New York City
NEW YORK (AP) — Ruth. Gehrig. DiMaggio. A coat. Giuliani?
As Rudy Giuliani is stripped of parts of his life to comply with a $148 million defamation verdict, the previous New York mayor is fighting to maintain a shiny piece of sports memorabilia in his family: the Yankees World Series rings that belonged to him the team's late owner, George, gave it to Steinbrenner.
A lifelong Bronx Bombers fanGiuliani claims that the rings – jeweled behemoths commemorating the team's 4 championships in five years when he was mayor – now belong to his son Andrew and shouldn’t be given up.
In a deposition released this week ahead of two key court dates, Giuliani described the 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000 World Series rings as a kind of family heirloom and Yankees good luck charm.
He talked about how he and Andrew each wore one for “a special Yankee occasion,” resembling the team's last World Series win in 2009.
Giuliani testified that when Steinbrenner gave him the rings in 2002, he insisted on paying for them, telling the owner, “These are for Andrew.” He said he then had his son – then a youngster – invited to take one while he kept the others for safekeeping.
Giuliani testified that he stopped wearing them as much when the Yankees' luck ran out and decided to offer the remainder to Andrew at a celebration in 2018. He estimated that the rings, just like the players, were price about $27,000.
“They’re yours now,” Giuliani recalled. “These are your rings. I don't know what I'm keeping them for. They are yours.”
The ex-mayor took the stand in a Dec. 27 deposition, every week before the beginning of a double courtroom battle in a tug-of-war over assets sought by the 2 former Georgia election officials who sued him over his lies about them earlier this yr within the wake of President-elect Donald Trump's 2020 election defeat. A transcript was sent to court records on Monday.
At the forefront of Giuliani's contempt hearing Friday in federal court in Manhattan is that the Georgia women's lawyers say he didn’t turn over property on time, resembling his apartment lease in New York City.
Then, on Jan. 16, Judge Lewis J. Liman will hold a trial to choose what happens not only to Giuliani's World Series rings but in addition to his Palm Beach, Florida, condo. Giuliani claims that the condo, estimated to be price greater than $3 million, is his primary residence and ought to be exempt from taxes.
For Giuliani, once hailed as “America's mayor” for his post-9/11 leadership, it’s the legal equivalent of two strikes, two of them at the tip of the ninth quarter.
Attorneys for the previous poll staff, mother and daughter Ruby Freeman and Wandrea “Shaye” Moss, argue that Giuliani engaged in a “consistent pattern of willful disregard” of court orders to supply items.
In a filing Monday, attorney Aaron Nathan said Giuliani's compliance was spotty, mentioning that while he eventually turned in a Mercedes formerly owned by actor Lauren Bacall, he failed to offer the vehicle's title.
After listing 26 watches in a bankruptcy filing, Giuliani now claims without explanation that he only has 18 watches, which he gave to Freeman and Moss, Nathan wrote. He added that Giuliani also claims to not know the whereabouts of a jersey signed by Joe DiMaggio or a photograph signed by Reggie Jackson, each Yankees legends.
Freeman and Moss asked the judge in August to award them the World Series rings, however the judge refused and scheduled a trial after 38-year-old Andrew Giuliani said they were his.
Giuliani's eight-hour deposition offered a vivid portrait of a still proud, combative and oppressed man who has lost almost all the pieces and stays convinced that it was taken unjustly.
He recalled his days as a two-term Republican mayor and boasted that he had “cured” homelessness in town. At the identical time, he admitted that he’s now rejected by most but two of the clubs he would love to hitch.
Interviewed by Nathan, he spoke at length in regards to the rings, his ties to Trump and the Yankees, and his dismay on the liberal politics of his once-beloved Big Apple – an element that he said led him to maneuver to Florida last May to register as a voter there.
“Honestly, I wanted my vote to count,” Giuliani said.
Asked why it was necessary to him to vote for the president, Giuliani replied: “Because I'm a very, very strong supporter of Donald Trump, and that's why you're doing all this to me.”
Before Trump, it was the Yankees. Giuliani, who watched them win ten titles during his childhood and college years, repeatedly cheered on the team as mayor, often sitting next to the dugout.
“I was a very ardent Yankee fan,” he testified. “When I was mayor, I was described as New York’s No. 1 Yankee fan.”
After the team triumphed in 1996, breaking a 15-year losing streak, Steinbrenner believed that “New York's No. 1 Yankee fan” deserved a World Series ring – but Giuliani wasn't convinced.
“I didn’t think it was appropriate for a mayor to get a ring,” Giuliani testified.
When he left office in 2002, the Yankees had three more championships.
At spring training that yr in Tampa, Florida, Steinbrenner presented him with a plaque and three World Series rings, each engraved together with his name, Giuliani testified.
“That really touched and moved me,” he said.
The Yankees also gave him the 1996 ring, which he said he turned down. He remembered showing his son all 4 rings and telling him, “These will be yours.”
Each ring was larger and more extravagant than the last, Giuliani said, in order that “you looked crazy when you wore it.”
Giuliani complained that his rings didn't bring the Yankees more success, noting that they did Lost within the 2003 World Series to the Marlins and 2004 playoff collapse against the hated Red Sox.
“I stopped wearing them after the Yankees stopped winning because it stopped working,” he said. “And then I stopped using them.”
image credit : www.boston.com