Billy Martin…the complicated one

I scheduled this yesterday but it didn’t show up in the reader…at least mine so I tried again today.

I was talking to some friends…Dave and Ron… asked if Billy Martin belonged in the Hall of Fame…they both said yes… so did I.

This man to me was one of the best managers I’ve ever seen. There were downsides…oh there were many downsides to Martin but he got every ounce of talent out of most of his players. Was he a great person? No probably not but as a manager yes.

Martin was the kind of scrappy player that you hate to face and he would out-guess the opposing team while playing. He was totally insecure and paranoid and would think of ways of beating real and imaginary enemies. He would go to any length to win a game. He was a master at X’s and O’s of baseball…because he learned from Casey Stengel who learned a lot from John McGraw. Unfortunately, I think his paranoia is what made him a great manager. If you took that away you would not have Billy Martin.

Martin would do anything to beat you. He would find loopholes in rules and exploit them. The famous George Brett pine tar play. He knew Brett used too much pine tar earlier in the season but waited until Brett would beat the Yankees on a home run and he tried to cash that knowledge in.

As a player, he did more with less than most players do. He was talented no doubt but not a gifted physical player. Those are the kind of players he would get a lot of when he was a manager. He could get the most out of you.

Getting Billy Martin to manage your team came with one catch. He had an expiration date. He would soon anger the management and be on his way. He wanted full control but that was never going to happen. The most he ever managed was 3 years in a row. His dream job and the only one he ever loved was of course The Yankees…and he did it over and over and over and over and over again.

This shows the teams he managed the year Before Billy…and the year he took control.

1968 Minnesota Twins Before 79-83 after 97-65

1970 Detroit Tigers Before       79-83 After 91-71

1973 Texas Rangers Before     57-105 After 84-76-1

1975 New York Yankees Before 83-77 After 97-62

1979 Oakland A’s Before 54-108 After 83-79

His specialty was turning teams around and he did that regularly. In 1968 The Minnesota Twins were 79-83 and in 6th place in the American League. Billy was hired in 1969 and they improved to 97-65, first in the AL West. He had the Twins playing like he did…stealing home and running amuck…aggressive baseball. That team had a lot of talent and no one was better getting talent out of players. They were beaten in the playoffs by the Orioles.

Martin loved to drink and hang out with the players which was not normal for managers. Drinking yes but not doing that while hanging out with players. He ended up punching the traveling secretary and one of his pitchers out. So he was on his way again.

The Tigers were 79-83 in 1970. They had an aging team and Martin came aboard in 1971. The 1971 Tigers improved to 91-71 and were good for second place in the AL East to the Orioles who won 101 games. In 1972 their record was 86-70 and good for first place in the AL East. They would lose in the playoffs to Oakland. He didn’t care what you did…he would sign you if you could play baseball. Ron Lefore was in prison and Billy went to the prison to scout him as he played for the inmate team. He got him out of prison and they met the requirements for parole… and he tried out with the Tigers on a one-day pass and had a good career. He played until 1982.

In 1973 Billy and the Tigers parted company. In 1973 The Texas Rangers record was 57-105…that is about as low as you can get. In 1974 under Billy…their record was 84-76-1. That was a hell of a turnaround. After an owner change in the 1974 season…Billy was out in 1975. He then went to his dream job. In 1975 The Yankees were 83-77 but they had been slowly adding players since Steinbrenner bought the team in 1973.

In 1976 he took the team over and they went to the World Series and were swept by the Reds who were probably at their peak. The next year they won it all against The Dodgers. In 1978 he resigned in midseason with his famous quote about Reggie Jackson and George Steinbrenner… “The two of them deserve each other. One’s a born liar, the other’s convicted.” Being a Dodger fan…I loved this when I heard it as a kid.

In 1980 he took over the Oakland A’s. They were 54-108 in 1979. In 1980 under Martin, they were 83-79. Again the turnaround was exciting to watch and the press called it Billy Ball. Like the Twins…they were stealing home and sometimes doing triple steals. They would do the unexpected at any time. The downside was the load he put on the starting young pitchers. Their 5 starting pitchers had ERA’s under 4….and all of them combined had 93 complete games. There haven’t been that many complete games in one year in all of baseball since 100 in 2015.  All of them pitched over 200 innings…the highest being Rick Langford with 290 innings pitched with 28 complete games and a record of 19-12. They finished second in the AL West.

1981 was a strike year and they only played 111 games total. They made the playoffs with a 65-45 record. The Oakland A’s young pitching staff paid for that success and those complete games. Martin left after the 1983 season. It was his worst season as a manager with a 68-94 record. One of the reasons was the pitching staff worn down by this time…and his off-the-field drinking and trouble.

He would go back to the Yankees in 1983, 1985, and 1988. When he died in 1989…Steinbrenner was ready to bring him back in the 1990 season.

His overall record was 1253-1013-1… a winning percentage of .553

To give some context…Hall of Famer Tommy Lasorda’s record was 1599-1439-2…a winning percentage of .526

Earl Weaver:  “Billy understands baseball, he just doesn’t understand life.”

Earl Weaver: “Billy Martin’s teams don’t have any particular style, that’s why he’s so good. Look at the teams he’s had in Minnesota, Detroit, Texas, New York and Oakland. The first thing you notice is that no two of them are alike.”

NEVER have I seen an angrier guy on a sports field that includes football than Hall of Fame 3rd baseman George Brett…I thought his eyes would pop out. They eventually overturned the call and Brett’s home run stood and the game was finished later with the Royals winning.  

This was Billy’s last ejection and interview.