NEW YORK (AP) — Ruth. Gehrig. DiMaggio. Mantle. Giuliani?
As Rudy Giuliani’s life gets stripped for parts to satisfy a $148 million defamation verdict, the former New York City mayor is fighting to keep one gleaming set of sports memorabilia in the family: Yankees World Series rings bestowed to him by the team’s late owner, George Steinbrenner.
A lifelong Bronx Bombers fan, Giuliani contends that the rings — bejeweled behemoths commemorating the team’s four championships in five years while he was mayor — now belong to his son, Andrew, and shouldn’t be given up.
In sworn testimony made public this week, ahead of a pair of key court dates, Giuliani described the 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000 World Series rings as something of a family heirloom and Yankees good-luck charm.
He recounted how he and Andrew would each put one on for “a special Yankee occasion,” like 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 and told the owner, “These are for Andrew.” He said he then invited his son — a teenager at the time — to take one for himself while he held the others for safekeeping.