Steinbrenner dead at age of 80

I am not and have never been a George Steinbrenner fan (though I enjoyed the parody of him on Seinfeld), but boy, I'd sure like my baseball team to enjoy the kind of results his did.

Steinbrenner was controversial, demanding and sometimes suspended during his more than three decades as owner of the New York Yankees, but he was all about winning, and winning is what the Yankees did. Steinbrenner died this morning at the age of 80 from a massive heart attack. Not surprisingly, he did so with the Yankees sitting in first place in the AL East.

Famous for feuds with player and manager Billy Martin early in his ownership tenure, Steinbrenner became perhaps most well-known over the past several years for outspending every other owner in baseball. It didn't matter what the cost for winning was: Steinbrenner was willing to pay it. He and his family didn't exactly starve due to his actions, as the Yankees have consistently been among baseball's most profitable franchises despite their expenditures. Having their own TV network and the nation's biggest market didn't hurt their chances, but they're still an example that winning will put the bodies in the seats.

It's a lesson I hope Cubs owner Tom Ricketts takes to heart as he contemplates lowering payroll in 2011. I'm not saying Ricketts needs to keep spending almost $150 million a year on players — this year's team is a great example of that not necessarily guaranteeing on-field success. But if Ricketts does what's necessary in making the Cubs a first-class organization all the way around, both in spending on players and in spending on behind-the-scenes stuff like scouting, statistical evaluation and player development, and it translates into consistent winning, he will be doing right for both Cubs fans and for himself and his family.