A few tidbits from the book I bought several months ago ... Great Book
I found this hard to believe but the book was adamant, Billy Martin, not Mantle or Stengel, etc. was considered the real leader of the Yankees in the mid 50s.
Martin was recalled to military service after his hardship case was reopened (after winning the WS MVP in 1953) and he missed the 1954 season. That was the one season between 1946 and 1959 the Yankees did not win the pennant. Stengel thought the two were related.
Billy used to hang out in New York with Joe D and Marilyn Monroe (early 50s) and Jackie Gleason and sometimes Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball would join Martin and Gleason (mid 50s). Gleason loved to compete with Martin and Billy would wax him at everything, including bowling where he could easily keep a 225 average (but Gleason could take him at billiards).
I thought I posted it here but the Yanks GM George Weiss thought Billy was a "bad influence" on other players and was always trying to get rid of him. However, it was pointed out that Martin roomed with Rizzuto, then Berra, then Mantle in his years with the Yanks. They each won an MVP the year he roomed with them. Some bad influence.
He was also known as an adapt sign stealer (knowing when the other team would steal or pitch out etc) and this helped the Yankees tremendously and unnerved many opponents (players and managers)
After Martin was released by the Twins (spring training 1962) the Twins made him a scout
... one of his recommendtions was to sign a pitcher out of Arizona, which the Twins refused
... some guy named Jim Palmer, who the Orioles then signed in 1963
In 1968 After the Denver Triple A team starts 7-22 or something, Martin takes over as manager and coaches them to over .500 the rest of the season
He s promoted to Twins manager in 1969 and gets Oliva to pull more, Killebrew to pull less, and is a big brother to Carew helping with hitting, fielding, base running and off the field / personal issues.
Killebrew win MVP, Carew wins the batting title, steals home 7 times (after being taught by Martin) and the Twins improve by 16 games over 1968
Billy also has some success with an aging clique-ruled Detroit Tigers team then gets hired by Bob Short to manage the Rangers. Two days before the 1974 season starts, Short sells the team. Billy was his own GM until the ownership change, he did trade young Bill Madlock for Ferguson Jenkins and promotes Jim Sundberg from AA and Mike Hargove from A ball and makes Lenny Randle a starter. The Rangers are the first team to post a .500 record after consecutive 100 loss seasons. Billy gets fired in 1975 for ordering the PA system to play Thank God I'm a Country Boy, instead of God Bless America at the 7th inning stretch. Texas then goes through 6 managers in 6 years, including 4 in 1 season.
Really, really interesting article about Billy Martin ! Wow !
ReplyDeleteAlso in 1980 Billy took over the Oakland A's who went 54-108 in 1979. With basically the same team, (no major trades or free agent signings) he improved them by an incredible 29 games to 83-79. In 1981, The A's started out 11-0 and 17-1, one of the greatest starts in MLB history. The premise that Billy wore out the pitching staff was proven false, some of the injuries were not related to over work (I think 1 if not 2 were injured in fielding plays) and similar starts and IP were achieved by other pitchers during this same period.
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