Billy Martin: Baseball’s Flawed
Genius
Author: Bill
Pennington
Published: 2015
Pages: 565
My vision of Billy Martin was as
the hot-headed manager of the New York Yankees, who was always fighting with
players and umpires, always getting fired and then re-hired, and as the second
baseman who made the remarkable catch of Jackie Robinson’s wind blown pop-up in
the 1952 World Series.
This book, written by Bill
Pennington—who covered the Yankees in the 1970s and 1980s—expands on that
vision and adds to it. Although Pennington at times glorifies Martin’s bar room
fights, his alcoholism and other indiscretions, he does an excellent job of
portraying Martin as a Shakespearean-type of tragic hero that the reader can’t
help but fall in love with.
Martin’s life is covered from
his upbringing in the rather poor city of Berkeley, California, to his playing
days with the Yankees, to his managerial tour right through to his tragic death
in an auto accident after an afternoon of drinking on Christmas Day 1989.
(Whether Martin was the driver of the passenger is still up for debate.)
Through it all, we see how his
tough, take-nothing-lying down upbringing instilled in him by his mother, would
make him friends wherever he went, but also made just as many—if not
more—enemies. We see how he was a playful grandfather type that would talk to
children in the lobbies of the hotels he stayed in, or spent endless hours
signing autographs or attending functions as a guest speaker. We hear about how
he would tip valets and bellhops generously and spend all kinds of money
without worrying about how much was left.
But then we also see the effects
of his volatile temper and his drinking. Countless bar fights that could have
been avoided, confrontations with his own and opposing players and his own
players. And let’s not forget his dirt-kicking escapades when in a heated
conversation with umpires.
It’s amazing to read about how,
as a manager, he could take a team that had been horrible before he arrived,
turn it into a winner within in two years, but then just as quickly be sacked
by the team’s management for outbursts off the field.
A good job was done by
Pennington in interviewing many of Billy’s teammates, players, friends and
family members, some of whom had never agreed to be interviewed in the past. An
interesting read about an amazing player and manager who was also a very
troubled individual.
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