Center Stage : Steinbrenner Stirs Crowd on First Day Back With Yankees After Suspension

“Hiya, sir,” Wade Boggs said, extending his hand.

“Hiya, sir?” George Steinbrenner repeated. “I’m just glad you’re here.”

But probably not as glad as being there himself.

Steinbrenner came back to baseball and the New York Yankees on Monday, attracting far more attention than any of his million-dollar players. “I never really thought about the day I’d come back, but I’m just glad to be back,” he said.

More than 200 reporters wearing special “The Boss Is Back!” stickers rushed to meet him, and more than 2,000 fans mixed cheers and boos.

The throng was so thick that it took one of the Yankees’ newest stars a few minutes to wade through the crowd to meet the owner.

His 2 1/2-year suspension, imposed by Fay Vincent for consorting with a known gambler and paying him $40,000, ended at midnight EST, and Steinbrenner couldn’t wait to be the talk of the town--again. He spent the day in the spring-training sunshine signing autographs, kissing babies and posing for pictures.

“It makes me feel good,” Steinbrenner said as two-dozen camera crews jostled for position. “I’d rather get shoved around a little bit than have no one here.”

There wasn’t a chance of that happening.

“Absolutely, I’m glad he’s finally here,” Manager Buck Showalter said. “We’ll sit down soon and start discussing what we want to do.”

And, for at least one day, Steinbrenner said the things his players and staff wanted to hear.

“I don’t think you’ll see me back in the swing like I was. Today was different because it was the first day,” he said. “But in the old days, you might have seen me in Gene Michael’s office by now.”

Steinbrenner plans to meet with Showalter and Michael, the general manager, on Tuesday. He might also outline his plan to bring back Reggie Jackson and Willie Randolph in front-office positions.

Later in the day, he will meet with his players, many for the first time. On Wednesday and Thursday, Steinbrenner will attend the owners’ quarterly meetings in Phoenix.

Monday, Steinbrenner shook hands with one of his biggest supporters, first baseman Don Mattingly, and a few others in the clubhouse.

“I’m still going to be hands-on, but I will try to delegate more,” Steinbrenner said. “Maybe there were mistakes made on my part in the past. But don’t forget, we won more games than anyone in the 1980s, so somebody had to have been doing something right.”

While Steinbrenner showed he could still draw a crowd, it remains to be seen whether these Yankees, now with Boggs, Jim Abbott, Jimmy Key, Paul O’Neill and Spike Owen, can do the same. The Yankees have had four consecutive losing seasons and have lost 900,000 in attendance during that span.

“I think this team will do as well as it wants to do. They could do anything, from laying an egg to being in the middle of it all,” Steinbrenner said.