TERRE HAUTE —
Always leave room in your mind for a different view of something you think you know.
Most of us have a fixed image of George Steinbrenner. His smug glare, caught on TV cameras, as he watched from the owners box at Yankees Stadium. Or, “The Boss,” dressed in his trademark turtleneck sweater and Yankee blue jacket, hoisting one of seven World Series trophies won during his 37-year reign in New York. Those nose-to-nose feuds with Billy Martin, the manager he couldn’t live with or without.
As a lifelong Reds fan, I can’t forget the World Series in 1976 — three years after Steinbrenner bought the Yankees from CBS for a mind-boggling $8.8 million — when Cincinnati swept his Bronx Bombers in four games. And, like millions of “Seinfeld” fanatics, I remember George Costanza, driven to do the opposite of his perpetually wrong impulses, tried to get a job with the Yankees by lecturing Steinbrenner for reducing the fabled club “to a laughingstock, all for the glorification of your massive ego.” Impressed by Costanza’s gall, The Boss responds, “Hire this man.”
But Steinbrenner, who died Tuesday in Florida at age 80, was more than his public persona as a billionaire who bought championships and fueled the mega-pay for professional athletes.
John Baratto knew Steinbrenner as a loyal, giving friend.
Baratto met Steinbrenner in 1955. Baratto, a Vigo County native, was in the midst of a legendary basketball coaching career at East Chicago Washington High School. Steinbrenner was an assistant football coach at Northwestern University, who roomed at that Evanston, Ill., school with one of Barrato’s former players, Ray Ragelis, an assistant basketball coach at NU.
Steinbrenner and Ragelis spent weekends at the Arlington Park horse track. Baratto owned some racehorses on his family’s farm in Vigo County.
Steinbrenner and Ragelis decided to tap the coach’s racing savvy to get the most out of their modest $2 bets.
“Baratto was known as a good handicapper,” recalled Jim Mann, a longtime friend of Baratto. “And those guys didn’t have much money, being assistant coaches, so they’d look up Baratto.”
Winners impressed Steinbrenner, and Baratto was exactly that. From 1944 to ’68, his East Chicago teams won 484 of 654 games, including the 1960 state championship, earning him a spot in the Indiana Basketball Hall of Fame. Baratto never married, but became a father figure to his inner-city players.
Steinbrenner was the son of a wealthy Ohio shipping magnate. Baratto overcame childhood polio that altered his face and left him with a limp. They came from two vastly different backgrounds. Yet their friendship lasted long after Baratto retired and Steinbrenner gave up his assistant coaching gigs to run the family business. Steinbrenner served as guest speaker at a 1980 fundraiser in East Chicago for Ragelis, who was dying of diabetes. Baratto attended, and Steinbrenner wrote a check on the spot to more than cover all of the event’s costs.
“It was just unbelievable how Mr. Steinbrenner took care of him,” Mann said of Baratto, who died in 1999.
Every May in the 1960s, the friends would cross paths at the Kentucky Derby. Then, in the early 1970s, Steinbrenner called Baratto to say he was thinking of buying the Yankees. “He said, ‘Coach, whenever you want to go see the Yankees, all you’ve got to do is call, and they’ll have four tickets waiting for you at the window, home or away.’”
Baratto took his offer, typically inviting along Terre Haute friends such as Mann, Armand Gottardi and others. They watched Yankees games in Kansas City, Tampa Bay and New York.
“It was a fun time,” said Gottardi, now 80.
Steinbrenner set up hotel deals for Baratto and his buddies. “We stayed next to Grand Central Station for $68,” Mann recalled. They ate at the exclusive Yankees Club restaurant, toured the Yankee Stadium offices, and caught a ride with Steinbrenner’s personal driver. “We had excellent seats wherever we went, stayed in excellent hotels and got great treatment,” said Mann, now 69 and retired after 30 years as West Vigo High School’s athletic director.
They even got invited to watch a game from the owner’s box once when Steinbrenner couldn’t attend.
Until something came up.
“We got bumped out by some guy named Joe DiMaggio,” Mann said. “Joe showed up at the last minute, and they said they’d better give the box to Joe because he didn’t like sitting out in the crowd, because people wouldn’t leave him alone. So we had to rough it, and sit in the second row behind the Yankees dugout.”
Early in the 1999 season, Mann drove Baratto and friends to Tampa to see the Yankees play the Devil Rays. In their last conversation, Steinbrenner told Baratto during that visit, “It looks like we’re going to make it to the World Series this year. You want to go, Coach?” Baratto didn’t have the heart to tell The Boss he was suffering from cancer, and surprised Steinbrenner by passing on the offer.
The Yankees won the series that fall. Baratto, in failing health, had to watch from his home in Florida. He died that December.
“We saw [Steinbrenner] in a completely different light,” Mann said. “We saw him as a very good guy.
“And it all started over going to the horse track in 1955,” he added. “A person couldn’t have a better friend in life than John Baratto had in George Steinbrenner.”
Mark Bennett can be reached at (812) 231-4377 or mark.bennett@tribstar.com.
Mark Bennett B-Sides
Related Photos
-
Tribune-Star columnist Mark Bennett
Discussion
B-Sides: Steinbrenner was more than his public persona
- Mark Bennett B-Sides
-
-
MARK BENNETT: Proposed trail would give river development momentum, reacquaint community with Wabash
Terre Haute and the Wabash River were like strangers living next door to each other.
-
MARK BENNETT: Super Bowl luck? His is mostly bad
I’ve learned to take a Seinfeld approach to Super Bowls.
In a flash of clairvoyance, Jerry excitedly reminded buddy George Costanza that “if every instinct you have is wrong, then the opposite would have to be right.” -
MARK BENNETT: Not-so-casual observers
In the minds of many adults, the most upstanding generation of young people was, ironically, their own.
-
MARK BENNETT: On the banks of the Wabash, a sculpture
Paul Dresser remembered his hometown at its best. Terre Haute should remember him the same way.
-
MARK BENNETT: A reminder for electorate: You get what you vote for
In the rear-view mirror of our lives, some days loom larger than we expected.
For many Hoosiers, the date Nov. 2, 2010, probably fits that category. -
MARK BENNETT: Keys to the future
Steve Witt fielded a jarring phone call in October 2007.
-
MARK BENNETT: Hall-of-Famer Larkin delivered more than clutch hits
A logjam of kids swelled behind the first-base dugout in Riverfront Stadium.
-
MARK BENNETT: Polian, Colts and Terre Haute were good for one another
Sentimentality seems alien in a discussion of Bill Polian.
That emotion rarely influenced his decisions in 14 seasons as the day-to-day boss of the Indianapolis Colts. He surely felt it, but seldom submitted to it. The NFL is a business, after all, with winning as its bottom line. Polian knew how to make that happen, and did. Anyone or anything threatening to divert the Colts from title contention could not linger. When it came to that mission, Polian functioned with all of the sentimentality of Joe Friday. -
MARK BENNETT: In this day and age, pure quiet is hard to find
It’s hard to emulate JFK — this JFK, at least.
-
MARK BENNETT: Rose professor’s bit part in classic holiday movie leaves a major memory
Most of us see a bit of ourselves in “A Christmas Story.” Mike Kukral does so, literally. The 1983 movie grew into a holiday classic because so many of its poignant, awkward and hilarious moments seem to have been pulled straight from our childhood memories.
-
MARK BENNETT: Ferrell’s love of Old Milwaukee shines light on Old Terre Haute
Will Ferrell didn’t walk through traffic at Seventh and Wabash for nothing.
Well, actually it might have been for nothing. Apparently, the comedian just likes Old Milwaukee so much that he came to Terre Haute, unannounced, one morning last September to film wacky commercials for the beer. -
MARK BENNETT: Holiday season makes going to the mailbox fun again
Ants decided to set up a colony in our family’s mailbox last summer.
-
MARK BENNETT: First impressions: City benefits from hearing visitors’ views of community
The town should blush.
-
MARK BENNETT: When it comes to retail, Thursday is the new Friday
The new Thanksgiving dinner tradition?
Turkey, mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie served at a family tailgating party in a big-box store parking lot on Black Thursday. -
MARK BENNETT: 'The Way We Worked' exhibit explains how work became a cornerstone of Americana
Young steelworkers, like Robert Bruno’s dad, often took dates to the railroad yards, watching train cars rumble past in blue-collar Youngstown, Ohio.
-
MARK BENNETT: He told tales of great-uncle Mortecai Brown, but Fred Massey's story is worth hearing
Fred Massey loved to talk about his family.
His wife and daughters, his parents, his brothers and sisters. And, his great-uncle, Mort. Mordecai “Three Finger” Brown, that is, the Hall of Fame pitcher who led the Chicago Cubs to their last World Series title in 1908 with an amazing curveball and without an index finger. -
MARK BENNETT: Guess where the newest THPD headquarters is?
The city election involved lots of debate over a new headquarters for the Terre Haute Police Department.
But is Raleigh, N.C., really a fitting location? The 750-mile commute for the cops would be dreadful.
-
MARK BENNETT: Mayor’s progressive vision today has ties to leader long ago
Going backward rarely works as a leadership strategy.
Political groups often insist they’re primed to “take back America.” While their intent is to reclaim lost turf, the ultimate goal is to go backward — to a different time. Life isn’t “Back to the Future” or any other movie, though. The best policy for worthwhile living is to do things right today that make tomorrow better. -
MARK BENNETT: ‘It’s giving with care, and without judgment’
Let’s avoid the P-word today.
Just for some clarity, we’ll offer its dictionary definition: “The state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor.” -
MARK BENNETT: Pull up a telescope and see a show at Rose-Hulman observatory
Once in a lifetime. The phrase gets uttered often. Sometimes, it’s an assumption, as in traveling to Europe or getting tickets to see the Cubs play in the World Series. Occasionally, it’s definite.
-
MARK BENNETT: Year of the River inspiring new ideas
The Wabash River inspired the state song. That’s impressive.
-
MARK BENNETT: The significance of writing: T-S columnist Mike Lunsford pens third book
Our nerves buzz with anxiety for different reasons.
-
MARK BENNETT: Movie’s portrayal of fatherhood’s issues lives up to its name
For three summers, I had the good fortune to watch and listen to Tony Dungy day after day.
-
MARK BENNETT: Could a new champion for public schools be emerging?
Deep down, millions of Hoosiers would wear the label “advocate for public schools.”
Yes, many have their complaints, criticisms and a few “you-know-what-they-really-need-is” suggestions. But, in their heart of hearts, they want to see their alma maters and hometown public schools succeed and progress. -
MARK BENNETT: In Prairieton, renovation gives new life to old park
There wasn’t much leg room in that Radio Flyer wagon.
Our sons — two years apart but squashed together inside its fading wooden rails — always fidgeted until the black wheels started rumbling over the uneven WPA-era sidewalks running through Prairieton. -
Rekindling a dream on the river
Mark Twain probably would grin at the sight of John Cornell, Jim Foster, Dan Remaly and their raft.
-
MARK BENNETT: Just another Terre Haute celebrity sighting
At some point, this stuff becomes routine.
-
MARK BENNETT: Everyone has a role in this American story (see VIDEO)
We stood atop a hill in rural southwestern Pennsylvania, and I do mean rural. Cars, trucks, SUVs and RVs kept pulling into the parking area. Groups of people climbed out of their vehicles and into the suffocating July heat. Then, they too stood on the hilltop, staring down at a grassy clearing in front of a woods.
-
MARK BENNETT: It’s time for us to rekindle our volunteer spirit
Hoosiers exhibit generosity.
Terre Hauteans, in particular, displayed that virtue after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and the local flooding in 2008. They donated blood, money, food, clothes and — most significantly — their own sweat and time. -
MARK BENNETT: What would Debs think?
Pretend it’s the year 2111.
- More Mark Bennett B-Sides Headlines
-
Raw Video: Biden Greets Chinese VP for Visit
Authorities: Houston Found Underwater in Tub
Whitney Houston Funeral to Be Invitation Only
Raw Video: Heavy Shelling in Homs, Syria
New Details in Search for Missing Utah Mom
Bacteria Keep Swimmers Off Some Fla. Beaches
Raw Video: 5 People Injured in Bangkok Blasts
Trial Opens for Ala. Man in Bride's Diving Death
Raw Video: Protesters, Security Clash in Bahrain
Raw Video: Kim Jong Il Statue Unveiled
Baltimore's 'Crime Stopper' Is a Basketball Star
Raw Video: Hearse Arrives at N.J. Funeral Home
Obama: Good US-China Ties Help the Whole World
Arm Wrestler Not Guilty Plea in Wife's Death
Raw Video: Houston Body Flown From L.A. to N.J.
School Pays Students to Attend Class
And the Winner for Best Super Bowl Ad Is...
First Person: Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show
Obama's Valentine's Advice: 'Go Big'
Raw Video: Whitney Houston's Last Performance
Kim K. Wet, Wild and Natural
Ultimate Tazer Ball is a Shocking New Sport
Shakira Attacked By Sea Lion
Modern day treasure hunter searching for $3 billion prize
What Happened Inside Whitney's Hotel Room?
Saying 'I Love You' With a Sewage Plant Tour
VS Models Wow for V-Day
Olympic Swimmer Proposes on Podium After Big Win
Kate Upton MLB 2K12 Commercial
Watch: Whitney Houston's Golden Hearse
Scarlett Johansson's Bikini P-D-A
Man Allegedly Drowns Wife While Scuba Diving
Glee Pays Tribute to Whitney
Wash. becomes 7th state to okay same-sex marriage
Romijn's 60 Pound Weight Loss
The 'Celebrity Apprentice' Cast Meets Donald Trump
Kissing contest heats up
Hugh Hefner's Son Arrested
Jacqueline Kennedy's personal papers released
Did Tyler Perry Have a Secret Wedding?
