Do you recognize this man? At one time he was one of the most famous men in American sports. Today? Not so much (thread)

That man is Billy Martin. There’s a plaque in his honor in Monument Park in Yankee Stadium. His uniform number (1) is retired by the Yankees. A solid role player on four World champion Yankee teams, it’s as a manager that he would achieve his greatest fame (and infamy)

Dating back to his playing days, stories of Billy drinking and fighting were commonplace. His nightlife and how often it involved his star teammates Whitey Ford and Mickey Mantle, was publicity the Yankees did not want in media-drenched NYC.

Needing a scapegoat, the Yankees wisely chose to keep both their elite left-handed starting pitcher and the greatest switch hitter that ever lived while parting ways with Martin - a slow, small, light-hitting, ok-fielding second baseman.

Billy played a few more uneventful years on bad teams and retired in 1961... but he was far from finished

Martin, having played so many years under Casey Stengel, had always been interested in managing...after a few years as a scout and coach in Minnesota, the Twins promoted him to the top job in 1969. The team improved under Martin from 7th place in 1968 to division winner in 1969.

Along the way, however stories of Martin drinking excessively began to reach Twins owner Calvin Griffith. In August, Martin joined in a fight outside a bar involving two of his players, outfielder Bob Allison and pitcher Dave Boswell, the latter of whom Martin repeatedly punched

Griffith considered firing Martin, but the twins were in first. However, the Twins got butchered by the incredible Baltimore Orioles in that year’s playoffs and once they started arguing off-season over a contract, Griffith decided Martin was too much trouble and let him walk.

In 1971, the Detroit Tigers- with an older but still talented roster decided to give Martin a try. In his first season, they improved from 4th place to 2nd. In his second season, they won the division and went to the playoffs where they lost to a much stronger Oakland A’s squad.

The 1973 Tigers faltered out of contention by August and Martin was fired. For perhaps the only time, the reasons were essentially baseball-related, only tangentially concerned with Martin’s violent alcoholism.

Nevertheless, everybody loves a winner and Martin was unemployed for about 15 minutes before the Texas Rangers swooped in and hired him. Here was a real challenge, a terrible team.

The 1974 Texas Rangers finished 2nd with a record of 84-76. That’s a lot more remarkable than it sounds. You see, the 1973 Rangers went 57-105. That’s an improvement of 27 games. There could be no doubt. Billy Martin the manager was for real.

One man taking note of this was the new owner of the Yankees, George Streinbrenner. As it turned out, 1975 would see the Rangers stumble back below .500 as Martin’s drinking, several fights and an absurd argument over a stadium organist’s playlist led to his firing in July.

Two weeks later, Steinbrenner swooped in and Martin had his dream job - manager of the Yankees. The team was a long time removed from its glory days. Competitive at times, but no playoffs since 1964. Martin was a link to the teams of legend, the golden era- fans were psyched

After basically just guiding the third place team for the last couple months of 1975, 1976 would be a big one for Billy and the Yanks; they’d win the American League pennant. But in the World Series, they found themselves overpowered by the Cincinnati Reds.

Still, winning the first Yankee pennant in 12 years (remember this is a team that used to win it practically every year) made Martin the toast of the town in a depressed, beaten down 70s New York.

That offseason, Steinbrenner wooed and eventually signed all-star Reggie Jackson, a three time World Series champion with the Oakland A’s (it was in fact his Oakland team which eliminated Martin’s ‘72 Tigers in the postseason)

Now there’s 50 different versions of how Martin felt about this signing. What matters is that Martin now had a player with a big name and big personality to deal with and frankly, Martin was jealous of some of his own spotlight diminishing.

In 1977, the Yankees won the World Series. Also:
1Reggie referred to himself as “the straw that stirs the drink” in an interview at the expense of catcher and team leader Thurman Munson
2More drinking stories

3The team started off terribly and Reggie and Billy had to be separated in the Yankee dugout in front of national television cameras in June

Also:
4Steinbrenner spread rumors to reporters that Martin’s job might be in jeopardy
5Martin stubbornly refused to bat Reggie 4th despite the obvious strategic sense
6He eventually relented, and the Yankees went 40-10 the rest of the way.

Despite the success, 1978 would be a mess. Fights among teammates, more drama with Steinbrenner and Reggie and eventually Martin resigning. He’d wind up back in NY again midway through 1979, but in the interim he beat up a newspaper reporter.

In 1979 he was hired back with the Yankees in the midst of a terrible season. Almost before he could even get started, Thurman Thomas, his star catcher and one of the most respected players on the team died in a plane crash. The team never recovered, finishing 4th.

In the offseason, Martin beat up a marshmallow salesman (for real) and Steinbrenner fired him. His next stop was Oakland, one of the worst teams in the league at the time.

The 1979 Oakland A’s were an atrocious 54-108... but under Martin’s guidance, the team improved by nearly 30 games in 1980, going 83-79. Crucial to this turnaround was Martin’s extremely aggressive approach to base running, exemplified by second-year star Rickey Henderson.

In 1981, Martin’s Oakland squad would challenge for the AL pennant. They fell short... against who else? The Yankees. The happy times were short lived... the 1982 A’s went nowhere fast and Martin’s life was as chaotic as ever; owners were sick of his behavior...

The IRS was after his money, he had a crazy, tawdry love life that spilled onto the gossip pages ...

Steinbrenner, his own team having fallen apart in 1982 was itching to get his old boy back. Martin, in what may have been a deliberate self-sabotage to get out of his Oakland contract, asked the A’s owners for a loan to pay his taxes and trashed his office when they refused.

Naturally they canned him

From 1983 until his death in a alcohol-fueled car crash on Christmas 1989, Billy Martin was on the Yankees payroll... he was manager for a full season in 1983, the last 2/3 of 1985 and part of 1988...

he was “fired” after ‘83 and ‘85, each time for incidents involving violence and drinking, including getting his arm broken fighting very large pitcher Ed Whitson in a bar in ‘85. In 1988, he was beaten up in a bar brawl and less than a month later

suspended by the league for throwing dirt at an umpire.

Steinbrenner, realizing Martin was a by now a huge liability, removed him from the position and he never managed again (though the supposed plan was for him to return yet again in 1990) ...

Martin won... a lot. He did it as a player and he did it as a manager. Managing, he rapidly improved the fortunes of no less than five different franchises; he won two AL pennants and a World Series. He never lasted long though, always sabotaging himself -

This side of Martin, this infamy has overshadowed his enormous accomplishments. It may seem odd that a character who casts a shadow this large over the sport is not enshrined in its hall of fame, but Billy is not.

Should he be? Yeah, honestly. The managerial record is impressive, there are hundreds of plaudits from other managers and many of his players... he wouldn’t exist now, really. You can’t behave like that and be that volatile an alcoholic and keep your job now. Impossible.

Would he be better known now if he was in the hall? A little, sure but I think it’s a more about dying a long time ago, and more crucially dying before the Yankee resurgence of the 1990s which made The 1980s a bad memory best forgotten and the 70s ancient history.

Nevertheless, Martin’s brilliance as a strategist and his ability to get results no matter the roster make him a baseball manager worth remembering...