Oscar Gamble Society

Anybody know what happened to Hank Steinbrenner?  Is he in witness protection or something?  Is he stranded on a deserted isle?  Where’d he go?  Is he like Super Joe Charboneau, a one-year wonder who burst onto the scene and steals the show (and the RoY from Dave Stapleton, but I’m not bitter)… only to do nothing after that?
 
When The Boss’s health started failing, and he was less and less in the spotlight, I was disappointed.  I hate the Yankees with the white-hot intensity of a thousand burning suns, and George was their Leader… but he was so darn entertaining.  As it became clear that his blustery reign was over, I felt a void of sorts.  And then… up steps Hank to make a concerted effort to fill that huge void!
 
Now, I don’t pretend that Hank could ever hope to match the career accomplishments of ol’ Georgie Porgie (as I believe Jimy Williams once called him).  But he was that rare comedic sequel that appeared to be able to stand on his own.
 
“Caddyshack II” is generally (and accurately, IMHO) seen as the worst comedic sequel of all-time.  Many fall into the realm of “Major League 2″ or “Blues Brothers 2″… not exactly horrible, but really nowhere near the originals.  The rare exception in my mind is “Ghostbusters 2″.  The original is still better, but it’s close.  The sequel clearly resembled the original, but proved to be a fitting “next act”, if you will.  We didn’t see a huge drop-off.  I submit that Hank started out like “Ghostbusters 2″ (while Hal appears to be more like “Caddyshack 2″, but I digress)… and I was elated.
 
We’d be treated to another 25 years of blustering entertainment courtesy of the Steinbrenner franchise.  This is not the drama of the Godfather franchise, or the creativity of the Star Wars franchise… no, it would be the silly comedy of the Ghostbusters franchise.  It is well… or so I thought.  We haven’t heard from Hank for a while.
 
What gives?

This entry was posted on Friday, May 29th, 2009 at 9:26 am and is filed under Sports, Baseball. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.