.

I suppose it is the times we live where indictments against U.S. senators and former presidents have become routine.

Nothing shocks us anymore.

That’s just the way it is.

I believe judges and journalists have something in common.

They are both supposed to be impartial parties.

Chief Justice John Roberts once said judges call balls and strikes. Journalists do that too. If both do their jobs correctly, there is justice to be had.

Propublica reported last week that Clarence Thomas acted as a fundraising draw for billionaires Charles and David Koch in 2018 to further their conservative fundraising.

At the very least it has the appearance of impropriety.

But it is far worse than that. Thomas never reported his 2018 trip to Palm Springs on his annual financial disclosure form. And cases linked to the Koch brothers eventually came before the Supreme Court.

ProPublica wrote this:

“Thomas’ involvement in the events is part of a years-long, personal relationship with the Koch brothers that has remained almost entirely out of public view. It developed over years of trips to the Bohemian Grove, a secretive all-men’s retreat in Northern California. Thomas has been a regular at the Grove for two decades, where he stayed in a small camp with real estate billionaire Harlan Crow and the Kochs, according to records and people who’ve spent time with him there.”

Ultimately, the Supreme Court has the responsibility for deciding what is right and what is wrong when it comes to our laws.

Clarence Thomas can’t even distinguish what is right and what is wrong in his own life.

Fragile freedoms

Our First Amendment freedoms can be far more fragile that we realize. The closing of the The Rockwell Falls Public Library shows that.

Next week, Banned Books Week will be recognized at the Saratoga Springs Public Library with its “Let Freedom Ring” program as seven local authors read from seven banned books over the past 70 years. Don’t miss it.

Don’t miss out on this event.

I will be there as well introducing each of the authors.