It was late October 2007, and it was a very bad day for the Yankees. Their best player, Alex Rodriguez, had just opted out of his contract, and their fierce rival, the Boston Red Sox, had just won the World Series. Hank Steinbrenner decided to channel his father, George, who had never missed a chance to grab a headline. He called a reporter and challenged Rodriguez.

“Does he want to go into the Hall of Fame as a Yankee,” Hank barked, “or a Toledo Mud Hen?”

With health problems then forcing George Steinbrenner to recede from the public eye — he died in 2010 at 80 — it seemed that Hank was stepping forward as a new boss — just as feisty and bombastic as the original. A year later, though, it was Hank’s younger brother, Hal, who was named the Yankees’ managing general partner. Hal, and not Hank, would have final authority over the decisions of the most storied and lucrative franchise in professional sports.

Yet Hank Steinbrenner, who died on Tuesday at his home in Clearwater, Fla., at age 63, remained a general partner and co-chairperson of the Yankees, and shared in the responsibility of overseeing and directing the team’s on- and off-field strategies.

The eldest of the four Steinbrenner children, he had been in poor health in recent years. His death was confirmed in a statement by the Yankees. No specific cause was given.