Billy Martin
Note: This page links to former major league infielder and manager Billy Martin. For others with that name, click here.
Alfred Manuel Martin
born Alfred Manuel Pesano
- Bats Right, Throws Right
- Height 5' 11½", Weight 165 lb.
- High School Berkeley High School
- Debut April 18, 1950
- Final Game October 1, 1961
- Born May 16, 1928 in Berkeley, CA USA
- Died December 25, 1989 in Johnson City, NY USA
Biographical Information[edit]
"I must remember to always think correctly and quicker than the other fellow." - Billy Martin at age 20
Billy Martin was an All-Star second baseman with the New York Yankees in 1956, but he is best known as a feisty manager in the 1970s and 1980s. He managed a total of 19 years, eight of which were with the high-profile New York Yankees.
As a player, Martin played eleven years in the majors, and appeared in five World Series (all with the Yankees), slugging .566. He missed the 1954 season and most of 1955 while serving in the military.
Billy was always in the middle of the action. Even as a youngster in the minors, he was part of the famous 1948 Oakland Oaks team which won the Pacific Coast League championship under Casey Stengel's management. The team was called the "Nine Old Men", but Martin was the exception to the rule, being only 20 at the time.
After retiring as a player in 1961, Martin worked as a scout for the Minnesota Twins from 1962 to 1964, and a Twins coach from 1965 to May of 1968. He then replaced Johnny Goryl as manager of the Denver Bears for the rest of 1968, and managed the Twins in 1969, leading them to the AL West title. However, he got into a fistfight with pitcher Dave Boswell that year, something that did not please upper management, and he was fired after the season in spite of his on-field success.
As a manager, he led the Twins, Detroit Tigers, and Oakland Athletics to the postseason, but he is best remembered as the skipper of the Yankees. He led the Yanks to one world championship in 1977 and two American League pennants and developed a love-hate relationship with team owner George Steinbrenner. Steinbrenner hired and fired Martin five times.
"All I know is, I pass people on the street these days and they don't know whether to say hello or to say good-bye." - oft-cited quote by Billy Martin as Yankee manager
Martin also managed the Texas Rangers to their best finish (to that time) in 1974. Martin was the first manager to guide four different teams to first-place finishes; Davey Johnson would be the second.
Martin's quick thinking was never more in evidence than in the famous Pine Tar Game, where he managed to undo (at least temporarily) opponent George Brett's home run. However, he also had a strong temper and a drinking problem, and continually was in trouble because of his failure to control it. In 1957, he and a number of teammates from the Yankees were involved in a brawl at the famous Copacabana nightclub in New York City; he was traded to the Kansas City Athletics shortly thereafter as he was considered a bad influence on teammates, especially Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford. On August 4, 1960, while playing for the Cincinnati Reds, he charged the mound after being brushed back in a game against the Chicago Cubs, threw his bat at pitcher Jim Brewer then punched him, breaking his cheekbone. Brewer missed the remainder of the season and sued Martin, as did the Cubs (who later dropped their lawsuit). Brewer was awarded $10,000 in damages in 1969. As a manager, besides the fight with Boswell, he got into a couple of public spats with star player Reggie Jackson while at the helm of the Yankees, the second leading to his firing in the middle of the 1978 season. After being re-hired, he infamously fought a marshmallow salesman at a hotel in Minneapolis, MN after the 1979 season, leading to another firing. His temper mellowed a bit in later years, but his drinking remained a problem. He was drunk the night he was killed in a car accident near his home on Christmas 1989; there were allegations that he was the driver the night of the accident, although police reports and later investigations confirmed that his friend William Reedy was behind the wheel.
His first baseball card appearance was in the 1952 Topps set. His uniform number 1 was retired by the New York Yankees in 1986. His son Billy Martin Jr. became a minor league manager in 2017.
Notable Achievements[edit]
- AL All-Star (1956)
- Won five World Series with the New York Yankees (1950, 1951, 1952, 1953 & 1956; he did not play in the 1950 World Series)
- ML Manager of the Year Award (1981)
- Division Titles: 6 (1969, 1972, 1976, 1977 & 1981)
- AL Pennants: 2 (1976 & 1977)
- Managed one World Series Champion with the New York Yankees in 1977
- 100 Wins Seasons as Manager: 1 (1977)
| Preceded by Cal Ermer |
Minnesota Twins Manager 1969 |
Succeeded by Bill Rigney |
| Preceded by Mayo Smith |
Detroit Tigers Manager 1971-1973 |
Succeeded by Joe Schultz |
| Preceded by Whitey Herzog |
Texas Rangers Manager 1973-1975 |
Succeeded by Frank Lucchesi |
| Preceded by Bill Virdon |
New York Yankees Manager 1975-1978 |
Succeeded by Bob Lemon |
| Preceded by Bob Lemon |
New York Yankees Manager 1979 |
Succeeded by Dick Howser |
| Preceded by Jim Marshall |
Oakland Athletics Manager 1980-1982 |
Succeeded by Steve Boros |
| Preceded by Charlie Finley |
Oakland Athletics General Manager 1981-1982 |
Succeeded by Sandy Alderson |
| Preceded by Clyde King |
New York Yankees Manager 1983 |
Succeeded by Yogi Berra |
| Preceded by Yogi Berra |
New York Yankees Manager 1985 |
Succeeded by Lou Piniella |
| Preceded by Lou Piniella |
New York Yankees Manager 1988 |
Succeeded by Lou Piniella |
Year-By-Year Managerial Record[edit]
Further Reading[edit]
- Neal Ashby: "Billy Martin: Inside the Mind of a Manager", Baseball Digest, December 1977, pp. 20-23.[1]
- Dan Cichalski: "Did a John Denver song get Billy Martin fired?", mlb.com, December 26, 2021. [2]
- Chris Donnelly: Doc, Donnie, the Kid, and Billy Brawl: How the 1985 Mets and Yankees Fought for New York’s Baseball Soul, University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln. NE, 2019. ISBN 978-1-4962-0553-7
- Joe Gergen: "Bout of the Century: Battling Billy vs. Gorgeous George", in Zander Hollander, ed.: The Complete Handbook of Baseball: 18th Edition 1988, Signet Books, New American Library, New York, NY, 1988, pp. 6-15. ISBN 0-451-15237-9
- Peter Golenbock: Wild, High and Tight: The Life and Death of Billy Martin, St. Martin's Press, New York, NY, 1994.
- Jerome Holtzman: "Billy Martin Managed Best When He Was On the Field", Baseball Digest, April 1990, pp. 78-80.[3]
- Harold Kaese: "Can Martin Play Shortstop? Tigers may find he has heart and arm but not legs for job", Baseball Digest, February 1958, pp. 9-10.[4]
- Jimmy Keenan and Frank Russo: "Billy Martin", in Gregory H. Wolf, ed.: A Pennant for the Twin Cities: the 1965 Minnesota Twins, SABR, Phoenix, AZ, 2015, pp. 313-320. ISBN 978-1-943816-09-5
- Mickey Mantle and Herb Gluck: "Mickey & Billy: From The Mick", in Zander Hollander, ed.: The Complete Handbook of Baseball: 1986 Season, Signet Books, New American Library, New York, NY, 1986, pp. 24-35. ISBN 0-451-14177-6
- Billy Martin (as told to George Vass): "The Game I'll Never Forget", Baseball Digest, August 1972, pp. 69-71.[5]
- Billy Martin and Peter Golenbock: Number 1, Delacorte Press, New York, NY, 1980.
- Billy Martin and Phil Pepe: Billyball, Doubleday & Co., Garden City, NY, 1987.
- Todd Masters: The 1972 Detroit Tigers: Billy Martin and the Half-Game Champs, McFarland, Jefferson, NC, 2010. ISBN 978-0-7864-4820-3
- Bill Pennington: Billy Martin: Baseball's Flawed Genius, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, New York, NY, 2015. ISBN 978-0544022096
- Mike Shropshire: Seasons in Hell: With Billy Martin, Whitey Herzog and 'The Worst Team in History' - The 1973-1975 Texas Rangers, Dutton Books, New York, NY, 1996. ISBN 978-1556114953
- Dale Tafoya: Billy Ball: Billy Martin and the Resurrection of the Oakland A's, Lyons Press, Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham, MD, 2020. ISBN 978-1493043620
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