Crime in Sports - Loyalty Lawsuits Left Hooks Billy Martin Part 4

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

This week, Billy starts out on another new team, but that doesn't last long. He bounces around the league, while fighting, and even getting sued by another player, who ended up with a broken orbital bone. As he tries to live down his fighter reputation, he get into even more fights. He even fights a team official, in a hotel lobby. With his playing career over, he also enters the managerial stage of his career.. but he's still ready to punch!!   Spend your last few years in the league, bouncing around with different teams, punch the team's traveling secratary, for a minor provocation, and get sued for a million dollars, because of an on the field fight with Billy Martin - Part 4!!   Check us out, every Tuesday! We will continue to bring you the biggest idiots in sports history!!   Hosted by James Pietragallo & Jimmie Whisman   Donate at... patreon.com/crimeinsports or with paypal.com using our email: [e-mail] Get all the CIS, STM & YSO merch at crimeinsports.threadless.com   Go to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things CIS, STM & YSO!!   Contact us on... instagram.com/smalltownmurder facebook.com/crimeinsports [e-mail]

Hello everybody and welcome back to crime in sports. Yay! Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petrigallo. I'm here with my co-host. I'm Jimmy Wiseman. Thank you folks so much for joining us today on another edition of Crime in Sports.

We are excited to get into more of Pilly Martin's madness. We got a lot of fighting this week, boy. The 60s are a scrapping time for Billy, man. He is on the down. side of his career and angry about it, it seems like. So we'll get into all of that and more. First of all, though, shut up and give me murder.com. Get your tickets for all your small town murder live shows there.

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Let's get back into this here with Billy Martin. Billy Martin, as we left, had just been sent to the Cincinnati Reds. Right. Here. So he'd been sent to Cincinnati. He's getting bounced all around now, which is tough. I mean, if you're, you were in like New York in the glory time. Winning World Series every year and hanging out with Mickey Mantle every night.

Go into the best restaurants with fucking Frank Sinatra. and Joe DiMaggio and like, well, and now you're in Cincinnati, which we've been to Cincinnati. That has none of that. All it has is a river that smells like sulfur. That's it. That's Cincinnati. And then he was in Kansas City, which again, not really a party town unless you consider

eating barbecue a party sport. Yeah. That's it. So kind of tough. So these 1960 Cincinnati Reds here, also since he's been traded around a lot, he's getting sent to shit teams also. Yeah, yeah. On these great teams.

Now this year, they are 67 and 87. Oh? Terrible. Sixth in the National League. So ever since he's been sent anywhere away from the Yankees, he's had no success there at all. Now, here is a spring training fight story from a teammate named Lee Walls. Yeah. Okay.

A little story about Billy. This is from the book. Quote, we went to a bar in Tampa in the early afternoon. Now right away, that's a mistake. Early afternoon, it's... Anywhere in Tampa. Yeah. People have... Well, by the early afternoon, it's the best time.

They've only been drunk in Tampa for about four or five hours, but their opiates are just kicking in at this point, so it calms them down a lot. It's a good time to go. It's very nice. In the early afternoon after a workout, and there was one lonely guy sitting there nursing a drink at the other end of the bar.

The bartender recognized Billy and bought us both a drink. The guy at the end of the bar said, Hey, Fred, I've been coming here for 20 years and you never bought me a drink just for walking in. So Billy laughs and buys the guy a drink. I'll buy you a drink. How's that? The guy got up, walked over, and threw the drink in Billy's face. You think you're a big shot.

Dude, this is why bars suck. Is this why? This is, well, this is one of the many reasons bars suck is you don't know what level of alcoholic despair somebody's in. No. Where something that should be nice or funny is not taken that way. Oh, my God. Things can be taken out of context so fast. And it's great.

They've lost ability to reason at that point. So it's like reading texts of your, you can just make anything mean anything. Why'd you say it like that? What are you talking about? It's so. It's so fucking weird. No, it's like being a hostage negotiator. I was a bouncer.

That's what it was like. It was like, they would show like in hostage negotiations. Like in the beginning of Mind Hunter, when they're showing like, you know, you don't know what a state of mind is. He could be thinking that. I can see that it's cold. Yeah. So you like, you probe a little bit in one area. Okay, that doesn't work.

So you got to go like that. That's what you do with a drunk person. Like, oh, maybe they got a sense of humor. Maybe they want a joke. This person's very serious. They don't want a joke. Okay, let's be serious. It's fucking crazy.

These people are nuts. You can't fucking, wow. Can't reason with him. So he threw the drinking Billy's face. In an instant, the guy was lying on the floor. Billy ain't taken kindly. to throw in a drink in his face, especially when he paid for.

So from the book it says, Walls, this is the guy telling the story, was a fearsome, bald-headed giant who resembled the muscular guy on the Mr. Clean bottles, but without the smile. He had seen plenty of guys in bar fights. He had not seen anything like the 5-foot-10 Billy Martin.

He said, Billy hit him with one short, crushing right hand, and the guy just collapsed. Oh, wow. The man knew how to throw a punch, but you know, Billy was disgusted. We drank fast.

Billy left a nice tip and we left. Think about what they just said right there. He knocked a guy out and then they turned back to the bar and kept drinking. They finished the, they were like, well, anyway, so what were we talking about? Finish their drink. Left a tip and fucking left. That is hilarious, man. So that's how Billy Martin is.

This team, I am looking over their roster of the 60 Reds. And there is not Don Newcomb, Joe Nuxall, who at that point was 31, but he was a guy who came in the league when he was 17. That's a big story. Otherwise, Veda Pinson, there is not a lot of guys that like the modern fan, unless they're really big saber baseball nerds would know about. Really, these guys, this is a really, holy, Harry Anderson from Nightcourt was in there apparently. Good for him. Good for him. Rust and peace.

That's good. I love Harry Anderson. He was amazed. God, he made that show so fun. Oh, he just got to love Nightcourt when I was a kid. That was a fucking great show. Yeah. That's good stuff.

March 27th, 1960. Okay. This is right after that incident, by the way. This is so funny. This is a big article about how big fluff piece on Billy Howe is a nice, kindler, gentler, calmer Billy Martin this year after he just exploded a guy's face in a bar. Billy Martin hard to recognize not carrying chip on his shoulder. That's the headline in the newspaper. He's all he's good now, everybody.

Cincinnati humbled him. It is hard to recognize Billy Martin in a Cincinnati uniform because he's not carrying the usual chip on his shoulder, cracking any jokes or vowing to make someone worry. All at once, the 31-year-old Martin seems to have matured and no one is more conscious of the radical change than he is. He said, I'm not looking to show the Indians, the Yankees, or anyone else. He said, keeping his eye on the pitcher as he waited his turn in the batting

cage. The only one I want to show is Billy Martin. I'm tired of bouncing around. I'm tired of getting into controversies. The only thing on my mind now is having a great year. Not a good one, but a great one. Great one. Great one. And I feel I'm going to have that kind of year.

I've got to. I don't want to move around anymore. I don't want to have to listen to people saying the only team Martin could ever play for was the Yankees. It says Billy moved into the batting cage, got good wood on five out of six pitches. Nice. some good wood, served up by teammate Don Newcomb, and then sprinted around the bases at Al Lopezfield, where the Reds train.

When he returned, Martin talked of the continuous merry-go round he's been on since the Yankees let him go in 1957. Since then, he's played for Kansas City, Detroit, and Cleveland. The Indians traded him. They're talking about all that. Martin says, you know, I've heard people argue both ways. Some claim Cleveland got the better end of the deal. Others say Cincinnati did. I guess it'll be easier to tell this along about September.

He said, he had differences with Cleveland manager Joe Gordon last season, chiefly because Gordon refused to play him. But Billy has all but forgotten that. No more grudges from Billy. Yep. We'll see by September. He said, quote, what's the sense in letting it aggravate me? Uh-huh. Guy throws a drink in your face.

You laugh and walk away, right? It's not going to change anything. No, he said, you're never going to change people. I remember going back home around Oakland one time, and I was sitting around having a beer. This guy comes over to me and strikes up a conversation. It seems he's a baseball bug, and he doesn't like Billy Martin. He didn't know it was me, and he really said some awful things about the kind of fellow Billy Martin was. To Billy Martin.

Every time he said something bad about me, I told him, yeah, I heard the same thing about Martin, too. Then some people came in the place and recognized me. They all came over and said hello, and one of them asked me for my autograph. All the time I'm signing my name, this fellow who was ripping me is looking at the signature from the corner of his eye. No sooner did I finish, then he sticks his handout and says, Billy Martin, you're my favorite ball player. Let me buy you a beer. People like to talk shit.

That's all. That's all it is. Disarmine. Yeah, April 3rd, 1960. It's the beginning of the season, and Billy's got a bit of a distraction here, as a 100,000. $100,000 lawsuit is filed against Billy Martin. What year? 1980?

1960. 60. Oh my God. That's over a million dollars. That's crazy money. That's a lot of money. Way more than he's made in his career. Yeah.

Like this is crazy. So, yeah, April 2nd, $100,000 suit's been filed against Billy Martin, the Cincinnati New Second Baseman for an alleged injury resulting from one blow during the spring of 1958. Two years ago. He's getting sued over a five. fight from fucking years ago. Yeah. The suit was followed or filed by Billy Joe Ingram.

The incident occurred at a restaurant in Lakeland where the Detroit Tigers were in training. Martin was a tiger at the time. Martin said he and Frank Lowry, Tiger's pitcher, were in the restaurant when a man he had never seen came up and started trouble. Martin said, quote, I hit him once in self-defense. We had been minding our own business. Oh. Yeah.

Now, by the way, you. got to keep in mind that back in the day he's a really, really tough guy at this point. At this point in time, he's a little shit, but he one punch knocks people the fuck out. Right. Yeah. Big drunk men who want to fight him.

Ends, and he's a skirmish and a discussion in one punch. So later on, when that shit doesn't work anymore, when he's in his 50s, it's a totally different thing. Because there's a story later on from when he's in Texas where there's some big giant, tough

fucking, like oil fucking field worker, big guy and Billy fucking hits him once in the face and the guy says, I'm going to fucking let you get away with that tonight because you're so drunk. Because you're an old man. Tomorrow, when you're sober, I'm going to kick the shit out of you. Oh, fuck.

Which sounds terrible, doesn't it? That's the worst threat ever. I want you to have your best opportunity of beating me. And it's not going to have that. He said, I want you to remember me kicking your ass is what he said. That's what he told him. I want you to remember me kicking the shit out of you. And you're too drunk now. So tomorrow, which is the scariest thing anybody could say.

I'm still going to handle you very easily. Take a punch in the face, rub it a little bit and go, all right. Now, now I'm not going to kill you. You better run. I'm going to wake you up. Yeah. Now, so he's in the National League now as opposed to the American League. So they don't even play the Yankees, obviously, at this point.

So he says, quote, the worst thing about being in the National League is that I won't be able to see Mickey all summer. He's my best friend. We're closer than brothers. We can sit around and say things to each other that we wouldn't say to anybody else. Oh, like what? I was going to say, don't make yourself sound like you're...

Just sitting around saying the N-word together. No, shit. I thought it was more of talking about each other's wonderful fucking buttocks and ball sacks and things. It's just immense praise. You got the smoothest ball sack I ever seen, Billy. It's amazing. Yeah, but Mickey.

Like three wrinkles in it. Mickey, your taint's just a hundred times better than mine. The tides. It's the tides taint I ever seen. I mean, ball sacks are ball sacks, but that tank don't last forever. You know what I mean? From another article, he said, I don't resent being traded to three clubs in three years, but I don't relish the idea of being a baseball gypsy.

He said, did you know I haven't been with one club for two years since the Yankees sent me to Kansas City? Is that right? Yeah, I like Cincinnati. Maddie. I like the town. You're lying, Billy. I like the manager. I like the players. I'd like to stay with the club for a while. In the article, they say, this was a different Billy Martin talking. The cockiness was gone. There was no animosity in his voice. He's good now, everybody. He's a happy man. He said, I'm not blaming anyone for all the shuttling I've been doing in recent years. Baseball trades are a matter of business. Detroit needed a shortstop, so I went over there. Cleveland needed a second basement, so I went over there. Cincinnati needed a pitcher, so I came over in the Cal McLeish deal. There's nothing personal involved in any of the trades. So why should I feel resentful toward anyone?

Wow. I mean, there's shit can on you, man. Yeah, he said, I feel like a rookie in the National League. I don't know the parks. I don't know the pitchers. People might not even remember this, but there was no interleague play before 30 years ago. Wow. The only time you'd see anyone in the other league was if you made it to the World Series, and they were there.

That's it. Otherwise, you never played it. a National League ballpark if you were an American League guy. He said, I don't know how to play the different hitters yet. The whole league is new to me. What's the difference between the national and American leagues? Frankly, I haven't been in the league long enough to give a logical answer. I've only seen four National League clubs.

So far, the obvious difference is the parks. The American League parks are bigger. I was stunned when I saw the Los Angeles Coliseum for the first time the other night. I went up to the plate thinking that short left field fence would be real easy to hit. This is while they were building Dodger Stadium. Yeah. So, yeah. I went to the plate thinking that, okay, but it wasn't because I couldn't see the ball.

The lighting in the background in that park doesn't help hitters. But he hit a home run off the Dodgers that night. Martin's brother warned him about the bay breezes that sweep through Candlestick Park. He said, if the wind bothers me here, it's my own fault. Remember, I was raised in the wind playing at Kenny Park and Berkeley. I used to blow up a storm there. Oh, it used to blow up a storm there. He said that I'm not exactly burning up the league.

I've been hitting the ball hard, but always right at somebody. You've got to have a little luck, and mine's been all bad. I did hit Robin Roberts pretty good, who's a great, I think he's a Hall of Fame or Robin Roberts. But Warren Spahn tied me in Little Knots. Warren Spahn tied everyone in Little Knots. He's a fucking monster, Warren Spont. He impressed me the most. So far, I haven't seen too many fastball pitchers in this league.

The best one I've encountered was Stan Williams of the Dodgers. He throws real hard. So they asked him about Mickey Mantle. And he said, I got together with Mickey during spring training. We trained in Tampa and the Yankees were nearby in St. Petersburg. So it made things easy for Mickey and I to go see each other. Mickey also phoned me the other night in Philadelphia. It was nothing important.

Mickey just said he felt like talking. What's you up to? He said Martin's new room he is pitcher Cal McClish. That's the guy he was traded with. He said, I like the setup very much. When you room with a guy who plays every day, you're in trouble. He doesn't get a hit for three days and he's grumpy for three days. With a pitcher, though, he only works once every four days.

So even if he gets batted around, at least he's only grumpy one day out of the week. And he said, we have one thing in common. We both can't hit. So Billy was married again during the winter, by the way. Oh? To a woman named Gretchen. Yeah. He said, Gretchen and I are living in Cincinnati.

atty now, but we intend to move to Berkeley when the season is over. He said he's got to go see a bunch of his friends in the Bay Area, and he's very excited. He said that also eventually he'd like to, he wants to have another baseball team in Oakland, because this is before the A's. This is when the Giants had just moved there, like three years earlier. Does that he played a Candlestick Park first? The Giants, yeah. They played there, yeah. He said two big league clubs in the Bay Area would be a natural. And it was for about, 60 years and then Yeah, yeah. Not so much anymore. That shit doesn't even exist anymore that park. They tore the whole fucking thing down. No, no, the Oakland Coliseum.

Oh, yeah, yeah, that's valuable real estate in San Francisco. Gone gone. Yeah, fuck yeah. Yeah, that shit is gone gone. It's a beautiful little peninsula. No, it's nice, yeah. So, 1960 here, Billy says that he wants a rematch with Gene Conley. Oh.

Okay. Now, yeah. Billy Martin, a good second baseman, has been trying to live down the reputation as a brawler that he has. This is the article. He's trying to come back with the Cincinnati Reds. But fists were flying again yesterday. And this time Martin was tagged, he says, trying to be the peacemaker.

Oh, he's trying to settle it down. I could see him coming in. Too old for this shit. Hey, guys, calm down, calm down. He catches astray. And then he's like, oh, yeah, motherfucker. And then he's in a rage, I could say. He said, I never figured I'd get hit breaking up a fight.

Sucker punched. That's what it was. He said, pitchers. Gene Conley gave him the wallop. His pride was so hurt and he wants a return engagement with Conley. Wow. Is Gene a ref now or like a first base coach or something? I'm not sure.

He's probably dead by now. Probably. Yeah, he's got to be dead by now. I feel like he's a hundred years old. I feel like he's in that video with Earl Weaver where Earl's freaking the fuck out. Oh, that's possible. I don't think he became an ump though. No?

Not a lot of players become umps. First base coat or first base. A coach possibly. I can see him being a coach. So it came during the biggest free-for-all, free-for-all brawl seen at Crosley Field in years in the eighth inning of the first of two games with the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Phils were far ahead and went on to win 14 to 3. Cincinnati won the more sedate nightcap 5 to 1. Reds reliever Raoul Sanchez had trouble finding the plate and three times hit Phillies batters with low erratic pitches. The third one hit Conley. Philly's manager, Gene Mock, charged at Sanchez, fire in his eye. Redleg's first baseman Frank Robinson drifted over to intercept Mock. So did Martin.

Martin says, all I did is try to intercept him. I grabbed him, but from behind, somebody slugs me. I turn around and it's Conley. Brave, isn't he? Sucker punching. Mock tangled with the pitcher Sanchez, and that emptied both the dugouts on the teams. fist fighting started in earnest, and relief pitchers streaked from the bullpen to help.

For 12 minutes, the brawlers roved around the field, wrestling and punching on the ground in groups of four to five or squaring off man to man. Finally, peacemakers prevailed. Robinson found himself on the bottom of a pile of three Phillies players at one point. Later, he and Phillies pitcher Robin Roberts tangled in a private punching match and had to be separated.

That's two Hall of Famers punching each other. That's awesome. But Roberts apologized to Robinson said, I made a remark I shouldn't have. I was mad at the time. Gee, I wonder what he called him. I mean, honestly. Umpires finally cleared the field and ordered all the players off the field except those in the game.

No one was ejected, however. No ejections from an entire brawl. That's awesome. And Billy Martin, who has tried to turn away from his brawling days, was the only combatant visibly hurt. The punch raised a big swelling where Martin's jaw was broken by a pitch last year. X-rays later showed no break. But that didn't cool, Billy Martin.

He fumed over Conley's height. He said it's tough hitting them six-foot-eight guys, but just give me a stool. So he's ready to fight this big giant guy. I'll get up there. Martin broke away from a group of restraining peacemakers once during the melee and hunted for Conley. He said, I hit him once in the neck. Cripes, he's so big I can't reach his face. I can't reach his face.

I caught him in the neck. He said he's so big I can't reach his face. That's hilarious. Oh, man. It was like the fight club when Norton hits Brad Pitt in the fucking ear. Yeah, he's like, come on, man. He can't even throw a punch. He said, when it was all over, Conley wanted to talk to me about it.

I didn't want to talk. I just wanted him. And I think I may just get another opportunity. Conley declined to talk about the brawl. He said, I don't think it's good to talk about it. He told the paper. Red's manager Fred Hutchinson said there would have been no trouble if Maugh had not run onto the field. But manager Mock, who said he once found himself on the ground being pummeled, said how much of that stuff can my guys take, meaning getting hit by pitches?

So June of 1980, wow. Billy Martin is pissed off. Shocking, right? he asked he said you know how many passes I got tonight I got 18 so all my relatives are here this was in San Francisco now Martin would have felt even better about it

had I told him how many tickets to Giants a lot this newspaper which is just one so you get one pass for the newspaper but 18 for Billy he said as usual the kid had a gripe this time it has to do with how the umpires call him he explained In the American League, the strikes are high. In the National League, the strikes are low. Here, the strikes are called from about here to here. He marked off the zone between the base of his breastbone and the top of his socks.

In the American League, the umpires call them from about four inches below the armpit to the knee. He said, one thing National League umps tend to miss is the low outside pitches. I don't see how they can possibly call them from their crouch inside. The umps should be behind the catcher like they are in the American League. I guess they'd set up inside in the National League. Uh-huh. Yeah. If they're over here crouching to one side of the plate,

they have to switch over behind the catcher's head to see the outside pitches, and they're bound to miss them. He said his face is still sore, too, from getting punched. He said he caught me. Punch is hurt for a while. Oh, are they smart, yeah. He said, he caught me right in the temple. The thing swelled up, uh, swelled way up,

and it hurt way down to my cheek. Conley broke about seven bones in my face. It'll take about six months to mend. Yeah. If they hadn't held me off, I think that big Joker would be an even worse shape. Actually, I was only trying to break up the free-for-all when he belted me. But I got in one swing before they hauled me off, and it dropped him to his knees. He said, you know, when I was in Berkeley High, Jennings booted me off the team two years in a row for fighting.

He taught me to turn the other cheek if someone gives me a bad time. I can do this if they just give me some bad words. I'll turn away every time. But, man, when they belt me, I always belt back. I could never hold myself back, no matter how. hard I tried. And he said, right now my home's in Cincinnati, but he said that, you know, he'll move back to Berkeley if a business opportunity turns up.

Okay. August 5th, 1960. Teams start pitching Martin inside a lot. Uh-oh. Which pisses him off, obviously. They're jamming him up and he knows it. So there's a guy named Jim Brewer, not the comedian, the one-note comedian, the actual. a baseball player.

Yeah. So I guess apparently, he was pitching Billy inside, and after one pitch way inside, Billy on the next pitch, swung the bat and let it go. Oh. Threw it at the pitcher, essentially.

Yeah. And it landed not near the pitcher's mound, but, you know, out in the field. When he went out to retrieve it, Brewer approached. Martin swung at him. sometime during the brawl a punch broke Brewer's orbital bone

though whether it was Martin who did it or Reds pitcher Cal McLeish is uncertain Martin was ejected his sixth and final ejection as a player and was suspended for five games by the National League President Warren Giles that's the short version now here's from the book here it was August 4th in Wrigleyfield

one day before the one year anniversary of Billy's Beaning by Tex Clevenger when the Cubs six-foot-two Jim Brewer, a left-handed rookie, threw a pitch that sailed toward Billy's head until he deflected it, until he deflected it with his left arm. The umpire said the pitch struck Billy's bat as well and called him a strike. It bounced off his arm and hit the bat, so now it's a strike. That's a strike, yeah.

Billy was doubly incensed with the location of the pitch and with the umpire's call. He decided he would use a frequent tactic of hitters who were upset at the pitchers. he would make the brewer, he would make Brewer skip rope, which he's in at the end of his wind up. Now you've got to dodge a bat. This is when a batter swings at a pitch and pretends to lose control of the bat, flinging it along the ground at the pitch toward the pitcher's mound.

The pitcher usually has no trouble getting out of the way, but the batter sends a message, I can throw things at you too. Right. On the next pitch, Billy did just that, except his aim was off and the bat skittered harmlessly to the right of the mound, halfway between the mound and first base.

Billy walked on to the diamond after his bat. In his version of the sequence to follow, Billy said he saw Brewer coming at him from his left as he got close to his bat. Brewer had a clenched fish fist and Billy was sure a punch was coming. Brewer's version was that he yelled at Billy, you want to fight? And that Billy answered, no kid, relax. I'm just getting my bat. Now, I can't see.

if you ask Billy if he wants to fight he wants to you want to fight the answer's always yes yeah I mean he's not going to say no and you're doing that because you want to fight and he's pissed off at you to begin with and now you're asking him to fight he's not going to tell you to relax I've never

the word relax is in Billy's vocabulary it's just not until the fight at the co or unlike the fight at the Copa thousands were watching so what is indisputably known is that just as Billy was reaching his bat brewer was converging on him Billy suddenly wheeled to his left and smacked Brewer with a perfect right hand of the jaw.

Billy also said that day and forevermore that he never hit Brewer again. In an almost every baseball fight, there was a pile up of players. At one point, Brewer kicked our Cal McClish in the ribs and Cal went nuts, Lee Wals said. He started whacking Brewer with punches to the face, three, four, five. He did some damage. And, wow. Brewer was taken to the hospital with a fractured orbital.

bone near his right eye. I'm sorry if he's hurt. I'm sorry that it happened. He threw it my head, Billy said in the locker room. I was in the hospital for weeks last year. No one's going to throw out my head again. Yeah,

you got hit in the fucking jaw. So apparently this is a pretty serious injury this brewer has. So, I mean, yeah, that's not good. It happens. It happens. So they say Martin, Philly, and Logan mean business when they start swinging.

Here's an article. So Billy Martin up and swings on a rookie pitcher yesterday and breaks his cheekbone, which they think it's the other guy, not him, but still. Cincinnati Infielder claimed the Chicago Cubs right-hander threw at him. Most of these baseball fights amount to nothing more than a push and pull affair. Yeah, most of the time there's two guys that are pissed off at each other. Yeah. Everybody else comes out and makes conversation. There it is.

That's the bench clear. Literally, in Jim Bout and in Ball 4, they talk about where he talks about a brawl that happened in Seattle. and he's like, what you do is you look for someone you know, and you go over, and you grab them and start to say, what are you dinner plans? Yeah, literally. He said he went over to his buddy and he was like, how's the wife? She's good. How's yours?

That's good. You guys still doing that business? Yeah, I'm in real estate. All right, good. And he says, now you throw me on the ground. Okay, here we go. And he goes, now you punch me in the stomach, but not too hard. Okay.

Okay. Now you do this to me and they're like joking around laughing. He said one guy, um, came over. Hey, you two, break it up. And he said they were cracking up laughing. And he goes, we're not, we're playing. This isn't serious. We're roommates.

He goes, we're roomies. And he goes, I don't give a shit. Break it up. It's fucking funny. So that's normally what happens, unless it's a big brawl. But not when Martin is involved. Yeah, he throws punches. The same applies to the 40-year-old Dave Philly of the Giants or Milwaukee's Johnny Logan.

These three toughies mean business when they start swinging. Martin has had his share of brawls, including a memorable one not so many years ago, with Jim Pearsall under the stands in Fenway. Park. This little 160-pound stripling of a man has challenged some of the biggest men in the game. Stripling? Stripling. Yeah, he talks about it. I don't even know what means. Small apparently. I guess, yeah. Yeah.

He said that all the fight with Courtney, what was it Clint Courtney? Yeah, Clint Courtney, that fight. He said, all of a sudden, Courtney was on all fours and looked like Martin had finished him, but that wasn't true. Courtney was scratching around on the grass for his glasses. Wait until I find them. and I'll be with you. I can't see nothing until I do, declared the catcher. I'll be with you in a moment.

Oh, man. Some major leaguers have told us that Billy Martin knows whom to pick on. We've heard others disagree with that. Anyway, he's advised to think twice, perhaps, before taking a poke at rough and ready Dave Philly, despite the Texan's age. Bob Grimm won't disagree, that's for sure. One afternoon in Chicago during a heated Yankee White Sox game, Philly calmly walked out to the mound and decked Grimm with a one-two

before players from either team could pry him loose. Grim had to leave the game when he was unable to shake the dizziness in his noggin. Casey Sengel said, it ain't fair. Chicago knocked my man off the mound without a bit of warning, and I didn't even have a pitcher warming up. So they talk about Johnny Logan

and all these guys, so there's these big guys, and then there's this tiny little Billy Martin, which is fucking funny. That is very fucking funny. They say that they think that Dave Philly's the toughest one guy says. Al Lopez says they better stay away from Dave Philly. The old man would give both those guys a good spanking. All right.

Here's a good picture, by the way, of Billy attacking a... Oh, yeah. In the neck. Punching him. His feet are off the ground. This is Billy Martin punching Jim Brewer there. His fucking feet are off the ground, dude. Look at that.

Yeah, he is jumping. He's jumping. and punch. He's so mad. He's fucking... Is there somebody behind him? Why is there an arm around Jim's neck? Oh, it's Jim's punch. Jim's got his arm this way. Oh, Jim missed. Yeah. He's dodging a punch and trying to

throw a punch with his off arm at the same time. I'll post that picture on social media is one of the pictures here. So Billy is fined $500 and suspended five days. So that's, you know, to be expected, I guess. What do you want here? So the Cubs physician said the orbit bone below Brewer's right eye is fractured and he has to undergo surgery. So they said the league said they announced the suspension and fine after a day long investigation of the incident. He conferred with the four umpires who worked in the game into Chicago and with four other disinterested parties, meaning people not throwing punches.

Declined to say who that was, though. but they said for your conduct in the second inning of the game on August 4th, you're fined the sum of $500 and suspended for five days. That's bad. Martin said, I think I've been dealt with very unfairly by the league. Yeah. He said the fight wasn't my fault. I intend to appeal this to baseball commissioner Ford Frick.

I'm sure he'll give me a hearing. After all, he's supposed to represent the players too, isn't he? So he said he requested a hearing from the league and they didn't give him one. So now he wants one from there. He said, you know, I was hitting the cheekbone. I was protecting myself. What do you want from me? Fuck off.

You know, that's it. So that's what happens, man. Anyway, he, this, would you like to see his wife? I hope this is his wife. It says it's his wife. After he was, wife consoles. Oh, Jim Brewer, this is Jim Brewer's wife. Look at his wife.

Oh, my. My God. His wife looks like it looks like. It looks like. She looks like she cooks a mean casserole is what she looks like. She looks like. She's wearing a fucking tablecloth. She looks like fat Elvis and drag.

That's what she looks like. Fat Elvis and Midwestern housewife drag. Yeah. I guarantee she cooks up a fucking storm. She must. She goes like 450. She's got to fucking cook up a storm. She's a big girl.

So there, he's being consoled in the hospital. The Cubs Brewer says he's glad. that the suspension wasn't changed because the league wouldn't change it. He says, I think the fine and suspension is strong enough and I'm glad it wasn't lifted. Okay, from the book, it says Brewer ended up meeting two surgeries to repair his fracture

and an infection that invaded the area. Oh. When the Reds returned to Wrigley Field on August 22nd, Billy was served court papers. Brewer and the Cubs were suing him for nearly $2 million. Oh, wow. In 1960.

fight? So now that's about $2.1 million worth of lawsuits in the last two months. Uh-oh. Wow. That's crazy. Deadpan Billy, referring to Wrigley Chewing Gum Air, who owned the Cubs, said Ask Mr. Wrigley how he would like it.

Cash or check? It did not seem so funny when the game began and the fans in the right field bleachers held up signs that read Kill Martin. Jesus. Chicago police escorted Billy to and from Riggly Field for the next two days.

Still, Billy did not take the suit seriously. He maintained he hit Brewer on the chin once. He knew McClish had done the real damage. The suit went through two trials. Really? Yeah. And the Reds testified that McClish probably caused the fracture. Cal told us he did it, Gretchen Martin said.

So, yeah. From the FBI files now. This is from Billy's FBI file. Okay. Apparently, not a... a real fan of the mail, and there's a reason for it. This is for people sending him shit. Billy Martin's the victim here, not the perpetrator.

All right, all right. So it said Cincinnati Baseball Club, appeared at the somebody from the office, appeared at the Cincinnati office of the FBI, at which time he produced a letter, which he believed to constitute a violation of the extortion statute. Okay.

The letter is addressed to Mr. Billy Horseface Martin. Horseface. Horseface. Yeah. Care of Cincinnati National League. It's, uh, so, the letter sets out here, registered mail, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Okay, it says, horse face, Martin.

You have a face like a horse. Well, clearly, if you just call them horse face. That's what you call them. Yeah. You pulled the most cowardly trick, which you pull wherever you have an opportunity. Spelled wrong, by the way. Really? With an e.

With an opportunity. Yeah, with a knee. Uh-huh. When the cub pitcher asked, it sound like you've spelled it that way quite a few times. No, I could say it going that way. Yeah, yeah. I'm really good at that word. That's good.

When the cub pitcher asked you if you wanted to fight, fie, not fight, five. You said, no, sir, I came after my bat that he took you at your good word, relaxed and turned. Then you took your cowardly swing at him. All of this you know, but I do want you to know sometimes. you're going to meet a guy like me in life who's that has encountered a couple of bums like you. They pulled the same trick under different circumstances. He's going to pay Billy back for everything that's happened in his life.

They both got their belly cut wide open. Ooh. A hole big enough to put a cantalope in. And both like you yelled cop like you. Okay. I do hope you return to Kansas City as I will see, I will see that we meet some way or another as I would enjoy converting you and give you an opportunity to swing on me and give me the opportunity of slicing you down in the gut. Did you spell them right that time?

Gut is no. Slicing is wrong. Every time he spells opportunity, it's with an E. Slicing, he puts an extra E in it. What the fuck? And gut has an extra T and a capital G for some reason. Please eat T. Yeah.

Please hurry as I am anxious to meet you. Love and then they have redacted, but love so and so. And stab you in the go. P.S. Yeah. In the goot. Cincinnati is the only major league club who wanted you. Now they don't.

Oh. Okay. So, yeah, Billy Martin. There's all the physical description of him. Married wife, Gretchen Martin, the whole deal, 510, 165. Okay, so Billy Martin is having problems. Now, August 23rd, 1960 here, there's another lawsuit here from Brewer and the Cubs, and I don't know if that's like in addition to the $2 million or what,

but this is for $1,040,000. Wow. Claiming loss of opportunity spelled correctly in the newspaper. Yeah, because his lawyer wrote it. Yeah, somebody else wrote it to engage in professional baseball, therefore lost great earning power has suffered bodily harm requiring hospitalization operations

and other extensive medical expense. So, yeah, they said that the Cubs said we would like to see Brewer adequately compensated for his injuries, and of course the Cubs have also been hurt with him being sidelined in this unfortunate way. Martin's

teammates reportedly chipped in and paid off his $500 fine. That's nice of them. Monday. they clustered around him after the papers were served and said, don't worry, Billy, we'll all chip in on this thing again. Only it'll cost us about $35,000 each. Martin said that he would have nothing to say or a decision, any decision until he talked with the Reds vice president and general manager, Gabe Paul. Paul said, I will not comment on the facts of the suit itself, but if the case ever comes to trial,

there will be some interesting developments. I can certainly take exception, however, to how the Cubs have handled this thing. He said there could have been better ways of doing it than having one of their front office members lead Martin off the field to the bench to have papers served on him. After all, Martin was in uniform, had reported to work, and to me, this is no way to handle the matter. Yeah, that makes sense. Now, FBI files again here.

They said that they're Kansas City to the Bureau and Cincinnati on 966. advised that in Topeka, Kansas, they declined prosecution of the guy that sent Billy that message. Nasty Matt. Yeah. Yeah, saying that he did not think the letter constituted a violation of the extortion statute. Yeah, they weren't asking for anything. It was more of a...

There's a threat. It's just a threat. Yeah, you're just threatening people. It's just a nastigram. Yeah. Also, people don't think Billy Martin's suit is going to go very far. A lot of people do here. Robert C. Rourke, who I guess works for the paper here, the Los Angeles Evening Citizen News, scoffs at Billy Martin's suit.

Who is this Rourke guy? I said there's considerable doubt in mind that the plaintiff in the form of the Cubs and Jim Brewer will walk out of court with any million bucks for that punch Will Martin of Cincinnati defendant slung in a fit of peak. But I think much impressed with the thinking which led to the lawyering. Okay. This makes no sense. have Martin known for the paprika content of his temper. That's fucking creative.

Administering a poke in the puss of Brewer who seemed according to Martin to be throwing at the defendant's head. In the history of baseball, no pitcher has ever been convicted of purposely throwing directly at a batter's head, which is pretty small target and currently protected by a helmet as well as the

player's natural resources of solid bone. Make it sound like it's okay to get hit in the head. However, there are pitchers who have been unforgettably punished by belligerent batters who crowd the plate in order to lay the meat of the bat on the ball. And these pitchers have been known to knock back or dust off more pugnacious types such as Martin. And I have heard in the days when I have worked for a living more than one pitcher remark that he would dust off or knock down his beloved mother if it would chip a point off his earn run average. What follows a dusting is generally a set piece of acting. which could be performed better by a trade school dramatic class.

The batter complains vociferously to the umpire and rushes up to the manager to do the same. And the pitcher's keeper and the catcher walk out to the pitcher and sometimes the umpires move to caution the pitcher to watch it, bud. Whereupon the pitcher says, quote, in an aggrieved voice, I don't know what this meathead is complaining about. I got a lot of stuff today and that last one got away from me. Anyhow, even if I hit the bum in the head,

I don't figure it will do anything but ruin the ball. I didn't mean anything, Brian. Didn't mean nothing. There, the argument usually ends, except in the case of Martin, a spleened young man with the long nose that has been used as a target by more than one slinger of high, hard ones. Martin rushes out and clouts Brewer severely bursting his eye bones. The history of ballplayers being damaged by extempore fisticuffing is actually so rare as to make Martin's feet take its rightful place in Cooperstown, New York. Of course, there have been accidents such as an enraged fan dropping a basket of tomatoes on catcher Bertie Tebitt's head from an upper deck once upon a time. That sounds horrible.

Jesus. Leo DeRocher once settled with a fan who sued the lip for allegedly causing to have said, causing to have said fan beat up for some unwise reflections on DeRosher's bloodlines. The fan said he was banged down by blackjacks. Leo swore he fell and hoided himself on a water fountain or something, but they paid off anyhow. During my hitch in the galleys, I've seen scores of battles between ballplayers, but they were mostly bloodless. It always used to amaze me to see the dust settled after the fracas, and the players resumed toil, minus the fractures and without the scars, because whirling spikes and brawny athletes figure to do consider, damage. But most wall players

were loud in the lip and reticent with the dukes. The pitcher is ever watching that candy arm, and the batter is worried about his record. But a million bucks is a stiff one to place on an athlete's person, whether or not dignity is involved. And I think that either coming in with the

feet high or throwing at Martin's head comes under the classification of occupational risk of the highest order. Martin has always played to win, and has seldom fought with his mouth. We all feel for Brewer, but basically don't start suing each other. So let's not have this start a trend of ballplayers getting in fights on the field and suing each other. It's stupid.

Then we got lawsuits, yeah. Yeah, so Billy, 1960, he plays in 103 games, has 317 at bats, hits 246, 3 homers, 16 ribbies. Not great. Not bad, but not great. He's falling apart. He's falling apart. Yeah, he's definitely, his game is declining here. Yeah.

So December 4th, 1960, the Braves by Billy Martin. Okay. He's going to go there. Billy Martin, middleweight champion of the National League, has been sold to the Braves, it says. Announcement of the deal will be made just as soon as the space can be cleared on the Milwaukee roster. So, yeah, ready to go. He's, he said that apparently they said that, uh, Dresson here, Charlie Dresson

talks about saying, talking about Billy fighting and Billy being all this. Chuck managed Martin in the minors at Oakland when Billy the kid was a PCL spitfire on his way to becoming a Yankee. At one time, the heat of the locker room and an argument, Dresson infuriated

by what he considered insubordination, chased Martin into the shower, uniform and all. Dresson tells that story repeatedly and invariably adds, but I like the little son of a gun. He's a scrapper. The Braves, assuming Martin's contract, do not assume legal responsibility for his past.

Nor do they presume to have solved their infield problem. Martin is 32, and it's unlikely he can play a full season at second base for a pennant contender. The Braves intend moving young Chuck Cotterier from second to short and installing Martin at second at the moment. But Martin is not the full answer, at least it's not at this stage in his career. So they've got a guy. They're not going to pay for his past indiscretions. They're also not going to make the playoffs. They're also, yeah, he's going to fuck him good.

He said it's good to get away from a floundering club like Cincinnati to a solid one like Milwaukee. I sure hope I'm back with a champ. I've been shipped all over and I hate it. It's just awful to pick up the paper and find that you've just been sold, especially when you're just getting to know everybody on the club. He said, I'll enjoy playing again for Charlie Dresson at Milwaukee. I played under him at. Oakland in 1949 and he knows what I can do. I can still steal a base, but I never got a chance

to do it once last season at Cincinnati. And even if I can, even if I can steal second, that second base spot from bawling, I'll try to do it. We got along fine in Detroit when I was short and he was second, but I think I'm still a good second baseman. So there you go. He said, I hurt my hand breaking up a fight when I was going in hot. Then later when I had another streak going, I was stopped when I hit Jim Brewer at that row at Wrigley Field. So he says, you know, I'm a little banged up, but I'm fine. He says he likes Dresson. He rated him, quote, Casey's equal in the brains department.

He said, Casey is a master psychologist, but Dresson is the kind of guy who grows on you. And both always have the right answer. High praise. Hi, praise. He's ready to go. So he's ready to do this. Let's do it. Now, they said with one marriage and five ball clubs behind him,

Martin is trying to stake out a new life for himself as part owner of a remodeled restaurant on busy San Pablo Avenue at Central Avenue and El Cerrito. Oh. And also he's counting on a new life in baseball at Milwaukee under his beloved and old boss. Billy was divorced despite the fact that he's Catholic and the father of a little girl. Billy met his new bride, Gretchen Winkler, July 4, 1957, when he was flying home. home to rest a broken jaw by a wild pitch of Dick Donovan. An airline stewardess on that flight, Gretchen placed a solicitous hand against the

brace on Billy's jaw. That was the start of it. Billy married Gretchen last year, and Billy and Gretchen live at 5,900 Broadway in Oakland. They give out his address. Back then, I don't know what it was, but newspapers thought to make a person a real person, you had to give out their address. Yeah. Was there anybody...

5,900, what, Dresden? 5,900 Broadway in Oakland. Broadway. So that's obviously giving out a famous person's address is crazy, but they used to do like, if someone witnessed a crime, they'd be like, Jimmy Wiseman of 426 Maple Avenue says, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. No, it's crazy. There's a whole episode of All in the Family that's based on that. Archie's address and the mob comes to see him.

It's funny. February 23rd, 1961, Brewer is Willer. to forgive and forget Billy Martin's punch. Wow. What about the lawsuit, though? Yeah. He said, I don't hold any grudge against Billy Martin. No, he said, if Martin wants to start it up again, that's a different story.

But he said, it's all over with Brewer said, I want to forget it and just get on with my pitching. I figure I have a lot of years ahead of me, and that's the important thing. Yeah. So, yeah. Now, Brewer, we haven't heard his version, really. It's been a minute, yeah. Brewer said, I don't know what his version is, but I do know what happened. I came off the mound expecting trouble just by the look on his face as he approached me.

I said, what the hell are you doing? Suddenly his expression changed as though he wasn't sore, and he said, I just came out to get the bat. Between what he said and the way he looked, I figured it was all over. I hardly had turned away when I didn't know what hit me. He said he feared that he was going blind from losing his shit. No. So Martin's version is different, obviously. So anyway, that's how it goes.

1961, Milwaukee Braves, he won't last the whole season here, so he'll be somewhere else. No way. Yeah. The Braves are 83 and 71, finish fourth in the National League. Charlie Dresson gets fired. Yeah. He's replaced by Bertie Tebitts there, and that's how that goes. This is a team with some guys you might know, Joe Adcock, a little guy named Hank Aaron, people

might have heard of. A little, may have heard of him, you know, a little guy like that. Sure. Sure. Who else here? We have Warren's Warren Spawn on this team. Yeah, there's a lot of Joe Tori on this team. Hey. Joe Tori. That's the old... A young man, Joe Tori.

Even then, the old joke about him is there's no, there's a picture of Joe Tori doesn't exist because he's so ugly, he breaks camera lenses. That's what they used to say. That was the big joke about Joe. All the players used to say that. I don't know that he's ugly. It's just that bizarre. nose. He's a guy that when he was older, he was much less ugly than when he was younger.

When he's older, he kind of looked like an old man and it fit. When he was younger, he looked like a fucking, like a hideous dog person or something. Oh my God. Such an ugly man. Right? He was older. He's the first guy in history to look better at 70 than 20, but he is. As a kid, he had two permanent black eyes.

Dude. permanent play. He's got dark circles. He's got a wide, shitty mouth, and his teeth are fucked. And he was dating models, by the way, back then. Get out of here. He used to say. Jim Bouten talks about how ballplayers date hot women.

Even the ugliest, Joe Torrey has a hot model life. He's like, it's pretty amazing. Yeah, he's a hideous, dude. Fuck, yeah. Jesus. Oh, Eddie Matthews on this team, too. Quite a few Hall of Famers on this fucking squad. Jesus.

How did Joe's nose? go so wild. It doesn't, it wasn't that bad when he was a kid. He just got old. Yeah. Your nose and your ears never stopped growing. Do your nose? Really? Absolutely. Your nose and your ears will get older. You get bigger as you get older. Oh no. See those old men with giant ears? Yeah. You think they were like that when they were 20? I don't care about the giant ears. I'm worried about that. I don't want a Joe Torrey knows. That nose is crazy. I think you have to have a start of one to get that. Yeah. So Billy Martin here, he said he plans on playing every day. He says, I'm going to show him. I want to get back on top again.

Great. The Reds had movement where you played one day and wouldn't get in for another week. He said, that's not good. He said, when a $7,000 player takes your place for a week, what do you expect? Then when he's sent down, another guy comes up and takes your job for three days. He said, yeah, said, what do you expect? Of course, I'm not have a bad guy, a bad time. So they said, though, he can dress and said, he's a holler guy,

someone we can send to fill a utility role and do a good job. All right. March 4th, 1961, Billy Martin's already got a problem with Milwaukee. Really? It's barely the beginning of spring training. Not good. Billy Martin was riding the bench from Milwaukee, is worried he will be thrown into a National League grab bag next fall, and may wind up with one of the two new clubs in Houston or New York.

If Billy is wise, he'll start looking for a house in Houston now, because with George Weiss pulling the strings for the New York club, Martin has a, quote, Chinaman's chance of winding up with the Mets. Oh, sweet Pete. Why are we doing that? That is in the newspaper. A journalist wrote that down. Well, that's the Staten Island advance.

So that's still considered a very nice term for an Asian person in Staten Island. Yeah. That's still considered respect. Very thoughtful. At least he mentioned his origin. No shit. Exactly. May 2nd or June 2nd, 1961.

Billy's gone already for Milwaukee. Where do you go? Minnesota, the twins. Oh, the twins. The twins who are brand fucking new at this point. These skidding Minnesota twins have gone on a trading binge and acquired infielder Billy Martin from Milwaukee. The twins who slipped from third to seventh place

by losing 10 of their last 11 games gave the utility infielder Billy Consolo an undisclosed amount of cash to Milwaukee for Martin, the much-traveled scrappy veteran. There we go. His old manager with the Oaks, I guess. I guess the Braves wouldn't start him. So he only had six at bats with the Braves and had no hits.

Yeah. So, yeah, the twins here, they are 70 and 90. It's another shitty team. I think they just moved this year. Yeah. Here. They are, their 70 and 90 cookie Lavagetto is fired, the manager. And Sam, Emil, Mellie, he is the fill-in guy here.

This team, not a lot of Hall of Famers on this one, not exactly Milwaukee here, going through it. Jim Cat, he was good. Jim Cat, Billy Martin, Jesus Christ, this is a rough squad, man. Not a lot of people to talk about here. August 17, 1961, headline, quote, gentlemanly Stevens, faked out by Martin. Faked out. Faked out. Billy Martin employed an old ruse to pull off an old trick against Gene Stephen.

in the ninth inning Wednesday against the Metropolitan Stadium. Stevens was on second base when Martin, who had taken the throw from the previous play, and kept the ball sidled up to him. There's some dirt. There's some dirt on the bag, he said. Mine lifting your leg so I can kick it off. Oh, what? You'd say no.

Fuck you. That's stupid. That's amazing. That's brilliant. Why would he lift it? When Stevens stepped off the base, Martin tagged him. him for the out. Yeah.

Did he look silly, Billy laughed. In a way, I felt sorry for the guy getting caught like that. His dugout tried to warn him that I had the ball, but I guess he didn't hear him. The dugout's yelling. That is fucking awesome. So, by the way, just in case you're looking for it, right under that article, we have some shit for bowling shirts here. Yeah?

Okay, this is a way to clean bowling shirts. What does that mean? It says it's browns for. for bowling shirts for men and women, airflow, musing wear, and other top brands, team discounts, lettering at cost,

cash prizes. And then under that, falling hair and dandruff too, I'll tell you what you better do. Frams, scalp specialists, go there. They're next to each other in the same plaza

and they advertised. Is there a big problem and difficulty washing a bowling shirt? Well, yeah, when your, danger falls on your bowling shirt, you can't do anything about it. It's hard to get it out.

Hard to get it out. A little stubborn stain. So September 23rd, 1961. Yeah. Billy Martin says that Roger Maris's 59 home runs are equal to 70 in the days when Babe Ruth was playing baseball. He said,

it's harder to get home runs now, is what he's saying. Okay. He said, if a guy should get lucky and hit five home runs in one game, it won't it count because 154 games have already been played, Martin question. If I go 0 for 30 or 10 for 12 and the games added this year, this is when they went from 154 to 162, due to expansion, won't it count in my averages?

Sure, it'll count. Then why should it make any difference whether Maris breaks Babe Ruth's record in 154 games or 162 games? Okay. So if all the other stats count the same, why wouldn't this? Right. So he said, yeah, that's how it works. It's bullshit.

He said, Maris finished with 59 home runs in 154 games. and Commissioner Ford Frick had decreed Root's record would hold unless someone surpassed it in 154 games. That's when they added the asterisk, which was a big fucking deal, and they got rid of that later. He said, I... Fans were calling for her back. Yeah. He said, I wonder if Babe Ruth ever played a twilight doubleheader like we do today, or you can't see the ball the first two times up after the lights go on.

No, he played every day, not at night. I also wonder if Ruth traveled like we do today. No, it was a lot harder because they are on trains, not planes. Yeah, yeah. Buses and trains are way worse to travel on overnight when you've been drinking and then get out on the field at 1 o'clock. I disagree with this. I think it's harder to play in the 20s. Yeah.

Oh, God. I think it's a harder to play in the 20s. Probably, yeah. Now, the difference of Roger Maris would be to make it harder to play then would be also everybody's allowed to play. Yeah. So you also have pitchers that aren't just white guys. Yeah. So you have the best players.

Yeah. You have deeper talent for sure. The best white guys, best black guys, best everybody. So there's deeper talent. But then again, back then also,

there was less teams and less talent. So they saw you more often and knew everything about you. So it was harder to hit home runs. So it's all a will fucking wash, I think, honestly. So yeah. Well,

also they sent all the boys to play baseball, or sent all the boys to fight the war. so Babe Ruth got to play with women. Babe Ruth had stopped playing well before the war. I'm joking. I know, I know. Babe Ruth had to play against Gina Davis. What do you want?

He had Lori Petty pitching to him. Of course he's going to hit 60 hours. It's very easy to pitch to Kit. She doesn't lay off the high ones. It's so easy. So this year in Minnesota, he ends up playing 108 games. So much better. 374 at Bats hits 246, which is the same he hit for Cincinnati in 1960.

246, six homers, 36 RBI. Pretty much the same. That's what he's good for now. That's it. December 10th, 1961, Billy Martin has fans, but his boss is not among them. That's the hell line. Oh, he's not one of them.

That's not good. Wow. They said, if Billy Martin could take all of his fans in the Upper Midwest with him to confer with Twins President Calvin Griffith about a 1962 contract, the Spunky second baseman would be certain to get a raise. Sure. As it is, Martin might get a raise, but Griffith was indicated the former Yankee was indicated. Okay.

The former Yankee does not figure prominently in the twins' plans for next season. Griffith said, I don't think Martin can give us a full season at second base, but he can be valuable in capacities other than playing regularly. We think Jerry Snyder can field with the best and we hope to improve his batting. Snyder was purchased from Indianapolis. It's his first shot in the majors. Billy says, I feel great. My legs are in good shape and I'll be ready to play every day.

I'm going to start working out next month. I'm going to do some running and start swinging a bat. So fuck you. Yeah, he said, in my off-season capacity as a public relations man for a Minnesota brewery, I travel all over the upper Midwest. People ask me if I'm really Billy Martin, the ball player. They seem to think I should have white hair and be wearing a cane. Are you really that old man from the tennis?

You that old man? Most of the people I've met this year have told me they don't want to see me traded. And many have told me they wanted to write letters to Mr. Griffith telling him so. Yeah, remember the guy in the bar who hated you until he met you and then you're his favorite ball player? So when people meet you, they're like, oh, yeah, you're great. He said when I was with Milwaukee, they said the Braves had the two best second baseman in the National League in Frank Balling and me. So the twins do re-sign Billy Martin. Great.

So there's that. That's nice. They signed Billy Martin and Len Green to contracts. They don't say, they say it's a $22,000 contract is what they're looking at here. So that's about what he's been paid recently. Billy predicts, quote, the best season I've ever had is in front of me here. Oh, here it comes. 33 years old.

And he said it's going to be better now than he ever was. He said, doctors told me I won't have any trouble from the bum knee, which bothered me last season. I feel great, and I'm pushing hard to get in shape and determined to stay in shape. I aim to play every game at second base. Wow. That's what he said. He said, we had trouble communicating last year, meaning with the shortstop. He said, I was giving him the signs on who was going to cover the bag on steals, hit and run plays, and double plays, and he occasionally missed the signs.

This year, it's going to be different. we've agreed that he'll take the responsibility of giving the signs. With the responsibility, he'll be alert all the time. He said he has the makings of an outstanding player. Maybe we can help each other. And the Cuban shortstop said, Billy is my friend. We get along fine.

We both have good year and twins win more games. They made him talk like fucking Tonto. We play long into fall. we play long past leaf change color like so stupid late in the spring billy was getting ready to leave the clubhouse at aging tinkerfield when melly approached him and asked billy to sit down so they could talk throughout his career billy was renowned for being the last man out of the clubhouse a player who never wanted to leave it was true on this day too billy and mele a melee mele mele mele were alone in the room melly had broken into professional baseball in 1946. I've seen his name, but I've never heard it pronounce. It's one of those guys. Is it melee?

I've read his name a lot, but I've never heard it. What's his first name? I don't know out of here. It doesn't matter. He had played for to- he'll look up pronunciations of a guy who's never going to be mentioning it. I'm just saying sometimes you can hear the first and last name together.

You know how to pronounce him. Yeah, no, no, no. I've never heard this guy's name pronounced me. Really? Yeah, I've just seen it in like, you know, stats and shit like that. He had played for 10 years, including for six teams in his final four seasons. He never wanted to stop playing.

Melly put his arms around Billy. He said, I told him he had a great career, but I said that the twins owner Calvin Griffith and I both thought it was time for him to give it up. Billy started to cry. So did Mellie. He started pleading with me, but I knew what I had to do. I told him that every good thing has to come to an end. It's the saddest thing.

We just sat there crying. That's what they said. So March 31st, 1962, Billy gets released from the twins right before the season starts here. Handed an unconditional release. Martin came to camp with the second base job virtually clinched, but was pushed aside by rookie Bernie Allen, a $50,000 bonus player from Purdue. That's the other thing with baseball. No matter how good you are, if there's a guy with a big bonus back then, the bonus baby is going to get your job. And they're going to see if he can play or not.

So April 3rd, 1962, Martin gets a job, but it's not playing. He gets a job as a scout for the twins. Oh, my. As a scout. That is interesting. He'll work on special assignment under President Calvin Griffith. He's expected to report to the club's minor league camp in, whoa,

Fernandina Beach, Florida to assist farm director Sherry Robertson. I hate the thought of giving up playing, he said. I could have played a year with Kansas City at the end of the season. I might just be without a job. Okay. So he said, I could have went on, but I took this as a future gig, basically. He accepted the twins offer to be a scout. He also took a job with grain belt brewery in public relations.

In other words, when we have events, you show up and get drunk and sign autographs and wave your little hat. That's all. You got it. Yeah. The combination worked well. Martin proved himself a competent evaluator of talent while selling the twins in bars across Minnesota. He urged the twins to sign pitching prospect Jim Palmer.

He was a Hall of fucking fame amazing pitcher 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 Orioles. Absolutely. With his survival in baseball on the line, Martin kept his nose clean, his drinking moderate, and his fists unclenched for that year. That's important to add. For a minute.

Martin says he rejected a lucrative Japanese contract. Oh. Yeah, back then they would pay any retired American player shitloads of money to go over there and play. Absolutely. He said he turned down a contract for, quote, an awful lot of money to play with a Japanese team. He said that the Chinichi Dragons offered me over 30,000, but he turned it down, which was huge money back back. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, he said he couldn't do it.

He said, I'm happy with my current setup. And he said the Japanese team did offer me an awful lot of money, but I like my jobs here. June 17, 1962, he says the release from the team shocked him when they cut him. He was shocked. He couldn't believe it. He said, my release was a great shock. I feel I still have two more good years as a player, and I'm in the best physical condition I've been in several years. So he was offered a spot as a player with the Kansas City A's, but he turned it down.

to take this more long-term thing. He said, when things are going right for you as a player, it's difficult to think about the future, but right now that's what I'm doing. Yeah, he said, I was well received on my two trips to Japan, and frankly, the offer was very tempting, but I'm just getting started in my new job with the twins, and I didn't want to jeopardize it

and put my public relations job on hold, too. Besides that, I guess it's about time to settle down. About time to stop being a kid. Mm-hmm. That makes sense here. So April 21st, 1963, a salesman sues Billy Martin. What did he do? There we go.

Well, a Worthing salesman who is suing Billy Martin, Minnesota Twin Scout, and two bar owners in an assault case is seeking a $20,500 default judgment for Martin. In a motion filed in Hennepin County District Court by Brad Molitor of Worthington. I wonder if that's Paul's dad. Paul's kid. Yeah, yeah. Martin defaulted by failing to file an answer to Molitor's complaint in the prescribed 20-day limit. Moliter claims that Martin willfully, wantonly, and maliciously assaulted and beat him in Duff's Bar in Minnesota on February 11. My God.

Duff man, whooped his ass. Wantonly beat him. Wantonly fucking viciously and maliciously. Molliter's asking for 10,500 for Martin and Joseph P. Duffy Jr. and Raymond. T. Duffy, co-owners of Duff's Bar, Joseph Duffy was former manager of Metropolitan Stadium, in addition, seeking $10,000

in punitive damages for Martin. The Duffy brothers filed an answer within the time period, whereas Martin didn't. So June 12, 1964, a talk with Billy. Here, we have a little talk here. And they say, they say the facts

are old hat to those who watch the fiery swinger, whack a fistic swath across the Arizona a Texas league in 47. Opponents had the turnstile, a betting habit of wrapping Martin on and on about the fists with their faces. The reputation both helped and hindered

his career. Martin said, sure, I'm more sympathetic toward the little guy with a lot of courage. He says this over a drink, they mean, they say too, so he's holding court at the bar. As a scout, I catch hell for it, but I still like to look for the small

shortstopper second baseman, like him. At the time, he He said that, you know, they said that his short temper here, he was still diffusing his legendarily short temper over a recent syndicated column. He said, this guy writes that without baseball, I would have wound up nothing doing menial tasks. I'll tell you, if anyone has a great desire, he'll succeed in anything. And if all it takes is book learning, he can become anything he wants.

If he needs an inbred ability, that's something else. Yes. So he doesn't know what he's talking about. They said, where did he said, where did the image of Billy Martin the fighter start? I don't know. I guess I've always been a battler. I never like to lose real competitive. Later on, they called me aggressive.

Then it was hothead. You know, it went up the same line. Yeah. He said, I never did let my temper overshadow my good sense. He said that and a whisper because there are 10 or 12 guys everywhere who will lay 7 to 1 that he did. He said, I got challenging. often because of my size. I was in fights because I was small.

You don't see many six, six guys in fights, do you? He said, I'm just a proud little guy and I'll never take anything from bigger men. Just the other night a drunk told me, you Billy Martin, you don't look so tough. I told him that 10 years ago, I would have smashed his face. Ten years ago, I was tough. Ten years ago, fucking two years ago. Yeah, a minute ago. He just wasn't drunk enough yet.

The very aggressiveness that Martin is searching for in this tournament as a scout for the twins, perhaps precipitated his ultimate success or his ultimate suitcase assignments around the big leagues. The travel log of Billy Martin includes since all the teams. He said that I think my fighter image hurt me in a sense,

especially if people never understood why I had to play the way I did. The Yankees knew second division clubs had a different attitude toward me because they're the complacent ones. Right. Exactly. It's, yeah, if you're,

he's fighting for every inch and they're just like, ah, calm down. They don't care. They said, they asked him about yogi as a manager.

And he said, it's really hard to make a leader out of a follower. Yogi's always been a follower. I hope he succeeds, but not so much that he beats our twins.

The Yankees are actually going to have quite a battle just staying in this race. Their dynasty is over, which is true. 64 is the last time they go to the World Series against the Cardinals and lose,

and then it is a shit show till 77 after that. A complete disaster. So he says that Billy sees colleges as less of a supplier of major league talents than some of his other scout colleagues do. He said colleges are a source, but they'll never become the source.

I think the majors will subsidize the miners eventually. It's got to happen. And it's happening now. Yeah, they can't do that just based on ticket sales. He said, the reason I lay off most college kids who want to graduate is the age factor. A kid comes out of school at 21 or 22. He'll likely need three years of seasoning and by then he'll have used up some good years.

Personally, I like to start with a kid of 17. Get him in the minors for three years. Have him come up when he's 2021. Go from there. Unfortunately, they have high school. Yeah. And damn it, if I could get them straight from the eighth grade, I would. Like they do in hockey and fucking tennis and shit.

Martin said the twins bypassed former Arizona state pitcher Sterling Slaughter because we didn't like his stuff. Slaughter's stuff, however, defeated the Braves twice recently. He said, I hate to see young kids get a big bonus. They should start out at $12,000 or so and work up. The big bonus thing causes quite a bit of jealousy. Here's a guy who's been up for a few years and he sees an unproven kid come to the club with more money. The whole thing gets out of proportion. They asked him about attendance decreases because baseball's attendance went down.

Sure. He said, I don't know the reason, but baseball definitely is not slipping. It's advancing, if anything. Baseball has always maintained the same type of rules for field, playing, et cetera. Look at the constant rules changes in football and basketball. Baseball doesn't do that because it's a great game and doesn't have to. But that was the time when football was becoming the national sport, overtaking them, and then basketball did the same in the fucking 80s.

So it's hard to say that. So then baseball waited another 40 years and now destroyed the game by making a million rule changes at once. Rather than incrementally putting them in over 50 years. Yeah. They just made it so. Losing American fans at a rapid rate, but gaining a crazy not to be given a fuck about American fans. The NBA, you mean? No, no.

All of them, really. Well, the NBA is the only one that makes money overseas, really. Baseball doesn't make money overseas? Nobody cares about... Japan? Japan has their own league. They don't give a shit about the major leagues. Oh.

They love their own baseball. I mean, they care if Otani's playing, everybody's watching. But if it's the fucking, you know, Cubs and Brewers on a Saturday afternoon, no one's watching that. Ichero, yeah, Japan, but that's, Japan's very small. It's not a big country. It's a small market. So that's not a lot. You know, China involved.

China, China loves the NBA. Yeah, they sure do. They probably make more money off of those people. Yeah, it was. They love the NBA to begin with, but then when Yao went over, then it really blew up because they all started watching the NBA. They started broadcasting all of his games. And he's the only one ever, right? They'll be more now because they're really getting into it now over there.

They'll be more eventually, I'm sure. Look at the way an Asian kid learns the violin. If they put that kind of fucking effort into baseball, they're going to be here. Or math, I mean. Yeah, they're going to come. So final word from Billy Martin, the scout. say hello to everyone in Phoenix and tell all the kids to sign with the twins

might say too that everything's been everything between me and Clint Courtney which is him fighting with him forever must be all right now the last time I saw him he didn't hit me so it must be good December 4th

1964 a son is born really Gretchen gives birth to a 7 pound 13 ounce boy Billy Joseph a little Billy A masculine child you know your first child be a masculine child

Or maybe it could be a man of substance, Jimmy. What about that one? Yeah, I'll take that one too. That's the best compliment we've ever gotten in our entire life. Oh, man of substance. Oh, man of substance. It's a background. Oh, Frenchy.

We went out to dinner and a waiter named Frenchy, who's very French at this restaurant. We left a very nice tip, and he looked at it and he goes, oh, man of substance. We've been laughing about that for a month because it's hilarious. Now if I have three, four tables like yours, I will have decent night. Yeah, it'll have decent night because the restaurant was empty. Oh, that's fucking funny. So Billy Joseph, Billy told everyone that he was most pleased that his son had inherited his mother's nose and ears and not his. Oh, thank goodness.

Thank fuck. The Minneapolis Tribune ran a picture of the proud parents in the hospital with Billy holding up a pen and a contract. The story said that the twins had signed Billy Joe as he would be called until he was nearly 40. They called him Billy Joe. See, he wants to be a redneck, this guy. Sure does. He wants to be. They signed him to a $100,000 contract with a $1 million signing bonus.

There was a stipulation in the contract. Player to receive $1 million with the understanding that all consultation concerning the fine arts of baseball shall be with his mother rather than his father. It's a big joke. Yeah. There was one another thing here. Attending baseball's annual Winter League meetings in Nashville, Billy was walking across a hotel lobby when he spotted Casey's. Stangle, who was then the New York Mets manager, holding court with some writers. Billy approached and announced, don't listen to this senile old man.

Stangle looked up and immediately launched in the stories from the 50s. He said, now this fresh-faced kid here, he's about, he just about single-handedly beat those Brooklyn Jackie Robinson's in 1953. He broke the heart of a whole borough because he made that catch and got those hits. Billy said that the two decided at that point to let bygones be bygones, and he said, I missed him. Later on, they went to a hotel bar, and Casey had some advice and suggestions about coaching third base, because that's what he's going to be doing at that point. And they remain close friends until Casey died in 1975. Now, with managers consent here, Griffith made Martin third base coach before the 65 season, season.

Leading to speculation that when the twins hit a rough patch, they're going to fire their guy and put Martin in there. February 25, 1965, Billy Martin is hired here. To manage? No, to coach third base. They're making a big deal at it. They said he's hired to fire up the team. He's going to be a little, yeah, that's right. Martin said, I'm not going out looking for trouble, but if you want to start a collection to pay my

fines, I suggest you begin now. He said, I enjoyed playing with the Yankees because I guess I enjoyed winning. The Yankees play together as a team. They work together and make very few mental mistakes. That's what I'm trying to do with the twins. Eliminate mistakes. And he said, though, as coach, though, he's, you know, he's just supposed to be kind of a cheerleader.

He's not the main coach here. They talk about different guys. One guy here, Rollins, who is Rich Rollins. Yeah. He says that Rich Rollins is a tireless worker, and I'm sure he'll have a much better year. I'm going to spend a lot of time with Versailles and wouldn't be surprised if he turned out to be the most valuable player next season. He's got all the tools. Many observers feel Martin will be named manager of the twins should the club falter.

This assumption could lead to friction between him and the manager. Martin said, I'm going to do all I can to help make the twins a winner. Sam, the manager, is my boss and my friend. I respect him, and if we do well this year, it will reflect on Sam and the coaching staff. Sure, I want to manage someday, but first I want to be a good coach. Sure? So, manager said, Billy's been around baseball a long time. He can help our players.

He also has a great desire to win, which I'm sure will be an asset to our team. Yeah. Martin, he said, we'll be very active with the twins. Billy said some of our good players who can't speak English may be speaking Italian before the season's over. Because if you can speak and understand Italian, you can pick up some Spanish and it works. That was working in Italian restaurant,

the Italian waiters yelling at the Spanish cooks in Italian and they yell back in Spanish. And I'm trying to figure out what both of them said. That was fun. That's what we did. That's it. You guys do what you want. April 22nd, 1965.

Billy calls rumor, most evil lie. Oh, what rumor? Poor Billy Martin. This is what the article says. He's what the insurance companies call accident prone. Anytime there's some kind of controversy, you can usually count on finding him squarely in the middle of it due to one type of accident or another.

Strictly by accident, he's now involved in another one, though through, no fault of his own and what bothers him all the more is that people are saying he's not satisfied with his job as third base coach and wants to be the manager. He said it's the most

evil lie I've ever heard that he's trying to get the manager's job. Yeah, he said, I've always been taught that the truth is frightening and a lie is not. So this doesn't scare me, but it bothers me because Sam and I have been good friends for years. The truth is frightening and a lie is not.

So this doesn't scare me? It doesn't scare me. This is a lie isn't scary. Okay, I had to put that together for a minute. Lies don't scare me. Wow. One story said the club hired me to act as a gun at Sam's head. That's a lie, too. The club didn't hire me as a coach.

Sam did. And he shook his head and said, if a man said he didn't want to ever manage, he'd be a hypocrite and I'm not a hypocrite. But I've never been happier in my life doing what I'm doing right now. I wish Sam manages this club for the next 10 years and that I'm still one of his coaches. heck, if I have any aspiration at all, I'd rather be a general manager than a field manager.

There's more security. He said, I give up playing ball for it. I could have gone with Kansas City in 62. And the manager said, he's not that type. Martin contributes a great deal to this club. He constantly reminds the players what's expected of them. And that leaves me free to concentrate on other things. He said as a third base coach, he has them gambling more, which I like.

He encourages them to try for that extra base. I told the players, if they get thrown out, it's my fault, not Martin's. He has my endorsement all the way. Perhaps you should say taking more chances. Taking more, yeah. I don't like gambling. Gambling. Gambling.

Gambling out there. He's gambling. So, yeah, they say August 13th, Billy Martin fires the twins engines. And they said that he's making guys give him 110%. Big fluff piece here. huge fluff piece here. He said, yeah, a bunch of players saying he taught me a lot since I've come up here. I'll always be grateful to him.

I was scared stiff when they moved me from the outfield to play third base. His patience and understanding made it a little easier for me. Now I can do it. Now I can do it. So, yeah, the manager denied feeling that Martin was after his job. And the twins in 1965, they had a few winning streaks, but they won the American League pennant as well. Right. Martin worked with the players to make them more aggressive on the base paths.

He recognized the talent of Rod Carew, who future Hall of Famer, 3,000 hit club guy. I learned that from Adam Sandler. Yes, he is. That's the only reason we know. He converted and spent much time working with him to make him a better ball player. The twins had tried to trade shortstop Zoilo Versailles the previous winter. Martin worked on his hitting and base running, and Versailles was voted the league's most valuable player. crediting Billy for.

Gee, didn't Billy say he could be the most valuable player? He's got that talent? Yeah, yeah. And he did it. Versailles gave credit to his manager, Sam, and his coaches, especially Billy Martin. He also said he was helped by each player on the team. Billy did not get along with everybody on the team. Here is from the book.

He warded with the other coaches, particularly his former Yankees teammate, Johnny Sane, the pitching coach. He said, it's always Billy against the world. old pitcher Jim Kat said. He said it's almost as if he needs adversaries in his life. It's his favorite. Yeah. You have to feel like an underdog sometimes. If you feel like you're the champ

and you're just going to defend being the champ, what's the fun in that? Yeah. And Johnny Sane, by the way, was a great pitcher at one point. He was the part of the with the Braves, I think, where it was, they said spawn and sane and pray for rain. That's what it was. Throw those two out and then hope it

rains for two more days and then throw spawn again. All right. That was an old thing they used to have there. So the twins lost the 65 World Series to the Dodgers in seven games. We're talking Drysdale, Kofax, all those guys. Martin was given a lot of credit for getting him there. December of 1965 here, Billy Martin in car mishap. This will come up quite a bit in his life here. Let's see.

Driving car? Oh, yeah. He was the driver of a car involved. in an intersection accident here at 1234 p.m. Neither driver was injured. Well, at least he wasn't drunk yet, probably. Good, yeah, yeah, noon. Martin was, although back then he might have had a four martini lunch.

Martin was driving north on Big Horn Avenue. The car he was driving was in a collision with an eastbound pickup truck driven by Bernard Gerard Jr. Police investigated an estimated damages of 500 to the left rear of Martin's car and $50 to the front of Gerard's pickup. Martin is visiting. that's, yeah, just a bumper, visiting here at the home of his parents, parents-in-law, Mr. and Mrs. Sy Winkler. March 4th, 1966, Martin has twin second baseman dancing for job.

They don't say what the accident was or how it happened? Just in an intersection. They got an accident. That's it. They said, Billy Martin has produced an encore for 1966, dancing lessons baseball style for twin's second base candidates. It's kind of a one step, a rocking back and forth from one foot to the other while waiting for the batter to swing. See that little like keep your shit together thing. The idea is for Rich Rollins, Frank Quillacy, and Bernie Allen to get better jumps on ground balls and therefore cover more ground. The feet and weight of their bodies are moving when the ball leaves the bat. Lou Boudreau used it as Cleveland's first shortstop.

Martin noticed Boudreau and used it when age cut his range down four steps. Now Billy's passing it along. He said instead of being four steps lower, I was only two steps slower with this little move. I was way less shitty. Instead of getting blown out, it was close. It was a little closer. He said, I thought all winter about what we might have to do to help these guys get more range. Then I recalled this move.

He said, Alan and Quillise have picked it up fast. That's why both are moving much better this spring. In coaching Versailles, the MVP award winner last year, and proved he can teach his ideas. Versailles, as it happens, did not begin 1966 workouts until today when he signed, he held out for more money now, when he signed

a $42,000 contract. Which was big money back then. He's the MVP. But Martin has never, has an even bigger project this spring at Orlando's Tinkerfield four pupils battling each other for second base, including all of these guys here and Cesar

Tovar. He said, they're working hard and friendly competition. That's great for the club to help each other. So May 4th, 1966, Billy Martin, is he manager material? It is a editorial here. There's been some buzzing in the press

over the possibility that John Keene may be relieved as manager of the New York Yankees. And here and there, the twins, Billy Martin, has been mentioned as a successor. Two thoughts come to mind. Johnny Keene is a competent manager, one of the best. His warm personality and superb character

dispose him, dispose one, to wish him well. And in addition to that, he's a sound baseball man. Billy Martin is going to be a major league manager sometime somewhere. His quick-thinking, belligerent, unpredictable deportment will surely tempt a club owner, and it could be CBS of the Yankees to try him as a manager. That's when CBS owned the Yankees. They had been sold by the Topin family there. They said there's clashing opinions over Martin's qualifications to manage baseball. The only point of agreement is it will be something to see. And it was. It was fun to watch. If he succeeds, he will be off on a spectacular career where the public will give him more than routine attention. If he fails, it will not be routine

failure, but a spectacular bust. Epic. Yeah. Epic fucking disaster. He said, best of all, Martin would revive memories of those beloved bombers of whom he was an exciting member. Who could bring back the flavor of the old days as well as he. There is no intention here to try to write Johnny Keen off job. He is one of baseball's most able men, but managers are measured, not measured by their ability to manage. They're measured by what the public thinks of them. Sure. Okay. June or July 20th, 1969. Billy Martin fights with club secretary, newspaper headline. What? Two members of the Minnesota twins exchanged blows in the lobby of a hotel after the team arrived in Washington early Tuesday. Him and the secretary? Fought.

in the goddamn hotel lobby, for fuck's sake. Through punches. In the hotel in public. This is a gal? No, no, no. There was no gals working in the front office and baseball in the sixth. Yeah, he knocked this, he knocked this bitch right on her ass. And he said, take your skirt and fucking get out of here.

No. Howard Fox, the twins traveling secretary, suffered a bloody nose and a cut on the face in the fight with third base coach Billy Martin. Billy was not injured. No shit. The fight climaxed on a trip from Minnesota in which the twins shared an airplane with the New York Yankees because of the airline strike.

That must have been interesting. The Yankees were in route home from the West Coast. A source reported an argument developed on the plane between two Yankees players, the plane's chief steward, and Yankees manager Ralph Hauk. Yankees players Roger Maris and Cleet Boyer reportedly were involved in the argument with the steward.

Hauke reportedly told Marison Boyer Anyone who wants to get into a fight Has to take me on and the incident ended In other words, shut the fuck up is what that means Also on the flight, Fox and Martin exchanged words When the team arrived at the Stattler-Hilton Hotel at 430 a.m. Oh, he's been, he's sossed Or exhausted

But probably both Both Both, yeah The two twins had further words and then exchanged blows. Four other twins, Bob Allison, Earl Batty, Jim Perry, and Harmon Killebrew,

oh, wow, okay, broke up the fight after several punches were thrown. Fox appeared at the District of Columbia Stadium where the twins met the senators and a twilight double-header Tuesday. Martin was at his coaching spot. The manager informed club owner Calvin Griffin

of the fight. Martin, who at 38 is about six years younger than Fox, was a central figure in a nightclub brawl. They're talking about Copa brawl here. Spokesman for the twins said the Fox Martin fight was a long, was a result of a long hot night. It was coming. Sounds like they were fucking all night.

It was a long hot night. The airplane was four hours late arriving in Minnesota and the team had to wait at the airport until 1230 a.m. The flight required special permission from the American League because of the disaster insurance carried by the teams prohibiting two boys. prohibiting two ball clubs from sharing the same plane.

If it went down, now two teams are gone. Holy shit. Well, the book explains what happened with the fight. Quote, it all began when Howard Fox, the Twins Traveling Secretary, in charge of getting the team from one city to another, invited the Yankees to piggyback on a Twins charter flight because of available aircraft were scarce during an airline strike. What was going on to, what was going to be a crowded flight then became? came a delayed flight, too, by several hours.

By the way, would a players do while flights delayed several hours? A drink. Copiously. Yeah. They said players from both teams were drinking heavily during the delays, including Billy, who was reunited with Mickey Mantle and Whitey Ford. They were tying one on, man. Yeah, yeah.

Once they were airborne, the Yankees part of the cabin, where Billy was standing, was far more raucous than the twins part of the aircraft. Fox approached Billy and shouted, can you get your drunken buddies, to shut up. That's the way to go about it. That did not go over well. There was some shouting and cursing back and forth, but relative calm was eventually restored. Still, the twins did not get to their hotel until nearly two o'clock in the morning.

The traveling secretary's job is to call ahead to a hotel so that a team's guest keys are laid out on a large table in the lobby before the team arrives. So you don't have to have a line of 50 people standing at the front desk. checking in. You go in, look at your name, grab your key, go to your room. The team takes care of it. That's it. Which makes perfect sense. It speeds up the check-in process as players and coaches grab keys and go to bed. But on the trip from hell, the keys were not ready. Fox had to get them and hand them out individually. There's an unwritten rule in such cases, and it's rarely breached. The manager always gets his key first, followed by the coaches, then the players, then the trainer, staff, broadcasters, and writers.

Down the totem pole. It's the same hierarchy as plane seating goes. Sure. Coaches up front, then followed back to the players. Okay. And then everybody else. Fox did not follow the established pecking order. Yes, the manager got his key first, and then most of the coaches, then the players and staff, but Fox kept Billy waiting.

When Billy protested, Fox threw his key at him. Oh. Some said he threw it in Billy's face. If you do that again, Billy told Fox, I'm going to beat the living hell out of you. Fox took off his glasses and put them on the hotel counter and said, All right, you loudmouth bastard, you want me, then how about now? Uh-oh. Billy leaped at Fox, who was about 10 years his senior, we know it's six now,

and smashed him with a right hand. You know he jumps when he punches, that's great. Fox went down and there was a pile of bodies on the hotel lobby breaking up the fight. Fox bleeding from a cut on his cheek and Billy later shook hands and tried to put it behind them as consequences of the aggravating travel circumstances. But Fox, a good friend of Griffith,

never forgot the episode. Neither did Griffith. Okay. Let's see here. We have July 27, 1966. Headline is Martin suggested as Detroit Pilot, meaning manager, not actual pilot. So they're saying that Detroit's got an open job,

it could be perfect for him. This is as reported by the Americans baseball writer, Brett Musburger, who was a baseball writer back then. And he was like 11. Yeah, that's so long ago. He was like a kid baseball writer. Wow. They said whether Martin will take over for the Tigers before the end of the season is not known. His one-year contract with the twins expires this October.

It will believe that he will also have a one-year pact with the Tigers. August 7th, 1956, there's a little editorial here, and they said, there are two things that are bad, and maybe that's why Billy Martin punched Howie Fox in the eye recently. One of the things that's bad is when two ball clubs travel together, and the other thing is when there's a man stewardess on the airplane. Those guys don't want to see that. A man, it's not a, it's also not a man stewardess. S means the root word is steward. That's where it started.

Yeah. So it's not like stewardess was the first word they came up with. Stewart is a long time thing. Yeah. On the flight from Minneapolis, the one the twins shared with the Yankees, there were several lady stewardesses and one man stewardess. Again, this is a writer. He doesn't know what words mean.

Everybody got along just dandy with the lady stewardesses, I bet. But the man stewardess was something else. Some of the ballplayers wound up cursing him and almost popping him. Yeah, hey, where are your tits? Right. Hey, Frank, where are your tits? I don't see any. This man's stewardess was very rude.

He had one bad habit of snatching a drink out of your hands. He did that to some of the players as they boarded the plane. He didn't say, may I have that drink, please, the way the lady stewardesses would. He said, give me dat in, like, German, like he's a Nazi. And he snatched it. This made the players very mad. The fact that he spat commands like the movie version of a Nazi officer didn't help either. Right.

Yeah. It said it was long and tedious at the airport. How many times can you get your shoes shined? How often can you thumb through a Playboy magazine? Which was brand new at the time. Man, the plane, something called overseas national airways. Who the fuck knows? Was it.

Was supposed to pick up everybody at 9 p.m. It finally got off the ground after mid. because it was coming from Oslo, Helsinki, or someplace. It was a big job, about 140 seats. There was so much room, the twins invited the Yankees to take it, and their wives, too. Fuck it, everybody. Jesus Christ. I guess they said, hey, let's quiet.

Ralph Halk said, let's quiet down a little. That's what this happened. As Halk reviews the incident, no Yankees to blame. He said there was no rowdyism on the plane as far as I'm concerned. It was just on the bus, they said later on, that's when Billy and Fox kind of got into it a little bit. They kept going back and forth on the bus there. So we're getting little pieces of this. When he threw it at him, Billy said, you did that on purpose.

And Fox said, one day, I'm going to take you outside and beat the living hell out of he is what Billy said. And how about right now, you're a little loudmouth son of a bitch. That's it. So they said Calvin Griffith, who owns the twins, is a decent man. he realizes some funny things can happen. I hope nobody gets canned, not even the male stewardess who started the whole damn thing. I just hope overseas national airways finds something else for him to do and leaves the stewardessing to the ladies. Wow. Here we go. November 30th, 1966, Billy Martin loses suit to Brewer.

Oh, no! A circuit court jury awarded $100,000 in damages to, pitcher Jim Brewer in a suit filed against Billy Martin. Really? Wow. Yeah, that is crazy. Billy said that he was completely unaware there was a lawsuit even in progress. He said, I wasn't notified in any way the suit was coming to trial.

During the two-day trial, television films showing the first fight were shown. Brewer's attorney, Peter Fitzpatrick, said that for a long time after the incident, doctors thought he would lose the sight in his right eye. Okay. December 1st, 66, Billy says he'll demand his day in court. So it's some kind of appeal thing saying he didn't know about it. And it goes back and forth. He said, they can't get $100,000 from me. I don't have it. No.

That's it. February 28, 1967, praise from his old manager here, or his current manager, Sam Melly, there, of the twins, saying it's 10-10 now. How long do you want them to play pepper? Asked Martin, talking about a scene from the field. Let him loosen up good this morning, said Mellie. Let him go to 10.30. Okay, Martin said and trotted back to the field.

Martin, brash, bold, Billy, what's he doing here? The twins had that ugly mess last fall, that coaching upheaval, or was it a purge? And Johnny Sane and Hal Narragon found themselves looking for jobs. He said, but Billy, the boat rocker, the agitator, the professional politician, The man who is supposed to run Melly out of a job is still here, a vital figure in camp. Yeah, and the manager said, listen, this guy's had a lot of bad publicity. You know the stories. I know the stories.

He said, but let me tell you something. I've never had a minute of trouble with Billy. He's been nothing but loyal, except when he punched our traveling secretary, but that's a separate thing. Great guy. Great guy. That's some problems here and there. Oh, you're a little hot. Don't challenge him.

Something's boiling under the service. But look, that's what makes a great athlete. That's it. He says he knows just one thing. That's win. That's all he knows. How can you knock a guy for that? So come on now.

Martin said the rumors of him managing are very flattering. He said, okay, it's corny, but I'd rather be with a winner than to manage. I'd be glad to stay here forever with Sam and maybe be a Cressetti type of guy. That's Casey Stengles guy who went with him everywhere. He could be him. Well, he ends up having his own guys like that. He's got Art Fowler, the pitching coach. He takes everywhere with him.

He said, those rumors about me managing are nice to hear. The Chicago job opens up and my name is mentioned. Detroit job opens up. My name is mentioned. It's very flattering. There you go. March 27th, March 28, 1967, new evidence in Martin's suit. Uh-oh.

Okay. Former pitcher Cal McClish stated in a deposition that he hit Jim Brewer two or three times in during this fight. Because of the deposition and because of the deposition and because Mark, Martin still demands his day in court, the Twins coach is appealing the judgment, the reduced judgment from $100,000 to $35,000 against him. And he'll continue to battle for a new trial. So it's been reduced, but now he wants a new trial. He said, I want to clear my name.

If I get the opportunity to present my case in court, I'm certain the damages will be reduced from $35,000 to zero. He's ready to go. Yeah. He said McClish's part in the fight never came up when Giles had the hearing in 1960. Right. He said McClish primarily said two things. He said it was his opinion that Brewer had provoked the fight by intentionally throwing a pitch at Martin and that McClish had hit him two or three times. And they also said every American has the right to defend himself in court. And our number one issue is that Martin never received notification of trial in December. So he said, and they never paid attention to the deposition against him. It's fucking. and ridiculous. So March 31st, 1967, Billy Martin calls Bernie Allen, who's a big-time player,

a crybaby. He called Washington's Bernie Allen a cry baby and replied Allen's claim that Martin belittled some players to the press. Allen was traded to Washington by the twins during the winter. Martin said, Alan's a crybaby and he should thank Calvin Griffin for twice getting him the second base job. No person ever handed a, was ever handed a greater opportunity than Alan. So Alan accused Martin of belittling twins players

while protecting Zoilo Versailles, the MVP guy. He said, I'll tell you, Billy said, I'll tell you that personally I gave more grief to Versailles than any other infielder the last two years. Not in public. He'll die on you if you rip him publicly.

Oh, you got to do it to his face. Yeah, do it privately. You can't do it in front of people. to take him aside. Otherwise, he'll be embarrassed in his game. Right. Manager. Yeah. So June 10th, 1967, Sam is fired as fired as the coach of Minnesota. In the middle of the year, it looks like June 10th. So right in the middle of the year, Sam Melly gets fired. So Billy's going to get the job.

He is not. He named Cal Irmer as successor. Oh, Billy's got to be livid. Oh, yeah. It's two and a half seasons as manager of the AAA team for the twins. This guy, Billy is, you know. Not happy. Yeah, he can't be happy. May 23rd, 1968, court decides for Billy Martin. Well, that's good. Reversed and remanded and clears his judgment and his debt here. It went from a million to 260,000 to 100,000 to 35,000. That's how they knew they had no case. And, yeah, keeps going. If you feel, you've awarded, at a million dollars, and you feel confident in that case, are you ever going to settle for 35 grand?

Never ever. Never ever. No, fuck no. So the twins started the 68 season like shit. Martin got called into the owner's office and he thought he was going to be offered the manager job. He was ready to take it. Instead, he said, I want you to manage the Denver Bears. Yikes. The AAA team. They had an 8 and 22 record at the time. Oh, God. He didn't walk. it, but when his wife told him that he needed to prove his ability as a manager before getting a job as one of the majors, he said, yeah, you're probably right, fine. You're probably right, but I'm a World Series champion. Yeah, I don't want to go to Denver Bears. This sucks. So he replaced Johnny Gorel, Gorill, who was relieved of the Denver position. He said, I would like to go down and get the experience and show people in baseball. I can handle men. That sounds terrible. I can handle men. Four or five of them at a time. I don't care. Line them up as far as they.

can fucking stand. I said men, not man. All of the men. You can all have a piece of me, God damn. So he says, I think it's a great opportunity because I think that there's going to be some major league managerial spots open next year. Okay. Now, Greg Nettles, who's future Yankee hero, World Series Hero, third baseman, a very good third baseman, Greg Nettles. Is he related to that country singer, girl? Oh, fuck what I know. I don't know. Is it Jenna Nettles?

I don't know what her name. She's in Bridges Jenstone. Is that girl? Oh, her. Jennifer. I wonder if she's related to him. Beats me. I don't know.

N-E-T-L-E-S? Yep. There you go, maybe. I don't know. I don't know how common of a name that is. Yeah, I don't either. That's the only two people I've ever heard with it. Now, Nettles was on the AAA Bears at that point.

And he said, everyone on the team. hated him, meaning Billy. I couldn't stand him. You'd come into the dugout and he'd be yelling at you in front of everyone. Just screaming. Why didn't you take the extra base? Didn't you notice that right fielder has a weak arm? You went to college. Why don't you use your brain out there?

He said, I'd never had a manager talk to me like that before. Another guy, George Midderwald, was a catcher and outfielder for the Bears. He was also from Berkeley, and he had heard about Billy all his life. So, he said he came in ranting about all these little details.

We had lost nine in a row when he got there. When we lost again the next night, he went crazy in the clubhouse. He was throwing things around. He just shattered a wooden chair that he threw against the wall. Isn't that, isn't that like what the baseball manager does? Yes. Yeah. Remember, Bill Durham, when Kozner says, scare him.

They're kids. Scare him. And he goes and throws all the bats into the showers and they're like jumping out of the way. And then Major League, the old man with the fucking grovely voice, just yells all the time. Isn't that what a baseball manager supposed to do? When they need a kick in the ass, yeah. It's a long, it's not like football where you can just yell at them constantly. So you have to know, you have to do it few and far between and know when they need to be yelled at and deliver that the same way.

Otherwise, they're just can't get yelled at for six straight months. 162 games every day getting yelled at is a little too much. So, yeah, so he said all of that. We lost again. I just love shattered. We picked up a wooden chair, threw it against a wall and exploded. That's pretty funny. He said losing was not going to be tolerated that it was a state of mind.

I don't know that anyone believed him, but we were afraid to lose after that. We knew he'd go nuts again. Oh, great, whatever it takes. Get out there and fucking play. Billy, this is from the book, Billy hoodwinked other teams into errors and missteps with his favorite trick plays, which impressed his play. which impressed his players. With runners at first and third,

Billy would have the runner at first base start to steal, but trip and fall down just out of the reach of the first baseman. The defense tended to chase the stranded runner and turn their backs on the runner at third, who with the proper schooling on when to break for home was rarely thrown out and scored.

That's clever. Yeah, so you fall and they miss it. They run to you to tag you out. They go over to tag you out while they're running to you to tag you to tag you out with their back. turn to the plate. The guy's running home.

So it's smart. I mean, not something you can pull off in the majors mostly, but in minors, you can get that over on kids. And that only usually works once. Exactly. On a team per team, yeah. The runner from first might be out, but not before the bears had stolen a run and unnerved and embarrassed the opposition.

Soon everyone was watching Billy, wondering what he would do next. And Billy would just keep pacing in the dugout, his hands in his back pocket and his chin jutting out forward, yelling out to the field as he would. encouraged his charges to keep up the pressure. Jesus. The final step was breeding loyalty in his team by ardently defending his players in every dispute or close call. He drew a three-game suspension after his first ejection from a game in late June. Nettles was sure he had tagged a run around at third base and jumped up to go nose-to-nose with the umpire over a safe call.

Billy rushed toward third base, pushed Nettles out of the way to keep him from getting ejected, then screamed and gestured at the umpire until he got himself thrown out. Oh. Which is what that's to pump the team up. Yeah. That's what that is. That's on purpose. That's performative.

Yeah. Sacrifice yourself for the good of the team. And the team's like, yeah, he did that. He was right. And yeah. The Bears came from behind to win that game. That's what happens. Billy was ejected eight times in the summer of 1968.

Jesus Christ. Is he the originator of this? He's one of, as we'll talk about. I've never heard of it before. what year, 62? 68, this says. Then he unveiled for the first time that odd bit of performance art that would become his calling card, kicking dirt on the umpires, which is my favorite fucking thing on earth.

To watch Billy Martin yell and yelling, yell, and then stand back and just start kicking dirt at the guy is fucking hilarious. It's not hurting anybody. Nope, that's just, fuck you. Dirt in your shoes, asshole. Oh, my God, that's amazing. Nettle said that kind of thing woke up the team. He said you could see how much he cared.

And as players, we thought, we got to care that much too. Billy changed the team's attitude and united us too. That was his thing, huh? That's his thing. Absolutely. No one ever thought to do that. I'll bet it's his thing to get tossed, too, over and over and over again. Yeah, I mean, guys used to do it back in the day.

There's a couple guys. Managers? Yeah, it wasn't the same, though, because there was no television. Okay, yes. You know what I mean? You get thrown out once in a while, but when there's television, then you're really performing it. You know what I mean? Not only do you get thrown out, you keep going.

Yeah. Yeah. On your way out, you throw the gatorade at him, throw the thing of balls, throw the bubble gum. You pretend to fucking elbow crawl up to the pitcher's mound and throw pretend Rosinbag grenades at the umpire from behind it. Who did that? A minor league manager. It was the greatest meltdown in the history of the world. He freaked out, lost his shit, threw everything on the field, whatever.

Then, yeah, elbow crawled behind the pitcher's mound, picked up the rosin bag and threw it like a grenade. Lost his fucking mind. So the Bears won 26 of their final 35 games in 1968 to finish in fourth place. After Billy's arrival, the Bears were 66 and 50, a 569 winning percentage that equates to 92 wins, if you're talking about 162 game season. As soon as the season ended, two American League expansion franchises wanted to talk to Billy about their managerial jobs.

But Billy said, loyal to the twins, waiting on this job. And you don't want to manage an expansion team because that just means you're going to be fired in two years. There's no way you're going to win. Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah. They're going to stick for at least a dozen years. The royals are going to suck for a while.

It's just the way it is. So September 30th, 1968, twins. to fire Calvin Irmer. Billy Martin appears likely choice is what they said. So they're going to fire this guy. They think Billy's the answer. Yeah. He said Martin will either be the best manager since

Casey Stengel or the worst, one Twins official emphasized. We've got to find out which. And Billy said, if I get the job, I'll do everything I can to instill pride. That's the biggest job, you know, to get players to want to play and want to play to win. I've

seen teams looking for ways to lose. With pride, you can change all that. Sure. Yeah. And you got to get a guy who's won before. He knows how to win. You have to know how to win. You got to give a shit about this game.

Yeah. If you get thrown out and you're in the last place, it's just frustration. Yeah. You just are mad because you suck. You get thrown out in first place, it's strategy. Or second place, it's strategy at that point. So, yeah, Billy Martin is hired as the hot-headed new manager here. he said he'll do whatever it takes to win.

All right. Doesn't care. Griffith said the twins are mighty happy to have Billy to make the players hustle. Yeah. He said, I don't think it takes any ability to hustle, and I do demand hustle, is what Billy said. Most teams go to spring training with the hopes of winning a pennant here. That's the way we'll go to spring training. And he said that he's going to have a similar amount.

It's a one-year contract, about $32,000. And he said, I've never had a year contract. had a two-year contract in this organization. You'd like a two-year, but they're going to give them one year. So anyway, Billy Martin demands hustle, is this headline. Demands it. He said, I hope to have no trouble with fines. I'll treat our players as grown men as long as they act that way.

They act like little boys. They'll get their hands slapped. When I was playing, the biggest excitement was winning. Now it's injecting that same confidence and pride and hustle into the players. A manager is no more than. he can get out of his team. Yes, that's the truth. So he said it might take some time,

but he's going to turn this team into his own reflection, essentially. That's what he's got to do. He said Casey, Casey Stengel, said you've got to mix your game up. You can't play the same way every day and win. When you're facing a super pitcher, Tianan, McLean, Denny McLean,

an alumni who at the time was a 35-game winner, 30-game winner, you go for one run because it may be the only one you get. So he said, that's the kind of stuff I have to do. The owner also said, Griffith said, Billy can be obnoxious. He was thrown out of eight games at Denver and you don't do your team any good if you're not managing. You do, though.

Yeah, you do, though. That's the problem. Billy Martin says, yeah, that's the truth. But, you know, it doesn't matter. Billy says, Billy Martin doesn't duck the charge. He admits it. One guy has him pegged better than anyone else in the world. That guy is Mickey Mantle.

in a casual conversation long ago, Mickey Mantle said he hoped that Billy Martin, his old buddy and new Minnesota manager, wouldn't make the mistake of being as rough on his players as he always was on himself. Martin said, Mickey's right. He's exactly right.

I was always striving to make myself better, a perfectionist. I guess you'd have to call me. I knew I lacked some things and ability, so I tried to make up for them with other things, like quickness and smartness and capitalizing on the other fellow's mistakes. A lot of times I'd get mad at Billy Martin, meaning himself. I'd get so down and despondent and you wouldn't believe it.

I was my own worst critic. Mickey knows it. I think he knows me better than anybody. We've lived together six years with the Yankees. You get to know someone well when you live with them. Yeah. Mantle knew Martin so well he even used to order food for him, order his food for him. Oh, wow.

He'll have the fucking whatever. Yeah. Martin said, that's absolutely right. He'd always wake up before me, so he'd order my breakfast. breakfast. He likes his eggs scrambled soft, but he knows I like two poached eggs on toast, and that's the way he'd always order for me. He was a hell of a hell of a valet. Imagine the great Mickey Mantle, ordering breakfast for a 257 hitter, but people never believe me when I tell them that. I really miss him. We had a barrel of fun, Mickey and me. We were the Cats and Jammer kids. We were just youth growing up.

I remember whenever we'd go to the movies together, Mickey would leave one seat vacant between us. He said I was sloppy with my candy and popcorn. He didn't want me getting any on him. That's fucking funny. So, yeah, he's ready to go and ready to manage. He said, we've got good players in a good club. We're good everywhere. Everything's good.

So Martin, the manager here, he said, the basic fundamentals will keep you in the ball game. Defense makes the pitching. When you hear all the time that it's a pitching game, you don't see 20 strikeouts, do you? You see seven, eight strikeouts and a lot of good. plays. He's saying defense and pitching. The Twins new club, they're calling it under Billy Martin. They're saying this is going to be a whole different thing. He said, we will play different baseball. Baseball players will steal bases, use the bunt and the suicide squeeze play, hit and run, and play the game

for all its worth. He's instilled into most players the confidence that they can do reasonably well, practically at all facets of playing the game. That's he's the opposite of Burle Weaver. Earl Weaver yelled at people. Hey, do you want those shitty little guys running around? Give me some big son of a bitch that hits a goddamn home, run out of the park and we'll all go home. Fuck this bullshit. Whereas Billy's like scrap and get everything you can. Yeah.

Which, you know, that's what you kind of have to do, especially if you don't have a great team. Yeah. I mean, how many, did Earl go to one world series? How many did you go to? Couple. He went to a couple. He was good. Yeah.

He was always a good. He was a great manager. Fuck. Yeah. Because I can't remember if Earl was managing them in the early 70s, because if he was, he was. they were a fucking monster of a team in the early 70s. Then they got good again in the early 80s when the Ripkins came in there. But then that was Cal Senior was, I think, managing when he was when Cal Jr.

He managed his son? Or maybe he was just a coach Cal Senior. I can't remember. Anyway, you want to do that. If you have the 27 Yankees, you just let him hit. And who cares? Don't steal bases. You're wasting outs if you get caught.

Whereas if you have a shit team, different. This team. You got to get everything he came. Ninthinicay, Minnesota Twins, 97 and 65. Dang. First place in the AL West. How'd they do that? That is impressive.

They lost in the championship series. They got swept by who? The Orioles. Oh, really? Baltimore. Probably is, huh? Yeah. Going to the World Series that year against the Mets,

and that's the Mets, the Amazing Mets 69, their whole big comeback, and they beat the Orioles in the World Series. That's that year. So the twins, I mean, that's pretty impressive. They did damn well. First year manager, and he takes him to win the division. That's a big deal.

The key player to Billy was 23-year-old Rod Carew, whom Billy had helped win rookie of the year as a coach in 67. Without Billy for most of 68, Carrou had slumped. Carew said, quote, he was my father and my brother. Oh. That's what he said. He's everything. He did not just coach you.

He nurtured you. you. Jesus Christ. Take it easy, Ron. You're feeding him grapes and jerking him off and shit. Carew came into baseball with a reputation for being hot-tempered and moody. Even in his prime, he was being ejected, elected to 18 consecutive All-Star teams. He remained reserved and not easily approached by new teammates or reporters.

As a young player, Carrou would smash equipment and stalk off fields in frustration. Billy went to him and said he had to tone down his act. I laughed at him and said, you've got some nerve telling me to tone it down, you of all people. Crazy ass Billy Martin. And he said, you're right. I didn't always control myself,

but that doesn't mean I'm wrong about you. You're too good to throw your career away. And he said that his recollections of Billy are rich and multifaceted. He says, he remembers every detail of 1969. He said, people think he came in and started ordering everyone around. That's an incomplete picture. He had rules.

but he was also out there 90 minutes before every spring training practice working with me and other young ball players. I had some bad fielding habits and he'd stand behind me as I took ground balls. And I can still hear his voice from behind me. Get your butt down, Rodney. That's good, good. Now soften your hands as you reach for the ball. That's it, Rodney. Do it again.

He would be out there in the hot sun for hours with me and the other guys who wanted to get better. There was no end to his dedication to making baseball players. He came to me and said, your average dropped in 68 because you hit the ball in the air too much. I don't know how he knew that when he was in Denver, but he was right. He said, you're fast. Let's learn to bunt and learn to keep the ball on the ground. He taught me how to do both.

Captain Trachia, yeah. Yeah, Carrou became one of the best bunters in modern history of the game and a master of the one-hop single through the infield. Carew hit nearly 400 in 1977 and won seven AL batting titles. Dang. His first, 1969, Billy's first year. Wow. So, yeah. taught him how to play baseball.

He taught him what to do, how to play in a major league level. He also said, Carrou said Billy had an especially close relationship with the Latin players. He said, I often thought that he got along better with us than the white guys, he said. We sometimes were quiet and kept to ourselves. People called us moody or worse, lazy. We were just young kids living away from home and not necessarily fitting in. Billy got to know us before he judged us and figured out what made us tick. At one point, I was really upset because my parents were divorcing.

My mind wasn't on the game. I just wanted to go home. So in one game, I hit a ground ball and just turned from first base and ran right into the clubhouse. I was in there taking my uniform off when Billy walked in. Cooroo said, I'm leaving. Billy said, Rodney, talk to me. He said, I don't feel like talking. Billy turned to the guard at the door to the clubhouse and ordered him not to

let Karu out. He said, go get a cop if you have to, but he better be here when this game ends. Keep him in here. After the game, Karu told Billy about his parents. And Billy said to me, I understand, I come home from a broken home too. But you can't leave a game. You can't walk out. You have responsibilities to your baseball family, too. You want these guys to know that you can be trusted to play hard and be there for them. If you want to arrange a quick trip home to see your parents, We can do that at some point, but talk to me first. And he said, I apologize and I didn't go home. I played harder.

That's what I loved about him. So, yeah, Billy Martin is... He's really good at this. He's really fucking good at this, though. So let's cut it off there. Yeah? And we will start back up in May of 1969 later with a headline that reads Billy Martin, same old guy.

But he's kidding. The best out of everybody. What does that mean? Billy is the only guy I've ever seen who consistently wins manager of the year then gets fired immediately after he wins the award. It happened to him multiple times because people just can't fucking stand him.

He does too much, causes too much chaos that even winning isn't good. They still can't deal with him. It's wild shit. George Steinbrenner used to fire him and then rehire him again because he knew he can't fire and was his good manager.

It's a pain of the ass. Fascinating. So there you go, everybody. There is Billy Martin part four. Definitely, if you enjoy this, Tell everyone about it. Get on whatever app you're listening on. Give us five stars.

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Muscovich, Johnny Nami. Thank you all so much. You're fantastic people. You are the shit. Other producers this week, Peyton Meadows, Abigail Gathard, Stephanie Addis, Ryan Bender,

Happy Hour, checking in in Conroe, Texas. I think he's home right now. Janice Hill, Michelle Mishka, Arioli, Wolfenden, Dana McEnroe, Caitlin would know last name, Marley would know last name, Jen McMurphy, Matt McDonald, spelled like Norm, Elizabeth Eden, Megan, Megan, Megan O'Brien, Evan Pasco, Coyote, Bongwater. I don't know what that means. I don't either, but okay.

Smuggling it. Patrick would know last name. Todd Barton. Chelsea later, Golden Girl, Jordan would know last name, Eden Cyrus, Lily Massey, hello, Lily, Nicholas Vargas, Janice, Janice would no last name, Lori Boren, Aisland, would no last name, Jennifer Hart, Brittany Quiggle, Steve Curtin, Annie Olson, Cristiana, would know the last name, Jennifer Johnson, DA, the letters, D&A, Colleen Watson, Brenna Cassanova, Michael Carpenter, Aaron Tanner, Darlene Rolf, Haley, oh boy, landfire, landfier, Amanda Nishi, Jeff Seahorn, Danny, Danny Foster, Candice Galkin, Linda Fowler, Philip Hartman, probably not, more than likely not. I would assume not. 100%. We know it's not.

Unless it's junior. Jalen Heckel. Natalie Deschner, Eric would know last name, Leslie Ann McCaskill, Paige Levy, Dennis, Kathy would know last name. Paige Levy, Tyler Dennis. Kathy would know last name. Whitney, with the letter. spelled like a knee. I don't think that's right. Oh, Witt, knee.

I don't think that's real, but it's how they spelled it. Trey. Highlights puzzle. With no last name. Yeah. Whit, yeah, Witt. Point to the head. Me. Yeah. Michael Lawson.

Unicorn princess. Jessica Cavalier. Diana would know last name. Maddie Hamilton. Ari would know last name. Lindsay Blixt, Shannon Jimenez. Jamie or Jaime? Kate's, Crystal Revis, Delaney Gardner, Virginia Higden, Bacon, Rebecca Mulford, the sick, nasty, 54.

I don't know what that is. Is that a move? I don't know. Yeah, I think that's the 50. Kids are doing. If there's a deck of 52 cards, that's the 54th move. It's real deep. Yes.

You got to use both jokers for that one. It's wild. Anna Lewis, Steffy C., Brianna Pinkston. Katie Solomon, Desti. Destile, Sassman. One true legend, Shane Dahl. Caden, Caden, is that Caitlin? I may have missed a letter there.

There's no way that's Caden. K-A-T-E-Y-N? That's not C-A-T-E-Y-N. That's not Cater. Graham. It's probably Caitlin Graham. There's no way it's Caden. All right. Tammy. Thank you, Caden Cennyson.

Yeah, it's a different spelling than Sam, though. Julie Ann Wood, Ed Janasky, Janicey, Lindsay Pruden, Sean Friede, Healy Kroft Jesse Adams Shannon Wiggins Samantha G Nicole Rosanau

Alicia Ander Lee Sierra Arras Rose Rose Jarrell Ian Barrier Kiefer Pace Mama Kat

Agnizki Asn No Agneskika Lynn I don't know I'm not going to do it John Rita

Deanna Dina Shee Jason Pee C. Crystal M. Nope. N.

The letter N. Madison with no last name. Tiffany Harrison. Tina Rubinaki. Ribanacci. Rubinacci. Rubanacci. Sarah Klinger.

Carson Hoffart. The word fart is in your name, Carson. That's great. That is fucked up. That's terrific. Jesse Parrott. That never got brought up in school, I'm sure. I'm sure you were never made fun of for that.

Never. A ho fart. That's what they called you. Fart. Eric Gerard. Sadie Jones. Peruse. Pyrruz. With no last name. Sadie Jones. Darra Dara Thornhill. Susie would no last name. Virgie. Vergie. Leon. Michael McStot. Jeff Page. Michelle would no last name. Promise would no last name. Landon Huffman. Kate Matthews. Brandon Horton. Raven Landau Ayala. Tim Ellis. Sean Dwyer. Dagwood would no last name. Shannon Pranger.

Taylor Dawson, John Chalk, Crazy for Murder, that's fun. Beverly Smith, Josh Gendron, Gendron, Lozio would no last name, Tyrell, Peterson, Laura, nope, that's Tara, Johnson, Julie Brown, Susie, oh, like downtown, Susie Espinoza, Kristen Lane, Jesse Senzabaw, Daniel Sigmundon, Mike would know the last name, Sarah Roberts, Haley, Hale, It's probably Haley, O'Neill, Lynn Gurking, Ashley Old Ham, Gross, Kayla Angelage, Martin Oza, Ozusky, Ellen, Elyn, with no last name, Keith with no last name, Haley Fuel, Heidi Gemplar, Elena Werschnig, Tanya Averill, Averill, the Steel Artisan, Amanda Hitt, Shiler, Winning, Jolene Jackson, Rachel, would no last name, name, perhaps Rachel. Josh Hayes, Casey Thier, Amy Schoff, Kicken, L, Kikin.

Kekin. I don't want to go too far with that. Ed Riceman. Meg Patel. Petal. Christy Sanford, Jen Faria, Michelle Ruma. These are fucked up this week. Ramaglanole. Kathy Grope, possibly Grop,

Julie Mack McCormick, Jasmine Lamey, Chloe Ali Sarnak, Steve Wart, Warfell, Freya, Frazier with no last name. Leslie Frye, Christine Anderson, Gabrielle Stevens, Jared Logan, Liz with no last name, Renee Martinez, Amanda Marie or Mary, and all of our patrons. Love you so much. Thank you. Thank you so much, everybody, you fantastic bastards. We appreciate all that you do for us. Thanks for hanging with us. Thanks for your time. Thanks for your money. Thanks for telling everybody.

Thanks for everything you do for us. You want to follow us on social media. Shut up and give me a murder.com as drop-down menus, it'll take you anywhere you want to go. Keep coming back and seeing us over and over again. And live from the Crime and Sports Studios, we will see you next week. Bye.