BALTIMORE, Sept. 28 — The line of succession in the Yankees’ hierarchy became clearer on Friday when Hal Steinbrenner, the younger of George Steinbrenner’s two sons, was elected chairman of the board of Yankee Global Enterprises, the umbrella company for the team and the YES Network.
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Hal Steinbrenner, 38, had recently taken a more active role in the day-to-day operations of the Yankees, supervising budget matters and overseeing the team management in Tampa, Fla. He was among the executives who had lunch with Manager Joe Torre on Wednesday.
“Hal is very much involved,” Torre said. “He certainly has taken a great deal of interest. He’s a very serious-minded person. Just the few times I’ve been in his company over the last four or five months, we could see the difference, that this was something he was really applying himself to.”
Hal Steinbrenner’s new position was previously held by his former brother-in-law, Steve Swindal, whom George Steinbrenner had named in 2005 as his successor in running the Yankees. But Swindal’s divorce this year from Steinbrenner’s daughter, Jennifer, ended his tenure with the team, and some club officials never believed Steinbrenner would really have put Swindal in charge over one of his sons.
Hank Steinbrenner, Hal’s older brother, is a senior vice president of the Yankees but is less involved than Hal. Felix Lopez, who is married to Steinbrenner’s other daughter, Jessica, was promoted to the board of directors of Yankee Global Enterprises on Friday.
“I am very honored to be elected Chairman of Yankee Global Enterprises LLC,” Hal Steinbrenner said in a statement released by the family publicist, Howard Rubenstein.
“There are many exciting ventures that we’re considering, and I look forward to working hard to bring about success for our organization and for all Yankee fans.”
Hal Steinbrenner, who represented the Yankees at a July news conference in the Bronx to unveil the logo for the 2008 All-Star Game, is considered more introverted than his father. He is quiet and does not seek publicity.
But like his father, he attended Culver Military Academy and Williams College, and Torre observed another similarity: “He has a good business head.”
