George Steinbrenner Monument's Park

The New York Game was snapped out of its months-long hiatus with the recent unveiling of the George Steinbrenner Monstrosity in Monument Park. Three times larger than the dedications to those no-names of yore (Ruth, Gehrig, DiMaggio, Mantle), it stands five feet high and seven across, weighs in at 750 lbs., and bears a slight resemblance to a widescreen HDTV. Josh Alper of NBC Sports notes that it is visible from space.

Mariano Rivera, who will have his own monument out there one day, stared open-mouthed for a good spell, as if thinking but trying to restrain himself from saying, WTF...?

"It was big; probably how The Boss would have wanted it. The biggest one out there," Derek Jeter said, displaying his characteristic deftness for observation that keeps his own opinion to himself.

Granted, it's not quite as garish and unmerited as, say, the monument in Ashgabat to Turkmen dictator Saparmurat Niyazov...

But not that far off. I'd put it somewhere between the permanent preservation of Vladimir Lenin's body and Saddam Hussein's now-toppled statue in Baghdad...

As do many Bombers fans, I have mixed feelings about George's reign. There's no question he's an important figure in the history of the Yankees, and indeed, all of baseball. He did a lot of good for the team, and we all know, quite a bit of bad. But come on.