The Boss Is Back

GEORGE STEINBRENNER FOR MARGE SCHOTT -- IS that a fair baseball trade? The bigots' Mrs. Malaprop begins her year's suspension from the Cincinnati Reds just as Steinbrenner, the sport's most belligerent, beguiling owner, returns to the New York Yankees, 2 1/2 years after he was ousted as managing partner by Fay Vincent, then the commissioner. With Schott you got Schottzie 2, her drooling St. Bernard. But George needs no dog. He can growl at reporters, fetch overpriced free agents and bite the occasional manager. He can do everything but heel.

The Boss was back with bluster intact, posing as Napoleon for a SPORTS ILLUSTRATED cover. Sportswriters welcomed him, for unlike the drab slumlords who run most teams, Steinbrenner is good copy: a reprobate of Dickensian, comic complexity. And like Saddam Hussein, the principal owner gets to gloat that he is in power while the fellow who humiliated him is out of a job. But the climate has changed since George and the Yanks were last on top. Bobby Bonds makes 10 times what Reggie Jackson did in 1978, and owners say they need a salary cap to restrain themselves from the buying sprees Steinbrenner made fashionable. George, we're guessing, will not need a cap. Only a muzzle.