The softer side of George.

[PFSIKH]

It was only days after John W. Henry had officially won approval as majority owner of the Red Sox, Super Bowl Sunday, to be exact, when the phone rang.

Article Tools

Printer friendly

Single page

E-mail to a friend

RSS feeds

Available RSS feeds

Most e-mailed

Reprints/permissions

More:

Sports section |

Latest sports news |

Globe front page |

Boston.com

Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts George Steinbrenner was on the line.

''He called me and wished me luck, and he gave me advice, advice about the general manager, the manager," Henry said last night. ''He gave me advice about Dan Duquette, advice about Joe Kerrigan. I said, 'George, do you realize that if somebody was listening to this conversation, how somebody else would perceive it, you giving the Red Sox advice?'

''He said, 'I know, I know, but we go way back.' "

Tomorrow, when the rest of the country celebrates the Fourth of July, George Steinbrenner will be celebrating his 75th birthday. It has been almost 32 years since Steinbrenner bought the Yankees from CBS. He has yet to hint that he is nearing retirement -- his publicist last week boasted that when Steinbrenner issued his latest warning that he was ''losing patience" with his underachieving team, he was lifting weights.

But Steinbrenner did confirm, in a written interview last week with the Associated Press, that he plans to name his son-in-law, Steve Swindel, as his successor. He still goes to the office every day, he says. But the man who told the AP he is ''95 percent Mr. Rogers, 5 percent Oscar the Grouch" will not be a part of the Sox-Yankee rivalry forever.

Take away Steinbrenner, and you could make the case that Henry wouldn't be owner of the Sox today. Henry was trying to buy a minor league team in Edmonton, Alberta, when the investment banker brokering the deal, a Yankees limited partner named Marvin Goldklang, asked Henry if he might have interest in buying a 1 percent stake in the Bombers. A man named Harvey Leighton, who like Henry lived in Boca Raton, Fla., was selling his share. Henry bought in. That was, he recalled, in 1991.

''We had just a great relationship," Henry said. ''He always treated my mother, who was in her 80s, like she was gold. If she was going to a game in Kansas City [she lived in Arkansas], George made sure she had club seats and was taken care of. I think he looked at me like a junior partner. I was the only partner who came in after the late '70s up until the Nets deal."

Steinbrenner was a big Henry backer after Henry bought the Marlins, holding press conferences in Miami and lobbying on Henry's behalf for a new ballpark in south Florida.

''The owners' box there had an upstairs and downstairs. Generally, I'd give him the upstairs and I'd be downstairs, but we'd go back and forth. I remember one time sitting next to him in a game against the Yankees and on the scoreboard they played a 'Seinfeld' clip, the clip where Costanza is in his car and dragging the World Series trophy behind him and yelling."

That was the episode in which Costanza, who was working for the Yankees and trying to get himself fired, yelled, ''Attention, Steinbrenner and front-office morons. Your triumphs mean nothing. You all stink . . ."

Article Tools

Printer friendly

Single page

E-mail to a friend

RSS feeds

Available RSS feeds

Most e-mailed

Reprints/permissions

More:

Sports section |

Latest sports news |

Globe front page |

Boston.com

Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts ''We were just sitting there, watching," Henry said. ''I said something like, 'Sorry, George,' and he said, 'No, it's funny,' and I said, 'But you're not laughing.'

''He wasn't laughing," Henry added.

When Henry, with partners Tom Werner and Larry Lucchino, bought the Sox in December 2001 and took over the club in '02, his relationship with Steinbrenner changed. After that first welcoming phone call, their contact became increasingly infrequent, though Henry said last night that Steinbrenner encouraged him to hold onto his stake in the Yankees as long as possible, because he knew that with the Yankees buying the YES Network and the Nets, its value was going to increase dramatically, which it did.

''That was actually a friendly thing on his part," Henry said.

Other exchanges in recent years have been less friendly. When the Sox lost out on signing Jose Contreras, Henry blasted the Yankees' bottomless spending. When the Yanks acquired Alex Rodriguez after the Sox' failed bid last winter, Henry again complained of the Yankees' financial muscle. Steinbrenner on the same day issued a press release in response, belittling Henry. Henry responded by saying the Yankees owner reminded him of Don Rickles, whereupon Steinbrenner said Henry reminded him of the Scarecrow in the ''Wizard of Oz."

Steinbrenner, who used to sit next to the visitors' dugout at Fenway, has not been to the park since Henry bought the club, Henry said. Before the 2003 ALCS, Henry said, he contacted Steinbrenner and said the two should get together for lunch or dinner. Steinbrenner said he'd get back to him. He never did.

Last year, during the playoffs?

''We didn't really talk on the phone," he said. ''We exchanged messages through the media."

But after the Sox had come from behind to beat the Yankees, then won the World Series, Henry said he received a congratulatory letter from Steinbrenner, saying the Sox deserved to win.

Henry said it would be unrealistic to believe that the owners of the Yankees and Red Sox could be friends when both parties care first and foremost about beating the other. He said that while his attention was divided between the Sox game in front of him and the Yankees' game he was watching on his computer screen. But whatever bad blood may have existed last year, he said, ''has run its course.

''I don't think that's reflective of anything wrong in the relationship," Henry said. ''Was he hurt by anything I said? I think he does tend to take things personally . . . but except for maybe the complaint about Contreras, that was out of frustration, I didn't say anything personally bad. We've had a relationship for almost a decade and a half. I don't think what happened last year is going to damage that."

Henry said he is on very good terms with nearly everyone in the Yankee organization, and thinks highly of Swindel, whom he has known for years.

''I think a lot of Steve Swindel," he said. ''He's a straight shooter who is an excellent listener, highly intelligent, he seems to me he's a consensus builder. He's liked by everyone . . . everyone."

The same, of course, has never been said about Steinbrenner. But give the old man credit, Henry said. He has seen a Steinbrenner few others have, a man extraordinarily generous in private who has dramatically impacted the lives of many, including former players, out of the public eye. He may or may not be sending Steinbrenner birthday greetings, but he wishes him well.

But as a visitor prepared to leave Henry's box, he asked, ''I didn't sound soft on communism, did I? Our No. 1 thing still is to win."