Nine days after celebrating his 80th birthday, George Steinbrenner died Tuesday morning after suffering a heart attack.

Steinbrenner has owned the New York Yankees since 1973, buying the team for about $10 million. Forbes estimates the team — which won seven World Series championships under his ownership — is now worth more than $1 billion.

Steinbrenner’s history with politics is as long as his history with baseball.

In 1974, Steinbrenner pled guilty to making illegal contributions to President Richard Nixon’s reelection campaign two years prior. He was ultimately fined and briefly suspended from the major leagues. A decade and a half later, he was officially pardoned by President Ronald Reagan — two days before Reagan left office in 1989.

Since 1989, Steinbrenner, along with his wife, Joan, contributed more than $196,300 tofederal candidates, parties and committees, according to a Center for Responsive Politics review of campaign finance records.

The top recipient of this cash was the Republican Party of Florida, which received $26,000 from the Steinbrenners since 1998.

Steinbrenner, the son of an Ohio shipping magnate, made his money in the shipping business and for a time headed the American Ship Building Company. Between 1989 and 1992, Steinbrenner contributed $15,000 to the company’s political action committee.

Over the past 20 years, the Republican National Committee received nearly $15,000 from the Steinbrenners and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee received $14,000.

During the 2000 election cycle, Steinbrenner gave $2,000 to the presidential campaign of George W. Bush. Overall that cycle, about three-fourths of the Steinbrenner’s contributions benefited Republicans.

During the 2008 presidential race, Steinbrenner and his