160 Facts About Billy Martin

Billy Martin was born in a working-class section of Berkeley, California.

Billy Martin missed most of two seasons, 1954 and 1955, after being drafted into the Army, and his abilities never fully returned; the Yankees traded him after a brawl at the Copacabana club in New York during the 1957 season.

Billy Martin bitterly resented being traded, and did not speak to Stengel for years, a time during which Billy Martin completed his playing career, appearing with a series of -ran baseball teams.

Billy Martin led the club to the American League West title, but was fired after the season.

Billy Martin then was hired by a declining Detroit Tigers franchise in 1971, and led the team to an American League East title in 1972 before being fired by the Tigers late in the 1973 season.

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Billy Martin was quickly hired by the Texas Rangers, and turned them for a season into a winning team, but was fired amid conflict with ownership in 1975.

Billy Martin was forced to resign midway through the 1978 season after saying of Jackson and Steinbrenner, "one's a born liar, and the other's convicted"; less than a week later, the news that he would return as manager in a future season was announced to a huge ovation from the Yankee Stadium crowd.

Billy Martin returned in 1979, but was fired at season's end by Steinbrenner.

Billy Martin was rehired by the Yankees, whom he managed three more times, each for a season or less, and each ending in his firing by Steinbrenner.

Billy Martin died in an automobile accident in upstate New York on Christmas night in 1989, and he is fondly remembered by many Yankee fans.

Billy Martin was given his father's name; the elder Martin, usually nicknamed Al, was a truck driver for the city of Berkeley.

Al Billy Martin had been born in Kauai, Hawaii, the son of Portuguese immigrants, and had moved to Oakland.

Billy Martin acquired his name because his grandmother, who never mastered English, would croon bello repeatedly over the baby, who only learned his birth name when a teacher used it at school.

The Martin couple broke up soon after Billy was born, and each later accused the other of infidelity.

Billy Martin was an indifferent student once he started school, and from the age of about 12, was often in trouble with teachers or the principal.

Billy Martin boxed at an amateur level, but it was baseball that proved to be his calling.

When Billy Martin reached Berkeley High School, which he attended from 1942 to 1946, he was dressed worse than many students from the more upscale housing east of San Pablo Avenue, but gained acceptance through sports, especially baseball, raising his batting average from a poor.

Billy Martin was an aggressive player, and was involved in fights both in and out of baseball uniform.

Billy Martin was given a workout by the Brooklyn Dodgers, but they chose another California infielder, Jackie Robinson.

Billy Martin had a good spring training with the Oaks in 1947, but was sent to the Class C Phoenix Senators of the Arizona-Texas League.

Billy Martin felt he should have remained with the Oaks, and told Stengel so.

Stengel and Billy Martin grew closer in what has sometimes been described as a father-son relationship—Stengel had no children, and Billy Martin had been abandoned by his father.

Billy Martin made the Oaks' roster in 1948, but was slow to get regular playing time, as the Oaks had a former major-leaguer at each position and Stengel did not want to use Billy Martin until the young ballplayer was ready.

Billy Martin learned about life on and off the field from his teammates.

Stengel assigned veteran players to work with Billy Martin and be his roommate on road trips; at first Mel Duezabou, a student of the art of hitting with a lifetime minor league batting average over.

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Later in the season, Duezabou was replaced with Cookie Lavagetto, a fellow infielder and former Dodgers star who was able to help Billy Martin with fielding and advise him on what to expect in the major leagues.

Billy Martin's reward for the championship was a new car, bought by Laws, but to his distress, Stengel's reward was the manager's job with the New York Yankees, leaving Billy Martin feeling abandoned.

Billy Martin was especially dispirited because his lifelong desire was to be a Yankee.

Billy Martin's education continued under Dressen, as he learned such things as the art of stealing signs, and learned to try to force the other team into game-deciding mistakes.

Billy Martin was among those younger Yankees players, including Whitey Ford, Yogi Berra and Mickey Mantle, who reported in February 1950 to a pre-spring training instructional camp in Phoenix to work on fundamentals under Stengel's eye.

Billy Martin hoped to become the starting second baseman for the defending world champion Yankees, but the incumbent, Jerry Coleman, had just won the American League Rookie of the League award.

Confident of Stengel's protection, Billy Martin sometimes defied Yankee coaches such as Frank Crosetti and Jim Turner, but won over most of his teammates as he showed his desire to learn and win, goals consistent with the "Yankee Way", that individual achievement was insignificant compared to team victory.

Billy Martin doubled off the Green Monster in left field to drive in the runners.

Billy Martin was sent to the minor leagues in May 1950 to give him everyday playing experience, a decision with which he vociferously disagreed, and so stated to Yankee general manager George Weiss, an outburst that Billy Martin always believed poisoned the relationship between himself and the team front office.

Billy Martin was recalled after a month, but remained mostly on the bench, with only 39 plate appearances for the Yankees in 1950, batting.

The Yankees won the pennant again, and swept the Philadelphia Phillies in the 1950 World Series, in which Billy Martin did not play and Coleman was the Most Valuable Player.

Billy Martin, wearing uniform number 1 for the Yankees for the first time, hit.

Billy Martin helped bring rookie outfielder Mickey Mantle out of his shell, introducing him to New York nightlife.

Billy Martin scored a crucial insurance run in the Yankee victory, evading the tag from the catcher, Roy Noble, and after the game was singled out for praise by Giants manager Leo Durocher.

Billy Martin stole the sign and the runner was out when pitcher Allie Reynolds threw a pitchout, killing the rally.

When first baseman Joe Collins appeared to lose the ball in the sun, Billy Martin raced in from second base, catching the ball in fair ground near home plate only inches off the grass.

Billy Martin was ejected for the first two occasions in his career, once for arguing balls and strikes, the other for fighting.

The Yankees won their fifth consecutive pennant, and in the 1953 World Series, Billy Martin dominated, collecting 12 hits with 23 total bases as the Yankees beat the Dodgers in six games; Billy Martin's hit in the ninth inning of Game Six scored the winning run.

Billy Martin doesn't look like a great player—but he is a helluva player.

Billy Martin complained to a reporter that he was given worse treatment than his fellow soldiers, allowed fewer weekend passes and not allowed to play on the Fort Ord baseball team.

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Billy Martin missed the entire 1954 season, in which the Yankees, uniquely during Martin's career with them, did not win the pennant, and much of the 1955 season.

Billy Martin was transferred to Fort Carson in Colorado, where he was allowed to live off base.

Billy Martin played on and managed the baseball team, and rose to the rank of corporal.

Weiss would have liked to trade Billy Martin, but was deterred by the fact that the second baseman was extremely popular with Yankee fans and with the press covering the team.

Marty Appel, in his biography of Stengel, stated that Billy Martin was called in to see Stengel, was told of the trade, and Billy Martin blamed the manager for not preventing it.

Billy Martin switched dugouts after the trade to the A's, and in his first game got two hits, including a home run off the Yankees' Johnny Kucks.

Billy Martin was traded, after the season, to the Cincinnati Reds; manager Fred Hutchinson hoped Martin could instill some fight into his team.

When he went out to retrieve it, Brewer approached, Billy Martin swung at him, and sometime during the brawl, a punch broke Brewer's orbital bone, though whether it was Billy Martin who did it or Reds pitcher Cal McLish is uncertain.

Billy Martin was ejected, and was suspended for five games and fined by National League president Warren Giles.

Billy Martin had only six at-bats for the Braves, with no hits, and on June 1,1961, was traded to the Minnesota Twins for Billy Consolo.

Billy Martin, given the starting second baseman position, started well and finished well for the Twins, but in between had a prolonged batting slump.

Billy Martin reported for spring training in 1962, but was approached by manager Sam Mele, a longtime friend, and told that he had been released by the team.

Billy Martin accepted an offer by Twins owner Calvin Griffith to be a scout for the team.

Billy Martin took a job with Grain Belt Brewery in public relations.

The combination worked well; Billy Martin proved himself a competent evaluator of talent, while selling the Twins in bars across Minnesota.

Billy Martin urged the Twins to sign pitching prospect Jim Palmer, but Griffith was unwilling to pay the $50,000 signing bonus Palmer requested, and the pitcher went on to a Hall of Fame career with the Baltimore Orioles.

Mele later denied having any feeling that Billy Martin was after his job, and the Twins experienced few losing streaks in 1965, winning the American League pennant.

Billy Martin worked with the players to make them more aggressive on the base paths.

Billy Martin recognized the talent of the young Rod Carew, and spent much time working with him to make him a better ballplayer.

The Twins had tried to trade shortstop Zoilo Versalles the previous winter; Billy Martin worked on his hitting and base running and Versalles was voted the league's Most Valuable Player.

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In 1966, Billy Martin damaged his chances of promotion to the managerial job by getting in a fight with Twins traveling secretary Howard Fox.

Billy Martin refused Fox's request that he intercede with his former teammates, including Mantle and Ford, to get them to quiet down.

When Billy Martin demanded it, Fox threw it at him, and after words were exchanged, Billy Martin hit him in the face.

Twins started the 1968 season poorly and Billy Martin was called into Griffith's office, expecting to be offered Ermer's job.

Billy Martin was reluctant to accept, but did when his wife Gretchen told him that he needed to prove his ability as a manager before getting a job as one in the major leagues.

Billy Martin had stressed to the team that they were a single unit, with him as boss.

Billy Martin instituted the aggressive base running he had used in Minnesota, and focused on fundamentals.

Billy Martin defended them before the outside world, confronting umpires—he was ejected from games eight times.

Griffith wanted Billy Martin to meet regularly with him to discuss the team; Billy Martin repeatedly showed up during the time set aside for Griffith's daily nap.

Billy Martin claimed that Boswell had come at him first, which Boswell denied.

At home for Game Three, Billy Martin was expected to start star pitcher Jim Kaat but instead chose Bob Miller, who was knocked out of the box in the second inning, and the Twins were eliminated.

Billy Martin had been given a one-year contract for 1969; he asked for a two-year deal for 1970 and 1971.

Griffith was unhappy both that Billy Martin had not pitched Kaat and that the explanation he had asked Billy Martin for had been "Because I'm the manager".

Billy Martin's decision was defensible, as Kaat had been struggling with injuries, and Miller had won during the pennant race.

Twins executives had received numerous complaints about Billy Martin drinking heavily during road trips, and were angered when Griffith told Minneapolis Tribune columnist Sid Hartman off the record that the Twins were thinking of firing him.

Billy Martin spent the 1970 season out of baseball for the first time since 1946, but stayed in the Twin Cities as an interviewer for Minneapolis station KDWB.

Billy Martin received nibbles of interest, including from A's owner Charlie Finley, and each later blamed the other for the failure to come to terms.

Billy Martin seemed to be an odd fit for the Tigers, given their straitlaced reputation under Campbell, but the general manager felt that Billy Martin was the spark the Tigers needed to return to contention.

Billy Martin announced that the Tigers would win the 1971 American League East title, and that the Orioles were over the hill.

Billy Martin made it clear that he was going to run the team his way, and his clubhouse tirades for poor play even during spring training were reported in the media and concerned Detroit management.

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Billy Martin had a well-publicized feud with slugger Willie Horton, whom Martin repeatedly benched and who kept himself out of the lineup with an alleged injury that Martin disputed.

Billy Martin was rewarded with a new two-year contract, through 1973, with an increase in salary.

At spring training, Billy Martin was relaxed and confident, his Tigers a favorite to win the American League East.

Once play started, Billy Martin was his usual self, berating opposing managers and the umpires from the dugout, and being ejected for it in the second game of the season, against Baltimore and Weaver.

Billy Martin was praised for taking the Tigers as far as he did, but his lineup choices for Game Five were questioned—playing catcher Bill Freehan with a broken thumb, while a healthy catcher, Duke Sims, played left field instead of Horton.

Nevertheless, Billy Martin again received a revised two-year contract, through the 1974 season.

Nevertheless, Billy Martin did have some successes, making John Hiller a successful closer after the pitcher had survived a heart attack, and discovering Ron LeFlore in a Michigan prison; LeFlore would go on to a successful major league career.

Billy Martin wanted Campbell to trade some aging veterans to renew the squad, but Campbell refused.

Billy Martin briefly quit during spring training when Campbell did not uphold a fine he had imposed on Horton.

Billy Martin angered Campbell, owner John Fetzer, and other Tigers executives by criticizing the front office in the media.

Billy Martin was suspended by AL president Joe Cronin for breaching league rules.

Billy Martin must have been on a first-name basis with probably 10,000 notable Americans.

Texas Rangers owner Bob Short was a person Billy Martin knew and trusted from the time in the 1960s when Short was an executive with the Twins.

Billy Martin would have complete authority over the 25-man roster, and would be responsible for the farm system.

Billy Martin faced a receptive clubhouse; most of the players had grown up watching him as a Yankee on television.

Billy Martin promoted Jim Sundberg and Mike Hargrove to the Rangers from the lower minor leagues.

Billy Martin taught the Rangers to improve their play and to beware his rage; outfielder Tom Grieve later stated that he made the team afraid to lose.

Billy Martin was named AL Manager of the Year, and home attendance more than doubled.

Billy Martin was on television, appearing on the game of the week.

Billy Martin worked with Paul during the offseason to dispose of players such as Bobby Bonds and Doc Medich, obtaining in return Mickey Rivers, Willie Randolph and others.

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Billy Martin endeared himself to his players quickly by effectively winning a game in Milwaukee.

Billy Martin pointed out that the first-base umpire had, almost unnoticed, called time out just before an apparent game-winning grand slam by Don Money.

Steinbrenner had returned to the helm of the Yankees when Kuhn shortened his suspension during spring training, but did not interfere with Billy Martin's managing, content to sit back and watch as the Yankees continued to win.

Billy Martin was ejected from Game Four, at Yankee Stadium, after rolling a baseball towards umpire Bruce Froemming, the only Yankee to ever be kicked out of a World Series game.

Falkner wrote that while Billy Martin did not see Jackson as filling the team's needs, he was not opposed.

Nevertheless, Billy Martin was embittered by Steinbrenner taking Jackson to famous restaurants when he had not invited Billy Martin to lunch, even though the manager was spending the offseason in nearby New Jersey.

Billy Martin was drinking heavily, and had briefly quit in spring training following an argument with Steinbrenner, who was, according to Falkner, "the owner whose idea of 'hands-on' was a stranglehold".

Rest of the season Billy Martin would have to spend the majority of his time worrying about the egos of George Steinbrenner and Reggie Jackson rather than concentrating on managing his team.

Billy Martin knew what he had to do to control Reggie Jackson, but he was impotent to do it as long as George Steinbrenner protected Jackson.

Billy Martin pulled Jackson off the field mid-inning for failing to hustle on a shallow outfield fly ball by Jim Rice, allowing Rice to reach second base.

The extremely angry Billy Martin had to be restrained by coaches Elston Howard and Yogi Berra from getting into a fight with Jackson in the dugout, scenes shown across the nation by NBC.

Nevertheless, the rumors that Billy Martin would be fired, some originated by Steinbrenner, would continue season-long.

Billy Martin had pledged to bat Jackson cleanup, as he wanted, but had rarely done so.

Jackson and Billy Martin were interviewed for television with arms around each other.

Golenbeck noted that Billy Martin "had fought the other teams in the league, fought his star player, and fought his owner, who respected no man".

Billy Martin was seen in the city's nightlife, often with different young women, at a time when his second marriage was disintegrating after years of turmoil.

Billy Martin garnered numerous endorsement deals, but cashed the checks rather than pay taxes on them.

Billy Martin did not believe in trying to regulate the players' conduct off the field, something he had learned from Casey Stengel.

Billy Martin was under extreme stress for much of the summer amid repeated rumors that he would be fired.

Billy Martin learned, from White Sox owner Bill Veeck, that Steinbrenner had been trying to arrange a trade of managers with the White Sox while publicly insisting that Billy Martin would finish out the 1978 season.

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Billy Martin did so on the advice of his longtime legal adviser, Louisiana judge Eddie Sapir, who concluded earlier in the day that the Yankees would almost certainly fire him for cause.

The talks were successfully kept quiet, and at Old-Timers' Day at Yankee Stadium, July 29,1978, Billy Martin was introduced as the Yankee manager for 1980 and after by public address announcer Bob Sheppard, meeting an ovation from the crowd reputed to be second only to that given Lou Gehrig on his retirement in 1939.

Billy Martin responded by wagering $500 that he could beat Cooper and proceeded to do so.

Billy Martin did not get any immediate interest after being dismissed by the Yankees, but in February 1980, Oakland owner Charlie Finley sought to hire him.

Billy Martin had Rickey Henderson steal only on signs until Henderson learned how to read pitchers in their windup; then Martin turned Henderson loose.

Billy Martin was applauded by baseball fans across the country even when he was kicked out of a game and suspended by the league for a week for kicking dirt on the umpire.

On January 11,1983, the Yankees announced that Billy Martin had been hired as manager under a long-term contract.

Billy Martin would remain on the Yankees' payroll for the rest of his life.

At the start of the resumed game, Billy Martin tried to protest on the grounds that Brett had missed a base.

On October 27,1985, Billy Martin was fired again as Yankee manager, replaced by longtime Yankee player Lou Piniella.

Billy Martin had long wanted to see his number 1 retired by the Yankees.

Billy Martin was suspended for three games and fined by the league.

The American League crew chiefs announced that Billy Martin would be ejected as soon as he left the Yankee dugout.

Billy Martin became a special adviser to Steinbrenner, though in practice he had no duties and rarely visited New York.

Billy Martin was still a special consultant to Steinbrenner when he was killed in a low speed single-vehicle accident on Christmas Day 1989.

Billy Martin's vehicle ran into a drainage culvert near the entrance of the driveway to his farm in Port Crane, north of Binghamton, New York.

Billy Martin was pronounced dead at a hospital in Johnson City, New York.

Pennington noted that those who believe Billy Martin was the driver are the minority; Reedy was seen holding the car keys as the two left the bar, and the positions of the men when rescuers arrived pointed to Reedy being the driver.

Billy Martin was eulogized by Cardinal John O'Connor at St Patrick's Cathedral, New York, before his interment at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York.

Billy Martin's grave is located about 150 feet from Babe Ruth's, in Section 25.

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Billy Martin was the first manager to have led four different teams to the postseason, a feat that would not be matched until 2012 nor bettered until 2020, by which time the postseason had expanded greatly from Martin's day.

Billy Martin sought to catch the other team by surprise, using such techniques as stealing home—once having two Twins steal home on different pitches of the same at bat, with the slugger Harmon Killebrew at the plate.

Jaffe noted that with Minnesota in 1969, Billy Martin ended such risky tactics well before the end of the season, by which time he had set the tone he wanted both with his team, and with opponents.

Campbell, for instance, said that "from foul line to foul line, Billy did a good job, " while the A's told Sapir that "we won't find a better manager" than Martin.

Billy Martin divorced him in 1955, after he had contested the action for more than a year on the grounds that he was Catholic.

Billy Martin Joe was born of that marriage; his parents divorced in 1979.

Billy Martin was married a third time, to Heather Ervolino, while he was managing in Oakland, but was never faithful to her.

Billy Martin married his mistress, freelance photographer Jillian Guiver, in January 1988.

Billy Martin alleged that Martin began seeing her when she was 16 and was still married to his second wife, Gretchen Winkler, and then abruptly abandoned her.

Billy Martin alleged this was a pattern of behavior for Martin, that he had abandoned his previous wife Jill at a bar to marry Heather in 1982.

In 1978, Billy Martin played himself in the CBS TV movie One in a Million: The Ron LeFlore Story.

Billy Martin was a guest ring announcer at the inaugural WrestleMania in March 1985.

On May 24,1986, on the season finale of Saturday Night Live, co-host Billy Martin was "fired" by executive producer Lorne Michaels for being "drunk" in a skit, slurring his lines.

In retaliation, Billy Martin set the dressing room on fire, a staged scene set as a cliffhanger for the following season.

Billy Martin's grave has remained well-visited by Yankee fans, sometimes before driving to the Bronx to take in a home game.