ST. PETERSBURG - Don Zimmer thought he knew George Steinbrenner pretty well. In retrospect, he says he should have known better.
Zimmer left the Yankees after last season because he was tired of being treated poorly by Steinbrenner, a friend for 25 years. In a book to be released next week, The Zen of Zim: Baseballs, Beanballs and Bosses, Zimmer says he should have seen it coming.
"With Steinbrenner, there can never be happy endings because the man simply won't allow himself to be happy. Four world championships, six American League pennants and eight straight trips to the postseason in eight years simply weren't good enough for him," he writes with co-author Bill Madden.
"The reason, I suppose, is because when we were winning those three straight world championships from 1998 to 2000 - something I will assert right here will never be done again in this modern-day three-tiered postseason setup - Steinbrenner wasn't getting enough of the credit. Or at least he thought he wasn't getting enough of the credit, and, in his mind, Joe (Torre) was getting too much of the credit."
Zimmer writes about how Steinbrenner started to freeze him out after the 2002 season, including a day at Tampa Bay Downs when Steinbrenner refused to acknowledge Zimmer but said hello to a friend next to him.
Zimmer details "petty and vindictive" Steinbrenner efforts to take away his company car, cancel his bobblehead doll day, order the Yankees TV network not to show him during games, and how he was blamed for leaking news of the Yankees' interest in Cuban pitcher Jose Contreras.
"It was pretty clear I had somehow gone from the very short list of Steinbrenner friends to a considerably lengthy one of the people he considers enemies," Zimmer wrote.
"I could only laugh. This guy is simply unbelievable. He talks about loyalty and friendship like they're what he's all about."
