Yankees GM Brian Cashman on George Steinbrenner: ‘He made me everything I am today’

GM Cashman: Boss ‘made me everything I am today’

BALDWIN, N.Y. — Brian Cashman was a very visible target of George Steinbrenner’s demanding style.

“He made me everything I am today,” the New York Yankees general manager said Thursday. “He was a man that could move mountains. He was a man that did move mountains.”

The Yankees owner died Tuesday of a heart attack at age 80. Cashman worked as his GM since 1997 — an eternity under a man famous for firing people.

“He wanted nothing but sheer perfection in a world that’s imperfect, which makes it a little bit of a controversy along the way, clearly, because those are contradictions,” Cashman said.

Cashman spoke after the funeral for longtime Yankees public address announcer Bob Sheppard, who died at age 99 two days before Steinbrenner — back-to-back blows for the organization.

“These are legends that are irreplaceable,” Cashman said.