For many of us who live outside New York, the antics of late Yankees owner George Steinbrenner first beamed into our homes via funny, fictionalized accounts on the NBC sitcom “Seinfeld.”
“Seinfeld” writers milked much humor from Steinbrenner’s, um, eccentricities when they wrote resident slub George Costanza (played by Jason Alexander) into what he thought would be a dream job in the Yankees front office (“You wanted to see me, Mr. Steinbenner?”). “Seinfeld” co-creator Larry David memorably provided the voice for the comedic, cantankerous Yankees owner who was always shot from behind.
Or as George once observed: “He fires people like it’s a bodily function!”
This week, Atlanta-based TBS will celebrate the pop culture send up by airing a 10-episode marathon of the classic “Seinfeld” Steinbrenner-centric episodes, running tonight through Friday at 7 and 7:30 p.m.
Included in the marathon: “The Race,” where George heads to Cuba to recruit baseball players for the Yankees boss, “The Wink,” the episode in which Steinbrenner lists all the people he’s fired over the years (well, OK, not everyone since the sitcom only runs 30 minutes…), “The Calzone,” the episode when George gives his boss the bright idea to put Yankees clothes in a pizza oven and perhaps our favorite, “The Nap,” the classic episode focusing on George’s napping habits at work lead Steinbrenner to mistakenly assume George has ESP.
