David Wells threatened to “beat George Steinbrenner out of the body”.

David Wells once threatened to beat up the boss.

The former Yankees pitcher appeared on David Cone’s Jomboy Media podcast, Toeing the Slab, and opened up about the time he threatened to “smack the fuck out” of George Steinbrenner during an irritable exchange in the locker room.

As Wells recounts, it was 1997, shortly after he joined the Yankees. He was on the receiving end of a Jeffrey Maier-type fan interference event in right field, prompting Steinbrenner to make some changes to Yankee Stadium.

“I’m like, ‘George, you have to do something with that fence. Last year it did you good and today it hurt us,'” Wells said.

“He looked at me and said, ‘You’re not a pitcher.’ I said, ‘Excuse me?’ He said, ‘You’re not the pitcher I signed for.’”

From there things escalated.

“I looked at him and I was like, ‘What do you mean?'” Wells said.

“He says, ‘Well, it is what it is.'”

Wells asked, “Well, if you don’t like me, why don’t you trade me?” He says, ‘I tried, but no one wanted you.’”

Business began to recover.

“Well, that pissed me off. I came in his face. I threatened to kick his ass. … I played 7-8 innings that day,” Wells recalled.

“I said, ‘If you’re still in here after I get ice cream, I’m going to beat you to death.’ He said “I’m not scared of you” and he came in my face. I’m going, hmm ok, we’ll see. In fact I went in, got ice cream and came out again and he’s sitting there right in front of my locker .”

From there, according to Wells’ narrative, he chased Steinbrenner out of the dressing room. However, the next day there would be a reconciliation. Wells said he apologized to Steinbrenner for the way he was behaving and the two had a 30-minute meeting in Joe Torres’ office.

“We talked. We threw it out,” Wells said. “He stood up. He gave me a big old hug. A kiss on the cheek. He says, “You’re my type.” That’s how I won over George Steinbrenner.”