The baseball world has been mourning the loss of one of its most influential and, sure, controversial people of the past few decades. George Steinbrenner passed away on Tuesday at the age of 80. The man known simply as “The Boss” (with apologies to Bruce Springsteen) took over ownership of the New York Yankees in 1973 and helped recapture the team’s standing as one of the best in baseball, as the team won seven World Series on his watch. Tonight, he’ll be honored in a pregame ceremony before being laid to rest tomorrow in Tampa, Fla.
As we covered on Tuesday, he was also a very charitable individual, and as one woman revealed yesterday, his kindness actually helped save her life. Lorraine Blakely, a mother of three living in Long Island, was a 7-year-old girl back in 1977 when she was in a freak accident. According to the New York Post, at a fire department demonstration of safety equipment, a 2-by-4 plank flew at Blakely and actually cut into her brain.
Blakely underwent a life-saving three-hour emergency surgery, but as the New York Daily News noted, “a chunk of bone protecting her brain was gone,” which meant she had to wear a hockey helmet at all times. In order to correct that problem, she needed another operation, so a plastic plate could be implanted. Blakely’s dad was in between jobs at the time and the surgeon who had performed the initial surgery had to be paid before he could perform the second one. That’s when the Yankees’ owner entered the picture. Having read about her story in the New York Post, he had a limousine pick up Blakely and her parents and deliver them to meet with Steinbrenner, where he handed over a $13,000 check to help cover their medical bills. The surgery was performed in May of 1978 and was a success. As Blakely’s father, John Wallinger, was quoted in the Post, “You really had to be in our shoes to know how it felt to go through that and have him there to help us.”
Noting Steinbrenner’s passing, Blakely was quoted in the Post, saying, “I really do have a special place in my heart for him. Not many people can say he touched their heart the way he did mine.”
Photo by dfhdez via Flickr.