Manager Billy Martin
This post is the first in a series that includes material originally written for The New York Yankees All-Time All-Stars but had to hit the cutting room floor prior to publication. For other posts in the series you can search for the label "Author's Cut" on this site.
Baseball is often referred to as a thinking man’s game, but to Billy Martin it was visceral. Whether he was playing or managing, the typical game involving Martin would have his fingerprints, or fists, all over it. To him, baseball was about forced action and reaction, heart and will, and proving to the opposition with every move that he had a stronger desire to win than they did. As effective as his approach could be, it didn’t come without its share of issues. For that reason, his tumultuous career with the Yankees has gone down as one of the more ridiculous stories in baseball history.
Billy Martin was actually born Alfred Manuel Pesano, Jr. in Berkley, CA. He was often called “belli”, which was misheard as “Billy”, by his Italian grandmother and the name stuck. After his father abandoned the family when he was eight months old, his mother changed their last name to Martin, completing his now popular moniker.
With a sizable chip on his shoulder, Martin spent his youth playing baseball and fighting, usually at the same time. After high school, the scrappy second baseman latched on with minor league teams on the west coast before being purchased by the Yankees in 1949. As a Yankee, he became a favorite of manager Casey Stengel, who had also managed Martin as a minor leaguer in California. In Stengel, Martin saw the father figure he never had in his life. He was mostly an average player during the regular season under Stengel, but became a superstar in World Series play as he hit .333 while the Yankees won four of the five series he appeared in.
Martin was also legendary for his late-night carousing with Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle during these years. However, after a night out at the popular Copacabana night club in 1957 resulted in a messy brawl, the hot-tempered Martin, the most expendable of the trio, was traded to Kansas City. He spent the rest of his playing career on the move, being traded five times in four years. Although he played for mostly bad teams during this time, he ensured there was never a dull moment, picking fights at every stop.
Martin spent seven years as a scout and coach for the Minnesota Twins after his playing days and in 1969 they named him their new manager. He approached the game no differently as a manger than he did as a player, agitating the opposition, or even his own team, at every turn. Over the next six years he served brief stints as manager in Minnesota, Detroit and Texas and at each stop he successfully transformed a team that had a losing record before he got there into a winner.
As Hall of Fame pitcher Ferguson Jenkins, who played for Martin in Texas, once said, “Look at the record. As soon as Billy joined your team, you picked up ten wins.” However he never won a playoff series and wore out his welcome quickly thanks to his argumentative personality. Just days after he was fired as the Rangers manager in the middle of the 1975 season, George Steinbrenner decided to bring Martin back to New York and he replaced Bill Virdon as Yankee manager.
Back in The Bronx, Martin proved to be the perfect catalyst for an underachieving but talented mix of veterans and youngsters. Newly acquired outfielder, Oscar Gamble, recognized this upon arrival in 1976 when he said, “From the first day of spring training in 1976 he kept each one of us focused on what we had to do to get the team to the World Series…Billy just made it easier for everyone to do their job. He was, no question, the best manager I ever played for.” That season, the Yankees responded to their aggressive manager by winning 97 games and taking first place in the American League East.
In a tight, hard fought battle in the American League Championship Series against the Kansas City Royals, Martin pushed all the right buttons. The Yankees won the series in five games, his first playoff series win as a manager and the first World Series berth for the franchise in 12 years. In the Fall Classic they were not quite ready to take on the Big Red Machine from Cincinnati and were swept in four games. Martin, as usual, didn’t go down without a fight. He was ejected from Game Four for throwing a baseball at home plate umpire Bill Deegan.
Hopes were high for the Yankees heading into the 1977 season, especially after they signed superstar Reggie Jackson against Martin’s wishes. On a team that would come to be known as The Bronx Zoo, the Jackson signing drove Martin to be the craziest animal on display. All season long he publicly feuded with Steinbrenner and his star right fielder. His shocking removal of Jackson from right field mid-inning for lack of hustle during a critical game in Boston, and the ensuing fight in the dugout, is now the stuff of legend.
Even given all of the animosity, few could argue with the results on the field. The Yankees won 100 games, returned to the World Series, and this time beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games. Veteran leader of the Yankees Roy White acknowledged Martin’s role in their success as he noted, “He was on the attack all the time. You could just feel it. He was always probing, trying to find the other team’s weakness, and he wanted us to do the same…He put the opposing team on edge and kept them there.”
Unfortunately, success didn’t release the tension in the Martin-Steinbrenner-Jackson relationship. As the team struggled to return to championship form in 1978, Martin suspended an irate Jackson that July for failing to properly interpret his signs from the dugout. Soon after, he learned that Steinbrenner was looking into a manager swap with the White Sox behind the scenes, despite publicly stating that Martin’s job was safe.
Martin responded with verbal venom directed at both when he was quoted as saying, “They deserve each other. One’s a born liar and the other’s convicted [a reference to Steinbrenner’s illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon].” A day later Martin tearfully resigned as Yankee manager before he could get fired, and thus began the complicated love/hate marriage of Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner.
Amid fan backlash, Steinbrenner regretted casting Martin off and less than a week after his resignation, it was curiously announced at Yankee Stadium during Old Timer’s Day that Martin would return as Yankee manager…in 1980. Under Bob Lemon the Yankees would turn their season around and win the 1978 World Series. However they struggled out of the gate in 1979 and Martin was brought back ahead of schedule after Lemon was fired. When the team failed anyway to return to the playoffs at the end of the season, Martin was fired. This time before he had a chance to resign.
The Athletics then immediately hired Martin who spent three years as the manager in Oakland. His only playoff run during this time would end at the hands of the Yankees in the 1981 American League Championship. In 1983 Steinbrenner went back to the well and hired Martin again. Ever the agitator, Martin instigated the infamous “Pine Tar Incident” with George Brett and the Kansas City Royals that season, but the Yankees finished well out of first despite winning 91 games.
Martin was replaced by Yogi Berra as manager for the 1984 season, only to be brought back a year later to take over after Berra was fired 16 games into the 1985 campaign. He led that team to 97 wins, but fell two games shy of a playoff berth. Naturally, he was fired by Steinbrenner after the season and this time was replaced by another former Yankee, Lou Piniella.
For the next two years Piniella failed to make the playoffs as well. Steinbrenner then thought the fifth time would be the charm for Martin and hired him as manager yet again for the 1988 season. After just 68 games he had seen enough and fired Martin one last time to replace him with - you can’t make this stuff up - Lou Piniella.
There were rumors that Steinbrenner might hire Martin a sixth time in 1990, but tragedy struck before that could become a reality. On Christmas night in 1989 Martin and a friend were driving home from a bar near his upstate New York home when the car slipped on ice and flipped into a drainage ditch. Martin was killed instantly at just 61 years old.
Just like his unique approach to the game, Martin’s sudden death sent shockwaves throughout the baseball world. As exhausting as his personality could be, it was also highly entertaining and, for the most part, resulted in winning baseball. Most importantly, his players loved him and played hard on his behalf. Even Reggie Jackson once said prior to coming to New York, “I hate (Billy) Martin because he plays tough, but if I played for him, I'd probably love him.” That may not have been entirely true during their brief stint together with the Yankees, but the line between love and hate for Martin was thinner than most.
“He had incredible motivational skills and he could get players on a team to rally around each other like it was us against the world. Billy was so aggressive, he made us feel as if we were all in a bunker together and that baseball was all about war.” – Willie Randolph
Baseball is often referred to as a thinking man’s game, but to Billy Martin it was visceral. Whether he was playing or managing, the typical game involving Martin would have his fingerprints, or fists, all over it. To him, baseball was about forced action and reaction, heart and will, and proving to the opposition with every move that he had a stronger desire to win than they did. As effective as his approach could be, it didn’t come without its share of issues. For that reason, his tumultuous career with the Yankees has gone down as one of the more ridiculous stories in baseball history.
Billy Martin was actually born Alfred Manuel Pesano, Jr. in Berkley, CA. He was often called “belli”, which was misheard as “Billy”, by his Italian grandmother and the name stuck. After his father abandoned the family when he was eight months old, his mother changed their last name to Martin, completing his now popular moniker.
With a sizable chip on his shoulder, Martin spent his youth playing baseball and fighting, usually at the same time. After high school, the scrappy second baseman latched on with minor league teams on the west coast before being purchased by the Yankees in 1949. As a Yankee, he became a favorite of manager Casey Stengel, who had also managed Martin as a minor leaguer in California. In Stengel, Martin saw the father figure he never had in his life. He was mostly an average player during the regular season under Stengel, but became a superstar in World Series play as he hit .333 while the Yankees won four of the five series he appeared in.
Martin was also legendary for his late-night carousing with Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle during these years. However, after a night out at the popular Copacabana night club in 1957 resulted in a messy brawl, the hot-tempered Martin, the most expendable of the trio, was traded to Kansas City. He spent the rest of his playing career on the move, being traded five times in four years. Although he played for mostly bad teams during this time, he ensured there was never a dull moment, picking fights at every stop.
Martin spent seven years as a scout and coach for the Minnesota Twins after his playing days and in 1969 they named him their new manager. He approached the game no differently as a manger than he did as a player, agitating the opposition, or even his own team, at every turn. Over the next six years he served brief stints as manager in Minnesota, Detroit and Texas and at each stop he successfully transformed a team that had a losing record before he got there into a winner.
As Hall of Fame pitcher Ferguson Jenkins, who played for Martin in Texas, once said, “Look at the record. As soon as Billy joined your team, you picked up ten wins.” However he never won a playoff series and wore out his welcome quickly thanks to his argumentative personality. Just days after he was fired as the Rangers manager in the middle of the 1975 season, George Steinbrenner decided to bring Martin back to New York and he replaced Bill Virdon as Yankee manager.
Back in The Bronx, Martin proved to be the perfect catalyst for an underachieving but talented mix of veterans and youngsters. Newly acquired outfielder, Oscar Gamble, recognized this upon arrival in 1976 when he said, “From the first day of spring training in 1976 he kept each one of us focused on what we had to do to get the team to the World Series…Billy just made it easier for everyone to do their job. He was, no question, the best manager I ever played for.” That season, the Yankees responded to their aggressive manager by winning 97 games and taking first place in the American League East.
In a tight, hard fought battle in the American League Championship Series against the Kansas City Royals, Martin pushed all the right buttons. The Yankees won the series in five games, his first playoff series win as a manager and the first World Series berth for the franchise in 12 years. In the Fall Classic they were not quite ready to take on the Big Red Machine from Cincinnati and were swept in four games. Martin, as usual, didn’t go down without a fight. He was ejected from Game Four for throwing a baseball at home plate umpire Bill Deegan.
Martin won over many Yankees fans with his fiery attitude.
Photo Credit: AP/G. Paul Burnett. Obtained from newsday.com
Hopes were high for the Yankees heading into the 1977 season, especially after they signed superstar Reggie Jackson against Martin’s wishes. On a team that would come to be known as The Bronx Zoo, the Jackson signing drove Martin to be the craziest animal on display. All season long he publicly feuded with Steinbrenner and his star right fielder. His shocking removal of Jackson from right field mid-inning for lack of hustle during a critical game in Boston, and the ensuing fight in the dugout, is now the stuff of legend.
Even given all of the animosity, few could argue with the results on the field. The Yankees won 100 games, returned to the World Series, and this time beat the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games. Veteran leader of the Yankees Roy White acknowledged Martin’s role in their success as he noted, “He was on the attack all the time. You could just feel it. He was always probing, trying to find the other team’s weakness, and he wanted us to do the same…He put the opposing team on edge and kept them there.”
Unfortunately, success didn’t release the tension in the Martin-Steinbrenner-Jackson relationship. As the team struggled to return to championship form in 1978, Martin suspended an irate Jackson that July for failing to properly interpret his signs from the dugout. Soon after, he learned that Steinbrenner was looking into a manager swap with the White Sox behind the scenes, despite publicly stating that Martin’s job was safe.
Martin responded with verbal venom directed at both when he was quoted as saying, “They deserve each other. One’s a born liar and the other’s convicted [a reference to Steinbrenner’s illegal campaign contributions to Richard Nixon].” A day later Martin tearfully resigned as Yankee manager before he could get fired, and thus began the complicated love/hate marriage of Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner.
Amid fan backlash, Steinbrenner regretted casting Martin off and less than a week after his resignation, it was curiously announced at Yankee Stadium during Old Timer’s Day that Martin would return as Yankee manager…in 1980. Under Bob Lemon the Yankees would turn their season around and win the 1978 World Series. However they struggled out of the gate in 1979 and Martin was brought back ahead of schedule after Lemon was fired. When the team failed anyway to return to the playoffs at the end of the season, Martin was fired. This time before he had a chance to resign.
The Athletics then immediately hired Martin who spent three years as the manager in Oakland. His only playoff run during this time would end at the hands of the Yankees in the 1981 American League Championship. In 1983 Steinbrenner went back to the well and hired Martin again. Ever the agitator, Martin instigated the infamous “Pine Tar Incident” with George Brett and the Kansas City Royals that season, but the Yankees finished well out of first despite winning 91 games.
Martin was replaced by Yogi Berra as manager for the 1984 season, only to be brought back a year later to take over after Berra was fired 16 games into the 1985 campaign. He led that team to 97 wins, but fell two games shy of a playoff berth. Naturally, he was fired by Steinbrenner after the season and this time was replaced by another former Yankee, Lou Piniella.
For the next two years Piniella failed to make the playoffs as well. Steinbrenner then thought the fifth time would be the charm for Martin and hired him as manager yet again for the 1988 season. After just 68 games he had seen enough and fired Martin one last time to replace him with - you can’t make this stuff up - Lou Piniella.
There were rumors that Steinbrenner might hire Martin a sixth time in 1990, but tragedy struck before that could become a reality. On Christmas night in 1989 Martin and a friend were driving home from a bar near his upstate New York home when the car slipped on ice and flipped into a drainage ditch. Martin was killed instantly at just 61 years old.
Just like his unique approach to the game, Martin’s sudden death sent shockwaves throughout the baseball world. As exhausting as his personality could be, it was also highly entertaining and, for the most part, resulted in winning baseball. Most importantly, his players loved him and played hard on his behalf. Even Reggie Jackson once said prior to coming to New York, “I hate (Billy) Martin because he plays tough, but if I played for him, I'd probably love him.” That may not have been entirely true during their brief stint together with the Yankees, but the line between love and hate for Martin was thinner than most.
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