Wednesday, September 29, 2010

30 for 30: The House of Steinbrenner

I watched The House of Steinbrenner. This is the twenty-second installment of ESPN's 30 for 30 film series.

The film opens with video and interviews from the last game at original Yankee Stadium on September 21, 2008. "The House That Ruth Built" was opened in 1923 and hosted 6,581 Yankees regular season home games during its 85-year history.

The documentary then switches gears and looks at the tenure of George Steinbrenner as owner of the New York Yankees. In 1973, Steinbrenner brought the Yankees for $10 million. The value of the Yankees is currently estimated at more than one billion dollars. I was surprised how much time the film spent on Hal Steinbrenner. Hal is George Steinbrenner's youngest child and the current chairman of the board of the Yankees.

The film ends with the opening of the new Yankee stadium and old stadium being torn down. The new stadium opened on April 16, 2009. Drew and I got a chance to see the Yankees play the Phillies in the new stadium on May 23, 2009.

While a more conventional documentary with a more mainstream subject than some of the other 30 for 30 films, it is solid. The documentary does not touch on any of my passions; I am not a Yankee nor American League fan. It seems like the film could have spent more time on George Steinbrenner and less on Hal Steinbrenner. In my ranking of the best 30 for 30's, The House of Steinbrenner falls somewhere in the middle.

The film is available on Amazon.

The House of Steinbrenner is also available on iTunes.

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