Session: 123456789101112131415161718192021         Page 865866867868869870871872873874875876877878879880881882883884885886887888889890891892893894895896897898899900901902902a903904905906907908909910911912913914915916917918919920921 of 1029

forever; and when the people who run the businesses vanish from the scene, there's nobody ready to take over. Until they train somebody, these businesses are in trouble. But I have always likened publishing or any other business to a baseball team. The New York Yankees I always use as an example. The reason that they stayed champions year after year was that smart people there were building up the succession. While they were the championship team and playing magnificent ball on the field, they were already picking the successors to the active players so that when the pitching staff collapsed after one year, and Reynolds and Raschi and Lopat, who were the star pitchers of the Yanks, all seemed to lose their stuff at the same time, they were ready with five new pitchers--Ford and several others-- to step right in as replacements. It was only when they stopped doing that, when CBS bought the Yankees and ended the regime, that the world championship team collapsed, and now there was nobody to take its place. It will take them years to come back because the team is shattered and the succession has been neglected.

We had lured from Simon and Schuster a young man named Bob Bernstein. He had been with us for several years and proven he had everything. We had decided already to make him president before the RCA deal came up. It looked almost simultaneous, but it wasn't. Bernstein had been picked before we even talked to RCA. I became chairman of the board. Titles don't mean much in a small publishing business like ours, which is still--I consider it--a small business. Nothing really