Randy Levine: Profiled

I know I have been pretty darn critical of Randy Levine. I firmly believe he puts the "evil" in Evil Empire. He's a bully, an ex-politician, smart, stubborn, unyielding and often flat out rude. For any of you reading here for any length of time know that I think his NYC government connections were the driving force behind not just the building of the New Yankees Stadium, but also most, if not all, of the sketchy/oft-criticized financing schemes that were required to get this thing built.

In recent years, as George Steinbrenner has faded from view as the principal owner, Levine has emerged as the strongest voice of the Yankees, baseball’s wealthiest team. He is their executive-as-prosecutor, a tough, short-tempered and smart protector of the Steinbrenner family and the Yankees brand.
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“He’ll smile, shake your hand and cut your heart out if you’re not repared,” [former union president, Norman I. Seabrook] said. “Don’t mistake that smile for anything but a knife.”

Richard Sandomir, the writer of this article, does a good job of balancing the pros versus cons of Levine and his persona; how it works, how if fails. But make no mistake about it: if there's something heavy that needs to be lifted, it's Levine to do it.

As a side note, I noticed two hits from the NY Times on my StatCounter before this article was published, researching Levine (Here's one, and the other). I have no idea if that was Sandomir or just a fact-checker, but I thought it was cool that they are scouring the web for info and found their way here.

Thanks to Pete Toms, Canadian baseball information minister, for the heads up.