Dave Winfield Tells How He Survived George Steinbrenner
The Story
Dave Winfield details his decade long war with George Steinbrenner in a new book, saying the Yankees owner tried to ruin his name and wrecked his own instead.
Touching All the Bases, written with Alan Maimon and nearly six years in the making, has a September 15, 2026 publication date listed by BenBella Books and reaches past the feud into the rest of his life.
Steinbrenner hired a gambler to dig up damaging material on Winfield and drew a lifetime suspension from baseball that was later cut to two and a half years.
Winfield says the fight was never really about his 10 year $23 million contract but about power, an owner making sure a player knew his place.
He writes about his prostate cancer, his union work, flying out of New York on the morning of the September 11 attacks, and watching the George Floyd murder unfold across the river from the St. Paul neighborhood where he grew up.
At his wife Tonya's urging he flew to Tampa in July 2008 and sat for 90 minutes with a frail Steinbrenner, two years before the owner died, in a meeting that opened with a handshake and closed with a hug.
Winfield, 74 at the time of the interview, says that visit gave him some closure but will never give back the years it cost him, and he wants the story to reach anyone told to stay quiet.
Touching All the Bases, written with Alan Maimon and nearly six years in the making, has a September 15, 2026 publication date listed by BenBella Books and reaches past the feud into the rest of his life.
Steinbrenner hired a gambler to dig up damaging material on Winfield and drew a lifetime suspension from baseball that was later cut to two and a half years.
Winfield says the fight was never really about his 10 year $23 million contract but about power, an owner making sure a player knew his place.
He writes about his prostate cancer, his union work, flying out of New York on the morning of the September 11 attacks, and watching the George Floyd murder unfold across the river from the St. Paul neighborhood where he grew up.
At his wife Tonya's urging he flew to Tampa in July 2008 and sat for 90 minutes with a frail Steinbrenner, two years before the owner died, in a meeting that opened with a handshake and closed with a hug.
Winfield, 74 at the time of the interview, says that visit gave him some closure but will never give back the years it cost him, and he wants the story to reach anyone told to stay quiet.
Why It Matters
Winfield lost the argument about who holds power and won it anyway, and the ledger has moved since. He entered a league with no free agency and a $16,000 minimum salary; the 2026 average runs $5.34 million, and his whole 22 season haul of roughly $28 million trails what Kyle Tucker collects in 2026 alone. Ownership moved slower. KPBS reports Kwanza Jones is the first Black person to hold a majority stake in a major league club, her husband only the second Latino principal owner after Arte Moreno. Watch how the memoir reframes that divide; BenBella Books lists September 15, 2026 for publication.
Go Deeper
Read the original reporting at USA TODAY.
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