ANAHEIM, Calif. -- The improbable spiral of George Steinbrenner's lost year started with something as improbable as Mariano Rivera blowing that save in Game 7 of the World Series. From there, everything tumbled. What seemed a sure thing evolved into a string of Steinbrenner haters who have lined up out the door and down the street awaiting their turn to sucker punch the Yankees' owner in the stomach.

	All the world is a stage for George Steinbrenner -- and seemingly his enemy as well.

The Boss isn't just losing, but getting pounded. Worst of all, he has been helpless to stop it. For the first time in years, George M. Steinbrenner III has had to stand there and take it.

This has been a miserable year for him -- losing the World Series, losing tens of millions of dollars on his YES Network, losing the power to protect his riches in baseball's labor agreement and losing time on approval for a new Newark, N.J., stadium for the Nets and Devils. At every turn, they're telling Steinbrenner, "No," and this is unheard of for him.

There are never tears for The Boss. As dutifully as he has created enemies and jealousy, he has manufactured money and championships. He's impatient and spoiled and an ornery old man. He is sports' Rasputin. He's always coming back, always outlasting people. As much as anything, this is the genius of George: He wears everyone down and rises again.

Maybe Steinbrenner still pushes past these crises in the long run, but he can't possibly see past this month now. This is his time, the most important redemption of all for Steinbrenner: The chase for October glory.

In this man's manic mind, this past year makes the 2002 postseason something as important to him as, say, life itself. At year's end, the playoffs are payback for Steinbrenner. After losing to the Diamondbacks, he exploded the Yankees' payroll north of $140 million. And Steinbrenner didn't just hope for a 27th world championship, he was intent on a cash-and-carry purchase. If the burden on GM Brian Cashman and manager Joe Torre used to be immense, it's indescribable now.

Steinbrenner isn't going to stand to the side and let his Yankees lose to the Angels. Oh, it might happen. They might loses this American League Division Series. After all, the Angels are terrific and they are hardly intimidated by the Yankees' monolith. Anaheim goes back to Edison Field for Games 3 and 4 of the Division Series this weekend, the series tied 1-1, and within the Yankees' universe they can see Steinbrenner seething. This is it for him. He didn't hire a superstar lineup and, as Torre confesses, "the best pitching staff" he's ever had to lose to the Angels.

The late Gene Autry tried to spend dollar for dollar with Steinbrenner in the 1970s, signing Don Baylor, Bobby Grich and Joe Rudi after The Boss ignited the free-agent market for Reggie Jackson and Catfish Hunter. Still, the Singing Cowboy never won a lousy playoff series, which undoubtedly stayed on Steinbrenner's personal scorecard. He remembers these things. Along the way, The Boss remembers everyone he beat.

Of course, they remember, too. Cablevision owner Charles Dolan came close to buying the Yankees two years ago, but Steinbrenner changed his mind. He let his contract with Dolan's Madison Square Garden Network expire and started his own YES Network to televise Yankees games. Just one problem: Dolan won't make it part of his vast Metropolitan New York basic cable service. Soon, the New Jersey Nets season starts and Steinbrenner, a partner with the YankeeNets ownership, can't get Jason Kidd and the defending Eastern Conference champions on air to most of the Metropolitan masses either.

Through baseball's labor struggles, Steinbrenner eventually cast everyone within baseball as an ingrate to his past generosities -- from the compromised commissioner, Bud Selig, whom he helped muscle into the job, to the players union, which only owes the Yankees' owner everything for escalating the free-agent market. Baseball's biggest, brashest bully will whimper over Selig's and Donald Fehr's sanctioning of a Park Avenue mugging of him. Together, they sidestepped a strike, sacrificing Steinbrenner's riches to save a baseball season. As they shook hands on a settlement, The Boss' blood dripped from the powerbrokers hands.

Again and again, the YankeeNets believed they had a deal with the state of New Jersey to start construction on a downtown Newark arena for the Nets and Devils. Only, it hasn't happened. Now Steinbrenner and his partners are threatening to move the two teams out of Jersey, which is ironic, considering Jersey used to forever be his bargaining chip for a new Yankee Stadium.

Steinbrenner is a blessing and a curse for his employees: A man willing to stop at nothing to give his team a chance to win, but one who makes your life a living a hell. He can't control Cablevision and baseball's powerbrokers and those Jersey politicos, and this so infuriates him. Everyone is taking it to Steinbrenner and it has made him one bitter, combative man.

Of course, this is October now, and losing to the Angels sure wasn't supposed to happen to the Yankees -- losing to anyone, really. Steinbrenner believed he made sure of it on his wild spending spree, but now a lousy year of losing, a $140 million-plus payroll and the promise of his wrath hangs over these Yankees like an anvil.

Adrian Wojnarowski is a columnist for The Record (N.J.) and a regular contributor to ESPN.com