George Steinbrenner could be quite the pitchman – whether selling New York to free agents or starring in Pepto-Bismol TV ads alongside Billy Martin. And now a new book remembers the late Yankees owner and the dynasty he founded.

The Bosses of the Bronx: The Endless Drama of the Yankees Under the House of Steinbrenner flows from the pen of sports journalist and author Mike Vaccaro. As the New York Post’s lead sports columnist for more than two decades, Vaccaro has witnessed the Steinbrenner dynasty from a rarefied perspective – the journalistic equivalent of a seat along the third-base line.

Vaccaro remembers the first one-on-one phone call he got from Steinbrenner. It came at 3.30am when he was covering the 2003 Super Bowl in San Diego for the Post. Steinbrenner was on the other side of the US, driving to the Yankees’ spring training facility in Tampa.

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Despite the three-hour time difference, “he was terrific,” Vaccaro says, “a fun interview. I had [previously] been around him in group settings, but that was my first one-on-one with him.”

The book divulges the contents of that interview, including Steinbrenner’s appraisal of Larry David’s performance as him on Seinfeld: “I don’t think it sounds like me. But my wife told me, ‘George, that sounds more like you than you do.’”

Vaccaro says he was on good terms with Steinbrenner despite the usual friction between a journalist and a sports executive. “We maintained a pretty good relationship the rest of my career,” Vaccaro says. “I was fair to him. I did not always agree with the things he did. I think he respected that.”

Over the course of 30 chapters, Vaccaro shares the story of Steinbrenner – his full name was George M Steinbrenner III – and the son who succeeded him in running the Yankees, Harold Zieg “Hal” Steinbrenner.

In January 1973, the elder Steinbrenner, a Cleveland shipping magnate, purchased the Yankees from CBS for $8.8m, as the then-relatively unknown head of a group of partners. The Yankees would win seven World Series championships under Steinbrenner’s watch, backed by stars such as Reggie Jackson and Derek Jeter. Yet the man nicknamed “The Boss” was also suspended from baseball on two occasions – a two-year ouster in 1974 for illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon, and a lifetime ban in 1990 for paying gambler Howard Spira in an attempt to discredit Yankees star Dave Winfield. Each time, Steinbrenner ultimately navigated his way back into baseball. Yet throughout his ownership, he displayed a notably combative approach – hiring, firing and sometimes rehiring in his quest for another championship. Exhibit A was Martin, who served five separate spells as Yankees manager and, according to Vaccaro, was in line for a sixth stint before his untimely death in a Christmas Day car crash in 1989.

“Both of them hated losing even more than they liked winning,” Vaccaro says. “It was sort of their driving fossil fuel. They were also incredibly stubborn. I don’t think Billy could ever quite wrap his head around the fact George was the boss. From day one, George referred to himself as ‘The Boss.’ It drove Billy crazy.”

In tackling this complex overall narrative, Vaccaro credits his book’s editor with some good advice about making each chapter like one of his newspaper columns: “Make them conversational, make them interesting, make them fun, not like a textbook, ‘on that day, this happened.’ Play all the hits – and the stories behind the stories, that may not be quite so well-known.”

Did you know, for instance, that George Steinbrenner spotted promise in Hal early on, due to his son’s response to a Burger King promo in the 1980s? According to the book, Burger King offered Yankees cards with a Whopper, fries and shake, and 12-year-old Hal noted that the lineup omitted popular Yankee Lou Piniella. The fast-food chain was notified, the Piniella card became a prized collector’s item, and Steinbrenner Sr noted his adolescent son’s business acumen.

The book also explores the contributions of two Yankees executives who played notable roles during Steinbrenner’s periods of exile: Gabe Paul in the 1970s and Gene “Stick” Michael in the 1990s. Paul, a former Cleveland Indians general manager, took over in a similar role at the Yankees early in Steinbrenner’s tenure. When Steinbrenner was suspended for his contributions to Nixon during the Watergate investigation, Paul got more leeway to make franchise-altering moves; according to the book, he did receive clearance from then-baseball commissioner Bowie Kuhn to get Steinbrenner’s approval before successfully courting free agent Catfish Hunter.

Years later, in 1993, with Steinbrenner again out of baseball, it was a new GM – Michael – who got credit for a deal he didn’t make. The Yankees were looking to reunite with one of their exes, Rickey Henderson, but the Blue Jays swooped in first. Michael was thinking longer-term, and Vaccaro explains that the Oakland A’s demands for Henderson included a list of Yankees prospects at the time: not only Jeter, but also on future stars Andy Pettitte, Jorge Posada, Mariano Rivera and Bernie Williams.

“For two and a half years Michael could protect the crown jewels without fear of the Boss going behind his back to ransom them,” Vaccaro writes in the book.

It all ended up working out quite well for Steinbrenner and the Yankees: The Boss returned in 1995. A year later, under new manager Joe Torre, the Yankees returned to the World Series, which they won, starting a string of four titles in five years. On the business side, the team entered into a short-lived cross-sport partnership with the New Jersey Nets and New Jersey Devils, and into the lucrative world of TV with the regional sports titan YES Network. Vaccaro estimates the Yankees’ current value at $7bn-$10bn, and he believes their fairly new stadium has quashed any fears of a move to New Jersey.

There have been some fissures in the firmament in recent decades though. The Yankees’ long-time foes, the Boston Red Sox, got the better of the rivalry in Steinbrenner’s last years – notably in 2004, when Boston came back from a 3-0 deficit to stun the Yankees in the ALCS en route to ending an 86-year World Series drought and an almost-as-long run of humiliation against the Pinstripes. The Yankees have not won a championship since 2009, and according to the book, some fans worry about Hal Steinbrenner’s leadership compared to his father, muttering that current GM Brian Cashman and manager Aaron Boone might have faced more pressure to win “if only George were still alive.”

“Yankees fans are passionate – spoiled, maybe, too used to success,” Vaccaro says. “They really have a serious belief about what the Yankees should be – which Hal does have.”

These days, he adds, “it’s not quite as easy … the Dodgers are supposed to be invulnerable … [yet] they should have lost the World Series three different times last year. It’s something of a crapshoot when you get your team into a playoff series.” Wryly, he adds, “Yankees fans – and George Steinbrenner – would not like to hear that.”

MLB.com | Bryan Hoch: After storming out to such a strong start to the season, the Yankees’ fortunes took an abrupt U-turn in the form of a five-game losing streak including getting swept by the Rays. The bullpen deserves its share of the blame, but the main culprit is a slumping offense. It has gotten to the point that Aaron Judge called out the unit as a whole for pressing and trying to play hero. In his role as captain, he took it upon himself to urge his teammates to simplify their approach. He feels they need to get back to the basics of hunting a pitch in a particular zone and passing the baton if that pitch doesn’t come. That means a willingness to draw walks instead of “trying to hit every single pitch we see up there.”

SNY | Ben Krimmel: The Yankees made a roster move after last night’s game, demoting Jake Bird to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. Monday night was another tough outing for the 2025 Trade Deadline acquisition, as he coughed up a game-tying three-run bomb to Mike Trout in the sixth and then gave the lead away again in the very next inning after Aaron Judge had homered to put New York back in front. Bird was great in his first four games of 2026, but since then, he’s only recorded eight outs across four appearances and 18 batters faced, allowing eight hits and six runs. Once again, he’ll try to get back on track in Triple-A. In the meantime, Yerry De los Santos and Angel Chivilli are among the candidates who could come up to take Bird’s spot in the bullpen. No move has been announced yet.

ESPN | Jorge Castillo: The starting rotation has stumbled a bit in contrast with the incredibly high bar they set through the first week of games, but reinforcements are on the horizon. Gerrit Cole and Carlos Rodón are set to begin rehab assignments this week after each threw three innings of live batting practice over the weekend, Cole tossing 42 pitches and Rodón 50. Both are coming off elbow surgery rehab — Cole missing all of 2025 to Tommy John surgery while Rodón had an offseason procedure to remove bone chips — and are on time with their return tables of late April/early May for Rodón with Cole expected back a month after.

New York Daily News | Gary Phillips: Cole and Rodón aren’t the only injured Yankees set to begin a rehab assignment. Anthony Volpe — yet to debut after undergoing offseason surgery to correct a partially torn labrum in his non-throwing shoulder — is scheduled to suit up for the Double-A Somerset Patriots starting today. The plan is for him to appear in four games this week, playing 3-5 innings in each — he has received 50 live at-bats at the spring training complex and the team wants him to log the same amount in the coming week. He is expected to be handed the starting role upon his return to the major league club. Despite Volpe’s struggles on both sides on the ball in 2025, it’s a low bar to upgrade the current starter at short, José Caballero putting in woeful appearances with the bat and glove (even a rare homer last night was obscured by a routine groundball error that opened the floodgates on a bad inning).

MLB Trade Rumors | Darragh McDonald: We relayed last week that the Yankees had designated Rule 5 Draft pick Cade Winquest for assignment and now it is official that he will be returned to the Cardinals after he cleared waivers. The 25-year-old reliever broke camp with the major league team after the Yankees selected him from St. Louis in December but never made an appearance despite warming up seven times. Per the rules of the Rule 5 Draft, Winquest does not need to be added to the Cardinals’ 40-man roster now that he is being returned after clearing waivers, and accordingly he has been assigned to their Triple-A affiliate.

David Peterson received a vote of confidence from David Stearns last week amid his sluggish start to the regular season. 

Taking the ball on Monday night, though, the Mets' lefty was roughed up again. 

Peterson did well to limit the damage against, but found himself facing traffic from the very start against the high-power two-time defending champion Dodgers. 

He hit Shohei Ohtani opening the bottom of the first, then allowed the next three batters to reach on two walks and an RBI single, before pitching coach Justin Willard came out to talk. 

Whatever the message, it certainly worked, as Peterson struck out the next three batters to dance his way out of danger with just one run on the board. 

He picked up two more punchouts, one on Ohtani, in a perfect second. 

“Your back is against the wall,” he said. “Bases loaded in the first inning, you’re just trying to execute one pitch at a time -- was able to slow myself down, get in a better rhythm with my mechanics and go forward from there.”

The Dodgers would make Peterson pay for two walks in the third, though, as Andy Pages lifted a three-run homer to deep left to make it a 4-0 ballgame. 

He then worked around a ground-rule double in the fourth, and finished his day gutting his way through a second and third with one out jam in the bottom of the fifth. 

Peterson’s ERA is up to 6.61 after allowing four runs on four walks and five hits with seven strikeouts in the loss. 

While the results still aren’t where the Mets need them to be, they were encouraged by how his stuff looked.  

“Stuff-wise, it was probably the best we’ve seen,” Carlos Mendoza said. 

“I felt a lot better,” Peterson added. “I felt like I was able to get my sinker down, changeup I was missing down, slider was consistently at the bottom. Left the one curveball up, but I felt a lot better about my stuff.

“Would obviously not like to give up the three-run homer and some of the free passes, but overall it was a step in the right direction -- now we learn from it, clean things up we need to clean up, and move on to the next one.”

As it’s becoming increasingly apparent that Aaron Judge and Mike Trout may never meet in October, this April battle might have to do.

The two American League MVPs went back and forth in the Yankees’ 11-10 win over the Angels on Monday in The Bronx, each homering twice, with Judge getting the last laugh.

“That part certainly delivered,” manager Aaron Boone said of the head-to-head between the two sluggers.

Judge got it started with a two-run shot off lefty Yusei Kikuchi in the bottom of the first, a 456-foot shot into the bleachers in left-center.

Trout answered with a game-tying three-run shot in the sixth off Jake Bird, while Judge came back with a go-ahead solo shot in the bottom of the inning.

Trout, not to be outdone, homered again in the eighth, this time off Camilo Doval to tie the game again before the Yankees won it on a wild pitch by Jordan Romano with Ryan McMahon on the plate — and Judge on deck.

“He’s the greatest of all time,” Judge said of Trout. “Coming up at such a young age, he’s special. He’s had to battle injuries, but he’s in a better spot now.”

For Trout, it was a somewhat rare moment in the spotlight, as he typically toils in anonymity for the also-ran Angels.

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“It was definitely one of the better games,” Trout said. “It was fun to be a part of, [but] the loss is disappointing. … To throw blows like that, both teams, pretty cool.”

As usual, Judge came out on top — and made more history in the process, as the Yankees snapped a five-game losing streak.

It was his sixth homer of the young season, but it also put Judge in the franchise record books again.

The multihomer game was Judge’s 47th of his career, passing Mickey Mantle and leaving him behind only Babe Ruth, who had 68 with the Yankees, as well as the most in MLB history with 72.

“That’s special,’’ Judge said of passing Mantle. “I’m glad it came in a win. Hopefully, we can keep going.”

He’s had more multihomer games than any player with his amount of time in the majors — 1,161 games. Ralph Kiner is next with 39.

And of his six homers on the season, four have given the Yankees the lead.

The night was another encouraging game for Judge, who homered in his last at-bat against the Rays in Sunday’s loss.

On Monday, the Yankees needed every bit of offense they could get.

Boone called Judge’s game “huge.”

The manager added, “Hopefully, we start to see him lock in here as we get rolling. I don’t have to tell you what he means to the offense.”

Certainly not this year, as the Yankees seemingly can’t afford any drop-off from Judge with worries in the bullpen and all over the infield, where Jazz Chisholm Jr., McMahon and José Caballero have all disappointed in multiple facets of the game.

And the pen nearly robbed the Yankees of a much-needed win, with Bird optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after the game.