ROY FIRESTONE ASKS STEINBRENNER, DO YOU REMEMBER?

          Yankees Owner George Steinbrenner appeared on ESPN's
     "Up Close Primetime" with Roy Firestone.  Firestone read
     aloud Steinbrenner's first quote as Yankees owner upon
     purchasing the team in '73: "We plan absentee ownership. 
     We're not going to pretend we're something we're aren't. 
     I'll stick to building ships.  I won't be active in the day-
     to-day operations of the club at all.  I can't spread myself
     to thin."  Steinbrenner: "As we started to get down the
     line, I just wasn't satisfied ... so I made some moves and
     did what I had to do and I got involved.  And I've been
     involved for 24 years."  In asking about the team's future
     in the Bronx, Firestone asks, "At 2002, when that lease runs
     up, you can do what the hell you want."  Steinbrenner:
     "True."  Firestone: "You going to run out the clock to
     2002?"  Steinbrenner: "No, we're going to listen. We're
     working right now on it, we're listening" (ESPN, 9/23).