• He just turned 80 the other day. Say what you will about the guy (and people had lots to say about him during his 37-year reign), but the Yankees owner knew how to win. He knew how to get the right players, put the right people in place and win the World Series, much to the chagrin of every other team out there. He died of a heart attack last night. Some key facts:

• sevennumber of World Series under Steinbrenner’s reign
• 11 number of pennants his teams won over nearly four decades
• $1.6B the amount it cost to put together that kind of record

His pop-culture place

• He was a constant figure on “Seinfeld.” Well, kinda. When George Costanza worked with the Yankees, he was a source of parody, never actually seen onscreen but always worth a laugh or two at his expense. Larry David voiced the parody Steinbrenner and Lee Bear played him. It wasn’t his only spot in pop culture, but it was his most prominent.

Key quote about the guy

• To be able to deliver this to the Boss, to the stadium he created and the atmosphere he created around here, it’s very gratifying to all of us.
• Yankees manager Joe Girardi • Talking after the team’s World Series success in the new Yankees Stadium. Steinbrenner held his teams to high standards – he had to, he paid out of the wazoo for them – but the results often proved his model correct. The manager before Girardi, Joe Torre, left after failing to win the World Series, despite yearly playoff appearances. By the end, George had given his sons Hal and Hank increasing authority over the team, but the base was all his. Still doesn’t mean Red Sox fans have to like it. source

• Right or wrong, the social contract is simple: If you bring the hits, we’ll put up with your #(&@. With
  /\/\ /\ Y /\, M.I.A. has broken that contract. And she could not have chosen a worse time to do it.
• Pitchfork reviewer Matthew Perpetua • Ruining M.I.A.’s entire week with a 4.4 album review that simply savages the wildly experimental political rapper. She’s not had much good press of late, what with a New York Times Magazine article that simply did not put her in a good light (and a huge fight that revolved around truffle fries – no joke), and this review will likely compound her problems. When you fall from 8.9 to 4.4 on Pitchfork in the span of an album, it’s not helpful to your career. Just ask Travis Morrison. source

• If it wasn’t obvious before, Apple has a huge design problem with the iPhone 4. And now Consumer Reports has confirmed it through vigorous testing. Which means that yes, Apple does have a huge problem on its hands, and yes, Apple is covering it up. The suggestion at the end of this clip is enough to ruin Jony Ive’s entire week. source

• 56 number of Democratic senators who will vote for the final financial reform bill for sure
• three number of Republican senators who will probably vote for the bill (including Scott Brown)
• one number of Democrats named Ben Nelson who (once again) will make things tough source

• good Our good friends at BP have put a tighter cap on the well, with the goal of stopping the oil leak altogether.
• bad Oh, there’s between 89 million and 176 million gallons of oil that have already leaked over 83 days. (Just sayin’.) source

• Dear Daniel Hunt: Sorry we cut off your head. But seriously, folks, we’d like to congratulate our friend Charles Apple, who runs an awesome visual journalism blog, for his move to the American Copy Editors Society‘s site. Apple, a good friend of ours who’s offered tons of advice in the past, recently made a move from the warm confines of his VisualEditors.com home to a new home with ACES. It’s a meeting of the journalistic minds – the word people and the visual people are getting together for the first time ever. Ooh, scary. source

• 84% percentage of Facebook some guy claims he owns
• yes the dude’s claim led to a stop on all Facebook asset transfers
• 0% percentage of Facebook we think that guy actually owns source

• what Apparently, Google’s making another play at taking on Facebook’s market, this time by latching onto FarmVille maker Zynga to make Google Games.
• why Because people on Facebook play lots of FarmVille and Mafia Wars, and it could be a social networking in for Google, which had its Buzz flop recently. source

• First, it started with the Cold War. Then it went to this argument that the U.S. has the engine of capitalism. Then he noted that the Soviets were thrown off because Americans had color TVs. Then he made this whopper of an argument: “The poor in our country are enormously better off than the rest of the world. Doesn’t mean we can’t do better, but we have to acknowledge and be proud of our system of capitalism, be proud of our American way.” Uhhhhh … source