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| 55th | Top people from Minnesota |
| Billy Martin | |
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| Second baseman / Manager | |
| Born: May 16, 1928 Berkeley, California |
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| Died: December 25, 1989 (aged 61) Johnson City, New York |
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| Batted: Right | Threw: Right |
| MLB debut | |
| April 18, 1950 for the New York Yankees | |
| Last MLB appearance | |
| October 1, 1961 for the Minnesota Twins | |
| Career statistics | |
| Batting average | .257 |
| Hits | 877 |
| Runs batted in | 333 |
| Teams | |
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As Player
As Manager |
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| Career highlights and awards | |
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Alfred Manuel "Billy" Martin, Jr. (May 16, 1928–December 25, 1989) was an American second baseman and manager in Major League Baseball. He is best known as the manager of the New York Yankees, a position he held five different times. As Yankees manager, he led the team to consecutive American League pennants in 1976 and 1977; the Yankees were swept in the 1976 World Series by the Cincinnati Reds but triumphed over the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games in the 1977 World Series. He also had notable managerial tenures with several other AL squads, leading four of them to division championships.
As a manager, Martin was known for turning losing teams into winners, and for arguing animatedly with umpires, including a widely parodied routine in which he kicked dust on their feet. However, he was criticized for not getting along with veteran players and owners, burning out young pitchers, and for having an addiction to alcohol.
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Martin was born to Joan and Alfred Martin in Berkeley, California. His father was of Portuguese ancestry. Joan has always referred to Alfred as the "jackass" because he abandoned the family. [1]
While attending Berkeley High School, Martin tried out for and began playing for the Oakland Junior Oaks, affiliated with the Pacific Coast League's Oakland Oaks club. After graduation in 1946, he was signed by Eddie Leishman, also a Berkeley native, to play for him for Idaho Falls the Class D Pioneer League, hitting .254 in 32 games. Late in the 1947 season, he was signed to the Oaks, playing for that team in 1948 and 1949. In 1948, Martin's manager was Casey Stengel, who admired his aggressive play. When Stengel became manager in New York, he had the Yankees obtain Martin.
Martin began his major league career in 1950 as a second baseman for the Yankees. As a player, he was known for making clutch plays. In the 1952 World Series, he made a game-saving catch on an infield popup in Game 7.
In the 1953 season, Martin had career highs in home runs (15), RBIs (75), doubles (24), triples (6), and times hit by pitch (6). He was the MVP of the 1953 World Series, as he batted .500 with a .958 slugging percentage and delivered with an RBI in Game 6 to clinch the series. Martin was an All-Star in 1956. In 1958, Martin led the league in sacrifice hits, with 13.
After his 1957 trade to the Kansas City Athletics (see Altercations below), Martin's career declined, with several short stints with six different teams over the final 4½ seasons of his playing career: the Athletics, the Detroit Tigers, the Cleveland Indians, the Cincinnati Reds, the Milwaukee Braves and the Minnesota Twins.
Martin retired in 1961 with a career batting average of .257. He hit .333 in 28 World Series games for the Yankees.
Martin was well known for drinking to excess and for rowdy behavior when drinking. In 1957, a group of Yankees met at the famous Copacabana nightclub to celebrate Martin's 29th birthday; the party ultimately erupted into a much publicized brawl when Martin, Hank Bauer, Mickey Mantle and Yogi Berra challenged a few drunks who were hurling racial slurs at performer Sammy Davis, Jr.[citation needed] A month later, General manager George Weiss—believing Martin's nightlife was a bad influence on teammates Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle—exiled him to Kansas City. Martin felt betrayed by Stengel, with whom he had a strong father-son relationship, for failing to prevent the trade, and the two did not speak for years.
On August 4, 1960, Martin, then playing for the Reds, charged the mound in the second inning after receiving a brushback pitch from Chicago Cubs pitcher Jim Brewer. Martin threw his bat at Brewer, who picked up the bat and started to hand it to Martin as he approached. Martin punched Brewer in the right eye, breaking his cheekbone. Brewer was hospitalized for two months, and Martin served a five-day suspension. The Cubs sued Martin for $1 million for the loss of Brewer's services. While the Cubs dropped their case, Brewer pursued his, and in 1969, a judge ordered Martin to pay $10,000 in damages. When informed of the judgment by the press, he asked sarcastically, "How do they want it? Cash or check?"
Martin's fights as a player also included bouts with Jimmy Piersall, Clint Courtney (twice), Matt Batts and Tommy Lasorda.
Martin spent eight years (1962-69) in the Minnesota organization after his retirement. He was a scout from 1962-64, the third-base coach of the Twins from 1965 through mid-June 1968, and manager of their AAA affiliate, the Denver Bears, for the last half of the 1968 campaign. He succeeded Cal Ermer as Minnesota's big-league manager following the '68 season.
In 1969, Martin's only season as manager of the Twins, he won a division championship. He was fired after the season following an August 1969 fight in Detroit with one of his pitchers, Dave Boswell, in an alley outside the legendary Lindell A.C. bar. Martin spent the 1970 season out of baseball.
Martin managed the Detroit Tigers from 1971 to 1973. He guided the team to a first place finish in 1972. During the 1972 American League Championship Series, Oakland Athletics shortstop Bert Campaneris threw his bat at Detroit pitcher Lerrin LaGrow after being hit by a pitch. In the ensuing brawl, an infuriated Martin had to be restrained by umpires and teammates to prevent him from going after Campaneris. The Tigers lost the series three games to two.
While posing for a baseball card as the manager for the Detroit Tigers in 1972, Martin gave photographers the middle finger. The gesture went unnoticed until after the card's release.
Martin also played a key role in the discovery of Ron LeFlore in a Michigan state prison. Martin was lured to Michigan State Prison by another inmate who knew Martin. The unorthodox Martin witnessed LeFlore's speed and strength. Martin helped LeFlore get permission for day-parole and a try out at Tiger Stadium. In the summer of 1973, the Tigers signed him to a contract, which enabled LeFlore to meet the conditions for parole. Martin was fired in August of that same year for telling Tiger pitchers to throw at opposing hitters, and openly mentioning this order to the press. In 1978, Martin played himself in the CBS TV movie "One in a Million: The Ron LeFlore Story."
Martin's next managerial job was with the Texas Rangers, where he took the club from last place to second place in 1974, but was fired in 1975. He was hired by owner Bob Short replacing Whitey Herzog at the end of the 1973 season. He surprised the baseball world in 1974 by helping the Rangers to an 84-76 record after they had two consecutive 100+ loss seasons. But after the 1975 team went 44-51 under Martin, Brad Corbett fired him on July 20 and replaced him with Frank Lucchesi.
Martin was hired as Yankees' manager less than two weeks later, after the team had fired Bill Virdon. It was Martin's first time in a Yankee uniform since the team had traded him in 1957. With Martin at the helm, the Yankees went 30-26 in their final 56 games of the 1975 season; he then managed them to the World Series in 1976 (their first pennant since 1964) and 1977, winning in 1977. He feuded publicly with both Yankee owner George Steinbrenner and star outfielder Reggie Jackson. In one especially infamous incident, on June 18, 1977, in the middle game of what would prove to be a three-game series sweep by the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, Martin pulled Jackson off the field (replacing him with Paul Blair) in mid-inning for failing to hustle and catch a shallow outfield fly ball by Jim Rice, allowing Rice to reach second base. The extremely angry and highly animated Martin had to be restrained by his coaches from getting into a fight with Jackson in the dugout during the the nationally-televised Saturday afternoon game.
After a 1978 incident with Reggie Jackson in which Martin suspended Jackson for bunting (against orders) into a strikeout, Martin was forced to resign after telling reporters, "They deserve each other. One's a born liar [Jackson], and the other's convicted [Steinbrenner]." (Martin was referring to Steinbrenner's conviction for making illegal donations to Richard Nixon's 1972 election campaign). A few days later, Martin resigned (reportedly under pressure from Steinbrenner). Bob Lemon was named Yankees manager. Soon afterward, at the annual Old-Timers' Game at Yankee Stadium, in a grandstanding gesture and an overwhelming demand by the fans, the Yankees had public address announcer Bob Sheppard introduce an unemployed Martin as the Yankees' next manager for the 1980 season (with Lemon moving to the front office). Steinbrenner and Martin had apparently patched up their differences, but Lemon managed the team for the rest of 1978.
In 1979, the Yankees got off to a slow start under Lemon. Injuries to Reggie Jackson and Goose Gossage as well as the death of Thurman Munson mid-season had the Yankees reeling. Steinbrenner fired Lemon and brought back Martin earlier than previously planned. The Yankees failed to improve, however, and their streak of American League East division titles ended at three. After the 1979 season, Martin got into a fight with marshmallow salesman Joseph Cooper at a hotel in Minneapolis. Steinbrenner fired him after that and replaced him with Dick Howser for the 1980 season.
Martin, an East Bay native born and raised in Berkeley, resurfaced with the Oakland Athletics, where he perfected a style of play that became known as "Billyball" (characterized as featuring aggressive base running). Martin won the American League West Division title in the split season of 1981, swept the Royals in the special division series (due to a players' strike-action), and then met the Yankees in the 1981 ALCS where his A's were swept by the Yankees. Martin's early success with the A's led to his designation as the club's general manager—giving him control over the baseball operations of the entire Oakland organization in 1981. Martin was fired from both positions when the 1982 Athletics plummeted to a 68-94 record, largely because he'd overworked many of the pitchers from the 1981 team.
Martin returned to the New York Yankees in 1983, 1985, and 1988, but never for more than one full season. During his years as a major league manager, Art Fowler usually served as his pitching coach.
During the 1983 season, Martin was involved in one of the most controversial regular season games, known as the Pine Tar Incident, where umpires nullified a game-winning home run by Yankee nemesis, Kansas City Royals third baseman George Brett, when Martin protested that there was too much pine tar on his bat. Ultimately, American League President Lee MacPhail ruled in favor of the Royals protest, reinstating the home run, and replaying the game from the point of the nullification. At the start of the replayed game, Martin tried to protest on the grounds that Brett had missed a base. The umpires working this game, however, had anticipated this, and had obtained an affidavit from the crew who had worked the original game saying that Brett had indeed touched all the bases.
On September 22, 1985, Martin fought one of his pitchers, Ed Whitson, who broke one of Martin's arms.
At the time of his death, Martin was preparing to manage the Yankees a sixth time for the 1990 season, to the point of having assembled a coaching staff.
Martin's sparring opponents as a manager also included two traveling secretaries (Minnesota's Howard Fox and Texas' Burt Hawkins) in a fight outside of Howard Wong's in Bloomington, Minnesota; Jack Sears, a fan outside Tiger Stadium; a Chicago cab driver who preferred soccer to baseball; sportswriter Ray Hagar, in a Reno casino; marshmallow salesman Joseph Cooper; two bar patrons, in Anaheim and in Baltimore; and two bouncers in an Arlington topless bar.
| “ | Billy Martin proved what a powerful strategic tool paranoia is. He believed that everyone was against him. And so he spent every waking moment figuring out how imaginary enemies could be defeated in their nefarious plots. And sometimes he not only created strategies to defend against things that would never be done against him, but he realized that those attacks were in themselves novel and he would then try those attacks that he had already dreamed up a defense for. That's why he was so wonderful at suicide bunts and double steals and any way that you could humiliate or psychologically defeat the other team, he was sure that's how the world reacted to him. He was sure the world hated him. And so he turned that really raw, frightened paranoia into wonderful strategic intelligence. [2] | ” |
Graig Nettles has a lot to report about Martin in his book 'Balls' (1984) co-written with Peter Golenbock (who also wrote Number 1 with Martin). This includes the fact that Billy was once analyzed by Joyce Brothers, psychologist and advice columnist, in her daily syndicated newspaper column (in the Post).
Martin was brought in to be a guest celebrity ring announcer at the inaugural WrestleMania event held in March 1985, during his time as the manager of the Yankees, where he was referred to as 'New York's Number One'. (The number was retired the following year.) The crowd gave him a hero's ovation. Martin is the first baseball-crossover guest celebrity to appear in any of the WrestleMania pay-per-views. Martin's appearance at the inaugural event was referenced at WrestleMania X in 1994.
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| Billy Martin's number 1 was retired by the New York Yankees in 1986 |
On August 10, 1986, the Yankees retired Martin's uniform number 1 and dedicated a plaque in his honor for Monument Park at Yankee Stadium. The plaque contains the words, There has never been a greater competitor than Billy. Martin told the crowd, "I may not have been the greatest Yankee to put on the uniform, but I am the proudest."
As a tribute, the Florida Marlins called their mascot Billy the Marlin. (The name is also derived from the fact that another name for a marlin is a bill-fish.)
Many of his contemporaries have remarked on Martin's ability to surprise the opposition and his outside-the-box thinking. Commenting on Martin's strategy as a manager, Dave Winfield has stated that opposing players would often ask each other, "What's Billy doing now?" George Steinbrenner has stated that when Martin was in his best form, he was a "baseball genius." He has also been cited as an influence to other prominent managers, including Lou Piniella. (Martin would, eventually, both precede and succeed Piniella as Yankees manager.)
His frequent firings—and threats of being fired—were lampooned in a '70's Miller Lite beer commercial in which Steinbrenner tells Martin "You're fired!" to which Martin replies "Oh, no, not again!" After Martin's real-life rehiring, the commercial was resurrected, only with Steinbrenner's line redubbed to say "You're hired!"
In the film Ocean's Thirteen, a "Billy Martin" is used as a nickname for a second chance, presumably to make amends and do the right thing before being pursued in justified retaliation.
On the TV show, Married with Children, Al Bundy and Jefferson D'Arcy (and others) more than once ended up in an altercation over the answer to the question "Who was in the first light beer commercial?" The answer was purported to be either Billy Martin or Bubba Smith.
On the TV show Bizarre, the turbulent Yankee manager situation was parodied by having press conferences every 10 minutes hiring or firing a fictitious Yankees manager named "Martin Billy Lemon" (combining the names of Yankee managers Bob Lemon and Billy Martin). Martin also appeared on the show in person as manager of the A's, where the fictitious stunt man Super Dave Osborne (famous for his spectacular failures) did a stunt where he had to say a bunch of insults at Billy Martin and "deal" with Martin's violent reaction.
On May 24, 1986, on the season finale of Saturday Night Live, co-host Martin was "fired" by executive producer Lorne Michaels for being "drunk" in a skit, slurring his lines. During the goodnights, Martin "sets fire" to the dressing room in retaliation.[20] (Only three cast members would be re-hired the next season.) In 1988, on Saturday Night Live's "Weekend Update," comedian Dennis Miller opened the sports with, "In Calgary tonight, Katarina Witt won the gold medal in figure skating, prompting Yankees owner George Steinbrenner to fire manager Billy Martin."
In the 1994 movie The Scout, Albert Brooks wants a psychiatrist to send a letter to George Steinbrenner, and adds that it might be nice to put "sorry about Billy Martin" in the closing. When the psychiatrist wonders who Billy Martin is, Brooks replies "Oh, just some guy he kept firing until he finally died."
Martin was played by John Turturro in the 2007 ESPN mini-series The Bronx is Burning which follows the tumultuous summer of 1977 in New York.
In the Seinfeld episode ("The Wink"), after George Costanza accidentally gets one of his co-workers in the Yankees organization fired, the fictional George Steinbrenner goes on a long rant to George about the many people he has had to let go over the years. He mentions Billy Martin four times.
Martin was working as a special consultant to Steinbrenner when he was killed in a one-car crash near his farm in Port Crane, in the Town of Fenton, north of Binghamton, New York, on Christmas Day in 1989. Martin had been drinking heavily with his friend, William Reedy, who was driving the pick-up at the time of the accident. When Martin was killed, the media reported that he was a passenger in his pickup truck. However, Peter Golenbock, in his book Wild, High, and Tight: The Life and Death of Billy Martin, tries to make the case that Martin was the driver and that his wife and Reedy covered up the truth. According to the HBO TV series Autopsy, [21] forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden performed the examination on Martin and investigated the accident scene, including the pick-up truck in which Martin died. The examination revealed that Martin's impact injuries were all on the right side, and that hair and other DNA found on the right side of the shattered windshield belonged to Martin, who was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the accident. The final conclusion of the examination study was that Reedy drove the pick-up. No autopsy was performed.
Billy Martin was eulogized by John Cardinal O'Connor at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, before his funeral at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York. His grave is located about 150 feet (46 m) from the grave of Babe Ruth. The following epitaph by Billy Martin himself appears on the headstone: I may not have been the greatest Yankee to put on the uniform but I was the proudest. Former President of the United States Richard Nixon attended Martin's funeral.
| Preceded by Johnny Mize |
Babe Ruth Award 1953 |
Succeeded by Dusty Rhodes |
| Preceded by Johnny Goryl |
Denver Bears Manager 1969 |
Succeeded by Don Heffner |
| Preceded by Cal Ermer |
Minnesota Twins Manager 1969 |
Succeeded by Bill Rigney |
| Preceded by Mayo Smith |
Detroit Tigers Manager 1970–1973 |
Succeeded by Joe Schultz |
| Preceded by Whitey Herzog |
Texas Rangers Manager 1973–1975 |
Succeeded by Frank Lucchesi |
| Preceded by Bill Virdon Bob Lemon |
New York Yankees Manager 1975–1978 1979 |
Succeeded by Bob Lemon 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 Yogi Berra Lou Piniella |
New York Yankees Manager 1983 1985 1988 |
Succeeded by Yogi Berra Lou Piniella Lou Piniella |
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Alfred Manuel "Billy" Martin, Jr. (May 16, 1928 – December 25, 1989) was an MLB second baseman from 1950 to 1961, playing most of his career with the New York Yankees. He began his first managing job in 1969 with the Minnesota Twins. He would be a manager in Major League Baseball until 1988, and would lead the Yankees to consecutive American League Pennants in 1976 and 1977, and the World Series in 1977. He would serve as Yankees manager on five different terms.
   | Baseball-Reference.com - Billy Martin Statistics and History - Baseball-Reference.com |
| | Autopsy: Billy Martin - HBO: Autopsy: Episode Guide: Billy Martin: Episode 01 |
| | Billy Martin's Photo & Gravesite - Billy Martin (1928 - 1989) - Find A Grave Memorial |
| | SNL Transcript, 24 May 1986. - SNL Transcripts: Anjelica Huston & Billy Martin: 05/24/86 |
| | The Bronx is Burning ESPN miniseries - Prolific Arts Music |
| | Baseball Hall of Fame - 2007 Veterans Committee candidate profile - 2007 Veterans Committee Profile: Billy Martin |
| | Baseball Hall of Fame - 2008 Veterans Committee candidate profile - National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum: Hall of Fame News |
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