The Best George Steinbrenner Stories - Helping the Little People, A Tampa Bellhop Remembers The Boss

Bobby Melonosky, Bellhop

When I was in college, I worked nights and weekends in a Tampa Hotel owned by Mr. George Steinbrenner. I was a bellhop -- little hat, little velour jacket, I looked just like a monkey. Mr. Steinbrenner had a huge apartment that occupied the entire 9th floor of the hotel. You had to have a special key to open the elevator at that floor.

Funny thing, his wife didn't have a key. Years later, I found out that they had a similar rule at Yankee Stadium. She was not allowed on the floor where Mr. Steinbrenner had his office. It was explained to me by the hotel manager that Mr. Steinbrenner did not like to mix business with his personal life.

One late night in December I was told to go up to the 9th floor right away -- there was an emergency. I hated going up there because I dreaded that I might do some little thing wrong that would upset The Boss. It was great gig for a college kid and I didn't want to lose it. Lots of money for almost no work and I could do a lot of studying between room service calls.

When I got up there, Mr. Steinbrenner was in the shower. I found a big, fat hooker on his bed. She was dead. It was well known that The Boss liked a lady with some meat on her bones. This one looked like a side of beef. I went to the supply closet in the hallway and got an enormous plastic bag that housekeeping used to use to collect the linens.

After a bit of a struggle, I had the poor woman safely in the bag and was dragging her slowly across the bedroom floor when a dripping George Steinbrenner came out of the bathroom wearing only a towel.

What a scene! George Steinbrenner sees me lugging a huge bag of dead whore and you know what he does? He asks if he can help!

"You need help with that, son?" he says.

I was totally freaking out. This guy fired you if your shoe laces were tied crooked and now he was watching my every move. I told him that I could handle the load and then The Boss opened up a drawer, pulled out his wallet and gave me a $100 bill. He said it was my tip!

Two weeks later, I made a repeat visit to the 9th floor -- only this time Mr. Steinbrenner and former President Gerald Ford were both in the shower and there were three dead hookers on the bed. Now, I knew why I never heard about any of this stuff on the news!

He never paid for my college education but the tips were real good.

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