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AJ McKenzie
  • 2 days ago
Last episode of Sportscentury
IG: aj_mckenzie416
Twitter: AJMckenzie94847
Transcript
00:01Five seconds left in the game, do you believe in miracles?
00:05Yes!
00:05He is moving like a tremendous machine, secretariat by 12.
00:19Very strong has won the gold medal for the United States team.
00:24The greatest goal scorer in National Hockey League history!
00:27Michael Johnson, great goal, and into Olympic history!
00:32He destroys his own record!
00:48The rise of Billy Martin stands as perhaps baseball's brightest version of a triumph of the will.
00:55Up from the streets of Berkeley comes a pugnacious kid with more fire in his belly than baseball talent in
01:01his limbs.
01:02He not only fulfills his dream of playing for the Yankees, he becomes their manager, taking them to the world
01:08championship in 1977.
01:10Now we rejoin Billy for the long, eventful slide, a journey marked by the primary colors of Shakespearean tragedy, paranoia,
01:19sex, and self-destruction.
01:21It is in the midst of the 1978 season, and the cracks in Martin's cool demeanor are showing.
01:32It's about 2 o'clock in the morning, there's a pounding on my door.
01:37I open the door, and there's Billy Martin, and you could tell that he was clearly drunk.
01:42He sat down on the corner of my bed, and he began cursing about Reggie and about George,
01:48and he said, I'm the manager of this team, and they're not, he's not batting fourth, he's never going to
01:53bat fourth.
01:53And then he just started to ramble on about how much he hated Reggie, how much pressure he was under.
02:00And the bottom line to the whole story is two days later, Reggie batted fourth.
02:05He was paranoid, he always felt somebody was out to get him, and quite often somebody was out to get
02:10him, mainly George Steinbrenner.
02:11I remember Billy Martin pulling out Casey Stengel's old jersey and rubbing it as he sat behind a desk saying
02:17this was the old man.
02:19And he used to watch cartoons before we came.
02:21And imagine a scene of Billy Martin watching cartoons, stroking Casey Stengel's old jersey, and muttering to himself.
02:28That's what the New York Yankee Bronx Zoo was all about.
02:33But so far, the big news is that they haven't started fighting yet.
02:37I figure if we fight more this year, we might win it quicker.
02:41Do you think fighting is good for the team?
02:42Oh, it could be, and it couldn't be.
02:44I think this year, our players are a lot wiser, and they're not going to be used one player against
02:48the other,
02:48a player against the manager, or the manager against the front office.
02:51Bad lines were drawn early in 1978, when Reggie Jackson reported one day late for spring training,
02:57with the prior approval of George Steinbrenner.
03:00He saw that as a very insulting thing.
03:03And Reggie took it sort of casually and wasn't very concerned about it.
03:08And it really set a very nasty tone, which went on throughout that 78 season.
03:16By mid-July, the Yankees were trailing Boston by 14 games, and Billy Martin was coming apart.
03:23With his job on the line and rumors of a liver ailment making the sports pages,
03:27Martin saw his favorite form of relief.
03:30Every time trouble started happening, that's when the drinking would start getting heavier and heavier.
03:38And then as anybody that drinks that amount, they get to the point to where they don't care anymore.
03:45He drank instead of eating. He made the bar his living room and his dining room, and he would neglect
03:51his body.
03:52On July 17th, with a runner on first in the 10th inning, the pressure cooker atmosphere between star and manager
03:59finally reached the boiling point.
04:02Billy orders Reggie, you know, gives a sign for Reggie to bunt.
04:06Reggie, well, you're right. You don't ask Reggie Jackson to bunt. First of all, he can't bunt.
04:10Billy did that simply to embarrass Reggie and to show that he, Billy, dominated the team.
04:16Billy took off the bunt sign.
04:17But Reggie was so incensed that Billy would have him bunting to sacrifice that he decided he was going to
04:25bunt anyway.
04:25It was basically an openly defiant act on Reggie's part to say, look, I don't care what the manager says.
04:31I'm going to do what I want to do.
04:34After the game, Billy went crazy.
04:36He was just livid. I mean, I've never seen anybody any more livid than he was that night.
04:40I thought that Billy was doing a gaslight on Reggie.
04:45He was Charles Boyer. Reggie was Ingrid Bergman.
04:48Billy was trying successfully to drive Reggie crazy.
04:54Martin wanted to suspend his best power hitter for the season.
04:58But Steinbrenner intervened, and Martin had to settle for five days.
05:02He appeared calmer than he had all season, as the Yankees won four straight without Jackson.
05:08While other players might have come back from a five-day absence by loosening up,
05:12Reggie loosened up by talking to the media, and talking to the media, and talking to the media.
05:17When you were away, when your mind dwelled on what had happened,
05:21what were the major thoughts that went through your head?
05:24The magnitude of me.
05:27The magnitude of the instance, and the magnitude of New York.
05:31It's uncomfortable. It's miserable.
05:33I really thought that Billy might resort to violence.
05:37I mean, he might pick up a bat and split Reggie's head open.
05:40I mean, that's how angry he was, and how uncontrollable he was by that time.
05:47Martin benched Jackson for his first game back.
05:49His anxiety about Jackson's return was compounded by what White Sox owner Bill Veck had told him,
05:56that he and Steinbrenner had discussed trading managers, Martin for Bob Lemon.
06:01At Chicago's O'Hare Airport, Martin sought an outlet to vent his anger.
06:07Billy walks over to me and starts talking, and he starts talking about Reggie,
06:12and he starts saying all sorts of disparaging things about Reggie.
06:16Billy had another pop at the airport bar, but he's fine. He is rational.
06:22And Billy says, did you get all that? Did you get it in the paper? And I said yes.
06:26He asks us again, did you guys get it all into your paper? He's got a big, blank-eating grin
06:31on his face.
06:32Like, he's so happy. He has leveled Reggie.
06:36That wasn't enough for Billy. He started in again.
06:39And in his torrent of comments came his infamous line,
06:44the two of them deserve each other. One's a born liar, the other's convicted.
06:47Reggie was the born liar, and Steinbrenner was the convicted liar.
06:52Billy Martin called George Steinbrenner a convicted liar because George Steinbrenner was a convicted liar.
06:57Convicted in the case of giving illegal campaign contributions to the re-election campaign of Richard Nixon.
07:03He didn't bother me because I wasn't a liar.
07:06I didn't lie. I didn't have to lie.
07:08He fired an arrow that was a boomerang, and it came right back to get him.
07:14At this time, I'm also sorry about these things that were written about George Steinbrenner.
07:19He does not deserve them, nor did I say them.
07:22We came down the lobby, and there was lots of people around, a lot of cameras and everything.
07:26I didn't know what was going on, you know.
07:28And I see Billy over there in the corner, you know, tearing up.
07:31I don't want to hurt this team's chances for the pennant, but if some due publicity, the team has a
07:37shot at the pennant, and I hope they win it.
07:40I owe it to my health and my mental well-being to resign.
07:43Billy Martin, when you start talking about firing him from being the manager of the New York Yankees,
07:49you might as well just stab him with a knife.
08:19Billy could have been suicidal.
08:22Billy wanted to be a Yankee forever.
08:26I was afraid that I made sure I walked out, but I thought he'd walk into a truck or something.
08:30He was really down.
08:31I mean, I was really, I mean, and I felt terrible for him.
08:36And it was just a stunning climax to this whole week that started with Reggie's defiance over the sacrifice bunt.
08:44Reggie, you've got to have some feelings about the resignation of Billy Martin.
08:49Well, I really don't have any feelings.
08:55I'm just kind of, maybe the word is placid or drained or wrung out.
09:01Anything else you want to tell us?
09:04I still got my Yankee badge on.
09:06That's all I can say.
09:15Size eight?
09:17Last pair.
09:19Bulletin, Washington, D.C. Corporate ID Center.
09:21What the freak is this?
09:22National Collector's Mint will leave thousands of calls demanding that Martin be rehired.
09:27A few even threatened Steinbrenner's life.
09:30Within 48 hours, a new deal had been struck between Billy and George and a secret plan hatched for Martin
09:36to return for the 1980 season.
09:39He was sneaked into Yankee Stadium.
09:42He was kept hidden.
09:43It was like a covert, you know, like CIA operation just to get him into the stadium.
09:49That was one of the most bizarre times that I can remember where he was just kind of hiding in
09:53the storage room.
09:53And I looked in there and go, Billy, what are you doing?
09:55Where you been?
09:56He goes, shh, they're going to do this thing today.
09:59I'm going, oh, this is crazy.
10:00The manager of the Yankees for the 1980 season, and hopefully for many years after that, will be number one,
10:14Billy Martin.
10:24People stood up.
10:26They cheered and cheered and cheered and cheered.
10:35Nowhere else could this happen, that a man resigns under pressure, and five days later is named the manager of
10:40the future.
10:41I thought I'd been hit with a Jack Armstrong right hook.
10:46Some kids want to play big league baseball, and other kids want to run away and join the circus.
10:50I said, I'm lucky.
10:51I get to do both here.
10:52I called George and told him how I apologized for what was said.
10:57I did say it.
10:59I don't know why I said it.
11:01I was angered at the time.
11:03What he said to me showed me that he was a man who realized that he had maybe made a
11:10small mistake.
11:12And it was small in the total picture.
11:14I'm a free spirit.
11:16And I'm going to try to do other things that George wants me to do, and at the same time,
11:21he says he's going to try to be a little more free spirit, too.
11:46Well, no, I haven't.
11:53But I like Miller a lot, and I drink it a lot.
11:56No, Bill, it tastes great.
11:57Less filling, George.
11:58Billy, it tastes great.
12:00Less filling, George.
12:01Billy?
12:02Yeah, George.
12:02You're a fighter.
12:03Not again.
12:04Like beer from Miller, everything you always wanted in a beer, and less.
12:09Under manager Bob Lemon, the Yankees won the 1978 World Series.
12:13But a slow start in 79 compelled Steinbrenner to consider bringing Martin in from the cold earlier than expected.
12:21But first, Billy the Kid faced criminal and civil charges for slugging Reno sports writer Ray Hager.
12:27And George said, you guys are going to have to win both of those.
12:31If not, he's not going to be my manager next year.
12:35And I said, George, but conversely, if we win them both, he is your manager.
12:40He said, he's my manager.
12:42They paid Hager a little money to pay for the surgery to fix his face, and the whole thing went
12:46away.
12:47Martin regained the Yankees' helm in June of 1979.
12:52Six weeks later, he lost his favorite player.
12:57The night Thurman died, Dad and I went back to his apartment, and he cried.
13:03He got angry, and he looked at me, and he said,
13:06Pardon, I need to go out.
13:08I said, Dad, you can't go out.
13:11You can't go out.
13:12You're going to go out.
13:14You're going to drink.
13:17First time somebody says something about Thurman, you're going to snap.
13:21You're going to get in a fight.
13:23I was like, you're right.
13:24So we stayed home.
13:26We watched two John Wayne movies.
13:28We made him a chevison soda.
13:32Sat it down in front of him.
13:34He didn't even touch it.
13:36Didn't drink a drop all night.
13:38He cried several times.
13:39He was in a lot of pain.
13:41The months of death just sealed it.
13:44It was just an awful season for the Yankees.
13:47There was nothing that went right for them.
13:50And for Martin, the winter nights provided little solace.
13:55Billy was always getting into Contra Thompson in the off season.
13:58He'd get drunk, and he'd slug somebody because he was a raving alcoholic.
14:02He had no self-control.
14:04Billy would never initiate a fight, but he wouldn't walk away from one.
14:10And, you know, he wasn't going to stop and say, well, this is crazy because I might lose my job.
14:16Billy punches this guy out and knocks him colder than a cucumber.
14:22And unfortunately for Billy, it makes the papers.
14:26Also, unfortunately, mellows.
14:27I remember hearing it on TV, you know, and the first thing you got, I go, oh, boy.
14:35You know, here we go again.
14:37For the second time in 15 months, Martin provoked his own firing.
14:46Hi, I'm Wilford Brimley for Liberty Medical.
14:49What the freak?
14:50I'm a doctor.
14:50I see a wonderful opportunity out there to bring baseball back in Oakland like it should be.
14:55And it's my hometown out there.
14:56I'm from Berkeley, California.
14:58My mother lives there, and it's going to be very nice.
15:01On February 1st, 1980, Billy Martin was officially hired to resuscitate the once-mighty Oakland A's.
15:10By the end of 1979, they'd become almost a forgotten team.
15:14They'd lost 108 games.
15:16It was in total disarray.
15:18The team's mental aspect was terrible.
15:20We were losers, actually.
15:21We felt like losers.
15:22Billy came in and at least brought some order to the asylum.
15:27I'll never forget this.
15:28He said, you screw me, and I screw back harder.
15:31And I think that stuck in everybody's mind.
15:34He had the look on his face like he really meant that.
15:41Billy Martin was the type of manager who said, I'm going to let you go do your job.
15:45Do it the best way you know how to do it for 7-in.
15:48After 7-in, I'm going to take over the game.
15:50So you're going to do it my way in 7-in.
15:521979 was hell, and 1980 was heaven.
15:55It was almost like a party out there.
15:57Every day we had the song Celebration by Kool and the Gang, and that played every time after the game
16:01that we won.
16:03People here knew that Billy was an East Bay kid, a tough kid who had scrapped his way up from
16:09Berkeley, had played for the Oakland Oaks.
16:12There was a tremendous local identity.
16:14He just caught on immediately, and it was lightning in the bottle.
16:17Billy loved being out here.
16:19He was an idol out here.
16:20People loved him, loved the fact that he would just go to some neighborhood bars, interact with the people.
16:26They were winning, and he was drinking, and nobody had a hangover.
16:29He built up a club that was very aggressive, very daring in his own image, and Billy Martin, for all
16:36his faults, was a great teacher.
16:37Here's the pitch.
16:38Squeeze play on.
16:39Run it down the street.
16:40Next line.
16:40It's a beauty.
16:41Over the run.
16:42It was his perfect type of ball team.
16:44We could do things on the bases to manufacture runs, and Billy, he just, he took it and ran with
16:50it.
16:51And that's where Billy Ball was involved.
16:53Pulling double steals, playing hit and run.
16:56Tico and the catcher is flinky, but it's fun.
16:59Billy Ball, age baseball.
17:02Billy Ball was, in today's vernacular, in-your-face baseball.
17:06He's gonna get in trouble, just to wait and see.
17:10Get out of here.
17:11Why is everybody always picking on me?
17:13To me, the essence of Billy Ball is, Ricky Henderson's on third, and a big, slow, sort of clod-ish
17:18guy like Jeff Newman's on first.
17:20The pitcher's getting ready to throw.
17:22All of a sudden, Jeff Newman just, just takes a pratfall.
17:25Like, he's gonna steal second, but his feet go out from under him, and he's on his back.
17:28The pitcher's like, oh, I better throw over there, and Ricky Bowles for the play.
17:31Now, that play worked an awful lot of the time.
17:33He just stole a run, Billy.
17:35He just took it.
17:36It was his game of chess with the opposing manager.
17:40Billy, as a manager, as someone managing the game between the lines, was extraordinary, and perhaps nobody is equal in
17:47that era.
17:48He did it so well that he increased the value of the franchise to the point where the Haas family
17:53bought it.
17:55What they bought was Billy Martin's A's, because of Billy Martin.
18:00Martin and the A's opened the 1981 season perfectly.
18:04They just kept winning.
18:07Just two years to the day that the A's drew only 653 fans to a home game,
18:12the team returned to Oakland with a new owner and a spotless record.
18:16And over 50,000 fans filled the Oakland Coliseum to see the A's win their ninth game of the season
18:22without a loss.
18:23Right off the bat, you've got the best story in baseball here.
18:26You have not only a winning streak, not only Billy Martin, not only a team that had been downtrodden before,
18:31but you've got pitchers going 9, 10, 11, even 12, 14 innings for the win, which was absolutely great.
18:38It was just such a captivating team led by a swashbuckling manager that captured the interest of not only people
18:45here,
18:45but baseball fans across the country, and even an august publication like Time Magazine
18:51put Billy Martin on the cover early in the 1981 season.
18:54And because Billy is so successful, it makes George Steinbrenner crazy.
19:02Now George realizes again that he's made a terrible mistake letting Billy go.
19:10The high water mark for Billy Ball was the 1981 playoffs against Kansas City.
19:15They swept that series.
19:16It was Billy in defiance.
19:18He was winning, he was drinking, he was doing it right up front.
19:24And everybody was kind of ordering another one.
19:27You know, it's like when Billy's on a roll, it's like Sinatra.
19:30You're in.
19:31Nobody's saying, hey, wait a minute.
19:33Despite losing to the Yankees in the 1981 American League Championship Series,
19:38Martin's homecoming appeared utopian.
19:41I'm not afraid to make comments now, where before, even though you'd answer something honestly,
19:46there'd be somebody turning around a little bit, and right away the owner's mad at you and wants to get
19:51rid of you.
19:52You know, it's not that way out here.
19:53I've got great owners and just tremendous people.
19:55Do you see staying here for the rest of your career?
19:58I think so.
19:58I think this is it, and I'm very happy about it.
20:04Once again, we're giving away the ultimate prize.
20:07The only...
20:08I'd done eight or nine years, you know, touring with a lot of English bands,
20:13where I saw a lot of crazy and outrageous behavior,
20:17and some pretty intense crazy people.
20:20And in that milieu, Billy still measured up and surpassed most.
20:27So, I was impressed.
20:30You know, where sailors always have all these girls in every port?
20:33Well, not Billy.
20:35He had them in every town.
20:37Billy's off-field life was always tumultuous.
20:40His relationships with women certainly played into it.
20:44He lived, in essence, a double life in the early 80s.
20:47When 51-year-old Billy Martin took over the A's,
20:50he was living with a girl who was younger than any of his players,
20:5520-year-old Heather Ervolino from the Bronx.
20:58She used to hang out at the Players' Gate at Yankee Stadium.
21:02And so the story goes, Billy noticed her.
21:05She was a teeny bopper when he met her, and he was a middle-aged guy.
21:08I used to joke with my friends when I'd go to the ballpark and say,
21:12I wonder if she'd like me to get her a beer until she turns 21.
21:17In 1980, Martin met Jill Guyver, a 25-year-old photographer.
21:22First night I'd met him, I drove him back to his hotel.
21:26I mean, he couldn't have been more of a gentleman.
21:27Had a cowboy hat on him, then he took it off and put his hand over his chest
21:31and, you know, bowed and said, you know, it's been a pleasure, man.
21:34You know, I mean, just, what are you going to do?
21:36It was too much.
21:37She came from exactly the opposite kind of background that Heather came from.
21:42She came from money.
21:43She was a leech.
21:44She hung on him like a cheap suit.
21:47He fought with her.
21:48He would come to the ballpark and he'd be in a bad mood and he'd go,
21:51oh, the guys would go, Jill's here.
21:53You'd see Jill in the hotel bars with him and in public,
21:57and Heather was sort of this mysterious figure,
21:59but you knew something was going on there.
22:00He juggled more than two, I would be willing to bet.
22:04Actually, I know.
22:07Dad was a connoisseur of women.
22:11The way it was set up for me and presented to me is that, you know,
22:15we would be together on the road and I had my own home,
22:18which Billy set up for me in Southern California.
22:21He was essentially leading the life of the Captain's Paradise,
22:24that old Alec Guinness movie.
22:26Halfway between Oakland and Los Angeles,
22:28the picture on his desk, we would flip around from Heather to Jill.
22:31By the spring of 1982,
22:34it was clear that Martin's focus was not exclusively on baseball.
22:39Billy Martin had a trailer behind the left field fence
22:41in Phoenix Municipal Stadium during spring training,
22:44and there were days that he barely popped his head out of the trailer
22:49to see what was happening on the field.
22:51Although Billy was not on the field,
22:52we always felt he knew everything was going on.
22:55The A's opened the season with serious problems,
22:58plaguing their starting pitching staff.
23:00It was a combination of factors where one by one,
23:03like a house of cards, the pitchers developed sore arms,
23:06and by the 1982 season, they were a shell of their former selves.
23:10Everybody's injuries were not the same,
23:12but yet they want to say it was Billy's fault
23:14because of all the complete games,
23:16and I, for one, don't buy it.
23:18That staff was very good,
23:20and Billy, by necessity, abused them.
23:23He had no bullpen.
23:24We had to pitch counts.
23:26We pitched on every five days
23:27where everybody else was pitching on every four days.
23:29They started losing.
23:31Billy wasn't a good loser,
23:33and it turned sour real quick.
23:35There's a warning flammable sign next to Billy Fartner,
23:38the Oakland dugout.
23:39That's the understatement of the year.
23:41He had some tax problems he was dealing with.
23:43It was a very turbulent year in Billy's life.
23:46He began to resent ownership.
23:48I think he was making demands of A's ownership,
23:51and they weren't giving in to him.
23:53Even though he had a sweet deal there,
23:54I think he wanted more.
23:56But on the personal side,
23:57issues began to arise
23:59that kind of undermined his ability to lead the team.
24:02All of a sudden, he's like a leper, you know,
24:04and he's the worst thing you can have for your franchise
24:06instead of the best.
24:07He liked to stir things up.
24:09He was not a person that was happy
24:13going through the motions.
24:15That was hell for him.
24:18And all you look at his career,
24:21he manufactured some of his own firings almost.
24:25And he said,
24:26you're going to be a Yankee,
24:27and I'm going to be your manager.
24:29And I go,
24:30there ain't no way they got you locked up,
24:31and I'm locked up.
24:32And they say,
24:33somehow,
24:33if the Yankees start losing,
24:36I'm going to leave him.
24:38No matter what the contract,
24:39I'm going to leave him.
24:40He's like a caged tiger.
24:42I mean,
24:42once the people start to close in on him,
24:44he just gets worse.
24:45He just starts snarling,
24:46and he says,
24:46well,
24:46where do you see this?
24:48By mid-August,
24:50the A's were mired in fifth place.
24:52Sensing no escape,
24:54Martin lashed out in a rage.
24:56Whatever was in the office
24:58where the television set,
24:59ice chest,
25:01well,
25:02he was no longer standing
25:03when all this was over with.
25:04It was like somebody had come in
25:06and just dropped a bomb
25:07in the middle of it.
25:08He had taken all the pictures
25:09down from his walls
25:11and beaten his hands into them
25:13and torn them up,
25:14and his hands were all bloody,
25:15and there went his chance
25:18to manage Oakland for life.
25:19Billy told me that George
25:20was trying to get him.
25:22So when he went into the clubhouse
25:24that day and tore everything up,
25:25that was on by design.
25:26He wanted to get fired.
25:27The A's fired Martin
25:28in October of 1982,
25:31ending the memorable
25:32three-year stint
25:33known as Billy Ball.
25:35Even there,
25:36when he was happy,
25:38healthy,
25:38had color in his face,
25:39had a gut,
25:41he still yearned
25:43to wear those pinstripes
25:44because that's where his heart was.
25:47It drive me crazy.
25:48Damn,
25:49why'd you stay in Oakland?
25:55The Boyd House is for sale.
25:56Oh, hey,
25:57did you hear the Boyds
25:57are selling their house?
25:58Yeah,
25:58it's a 2400 square foot.
26:00Ebeneers of Scrooge,
26:01it's not far from the truth.
26:03And, you know,
26:03Billy Martin was his Bob Cratchit.
26:05He would abuse him,
26:06he would love him,
26:07but he would abuse him
26:08constantly.
26:10Well,
26:10we've straightened
26:11a lot of things out.
26:12They'll,
26:12for instance,
26:13I'll be handling
26:14all the trades.
26:15What do you mean?
26:18There'll be no phone calls
26:19in the dugout.
26:20What do you mean?
26:21That is not,
26:21that's not right.
26:24I'm handling the trades.
26:26That isn't the way
26:27we stand, George.
26:27I have the right
26:28to call you in the dark
26:29at any time I want.
26:29That's not the way
26:30it's fun of being, George.
26:30Well,
26:31you're damn right it is,
26:31and if you don't like it,
26:32you're fired.
26:33You haven't hired me yet.
26:35Many times,
26:36I compared it to
26:38Richard Burton
26:38and Elizabeth Taylor.
26:39They couldn't live apart
26:41and they couldn't live together.
26:43When they were apart,
26:44they lusted for one another,
26:45and when they were together,
26:47they couldn't wait
26:48to be apart.
26:48There were times when
26:51I know Dad wanted
26:52to rip his throat out,
26:53and then there were times
26:55when he wanted
26:56to give the man a hug.
26:57Whether it was love
26:58or hate,
26:59Martin and Steinbrenner
27:01needed each other,
27:02like Nitro Needs Glycerin.
27:04Three times in the 80s,
27:05the boss would install
27:07the brat in the manager's slot,
27:09only to move him
27:10somewhere else
27:10in the organization
27:11within a year.
27:13George would give him
27:14a tremendous signing bonus
27:16to move into
27:17his new position,
27:18add years to the contract,
27:20and it became
27:22very lucrative for Billy.
27:23And then Billy
27:24took care of George
27:25by performing so well for him,
27:27both as a manager
27:28and as a showman
27:30and as the battered boy.
27:32I know Billy Martin,
27:33and I know
27:34that every time I've been here,
27:36we've had a winner,
27:37and the last laugh
27:38is going to be mine.
27:40It was like whipping a dog,
27:41and the more you whip
27:42that dog,
27:43the more you beat.
27:44He loses a lot of his fight.
27:45I think Billy lost
27:46a lot of his fight.
27:46The alcohol
27:47was taking an effect, too.
27:51I remember being
27:52scared to death
27:53when I first played for him,
27:54and I remember being sad
27:55the second time.
27:57The liquor
27:57rotted out his brain.
27:59He was never
27:59the same manager
28:00after he kept coming back.
28:04He started doing
28:05some very strange things,
28:07and the strangest
28:08was sending
28:08Mike Pagliarulo,
28:10who's ordinarily
28:11a left-handed batter,
28:13sending him up to bat
28:15right-handed
28:16against a lefty pitcher.
28:17And, of course,
28:18Pagliarulo struck out.
28:22He would come in
28:24different times,
28:26late,
28:27close the door,
28:28and that's when
28:28he would do his sleeping.
28:30You know,
28:30and George would come down
28:31and bang on the door
28:33and holler and scream
28:34at Billy,
28:34open the door.
28:35He'd buy dinner
28:36and, as usual,
28:37buy drinks or whatever,
28:39and the next day
28:40he wouldn't remember
28:41seeing this.
28:41He told me in confidence
28:43that he'd quit drinking
28:44for a month
28:45just to prove
28:47to himself
28:48he could do it.
28:49And that's why
28:50he felt like
28:51he wasn't an alcoholic.
28:54I still feel
28:55that, in a way,
28:56Steinbrenner has some
28:56of Billy Martin's
28:57blood on his hands.
28:58For a man to drink
28:59that much
29:00for so many years
29:01to blot out the pain,
29:03I can only imagine
29:04how he was tormented.
29:06But how does Steinbrenner
29:07not say,
29:08you'll come back
29:09as manager,
29:09you go to meetings?
29:10And I monitor
29:11that you go to the meetings.
29:12You have to try
29:13to deal with this.
29:14I did feel
29:15that I had
29:17failed to a certain extent
29:18to turn him around,
29:19but I couldn't be
29:20with him every minute.
29:21I couldn't convince him.
29:22I just couldn't convince him.
29:25Under Martin
29:26in the 1980s,
29:27the Yankees
29:27won almost 60%
29:29of their games,
29:30but never reached
29:31the postseason.
29:32Each failure
29:32took its toll.
29:34He loved managing
29:36and he needed it.
29:37But it also
29:38beat him down.
29:39By the end of the season,
29:40he was gaunt,
29:41he was thin.
29:42It was just obvious
29:43that managing
29:45wasn't the first thing
29:46in Billy's mind
29:47those days.
29:48After the 1982 season,
29:50Martin finally married
29:52Heather Ervolino,
29:53who at 23
29:54was 31 years
29:56his junior.
29:57Meanwhile,
29:58the more sophisticated
29:59Jill Guyver
29:59continued to be
30:01his frequent companion.
30:02Billy,
30:03instead of sitting
30:04in the dugout,
30:05was sitting a little
30:05by a fence,
30:07which was right next
30:07to the dugout
30:08and she was right
30:09behind the fence.
30:10Every so often
30:11you'd see Jill
30:12passing
30:13notes to Billy
30:14with her toes
30:15through the fence.
30:16And this was all
30:18in 40,000 people
30:20in the ballpark,
30:21the entire press box,
30:22everybody could see this.
30:23When Billy
30:24was told
30:24it was being written,
30:25he said,
30:26how can you write that?
30:27I'm married.
30:29In September of 1985,
30:31when the Yankees
30:32were battling
30:33the Blue Jays
30:33for the division title,
30:35Martin tried to settle
30:36a barroom dispute
30:37in Baltimore
30:38between his pitcher,
30:39Ed Whitson,
30:40and a patron.
30:41Whitson just turned
30:42on Billy.
30:43And, boy,
30:44Billy found himself
30:45not in a fight,
30:46he found himself
30:47in a war.
30:48They went through
30:49the bar,
30:49out onto the parking lot,
30:51and Whitson
30:52was really pummeling
30:53Billy.
30:54I'm going to kill
30:55Billy to me.
30:56So we got
30:57stopped it again.
30:59And sent him
31:00to the road.
31:01Elevator opens
31:02and there's Whitson,
31:03they start fighting again.
31:05Three different times
31:06they had a fight.
31:07Come on, Billy!
31:08Let's go, Billy!
31:09He had his right arm
31:10and his cast like this
31:11and he was walking
31:12and he looked like
31:13he was about 86 years old
31:14and saw him
31:15and, you know,
31:16he said,
31:16Billy, how do you feel?
31:17He said,
31:17I feel great,
31:18that guy didn't hurt me,
31:19you know,
31:19and he was,
31:19it was a really pathetic thing.
31:21Billy Martin
31:21was a really tough
31:22street kid,
31:23but by the time
31:24you turn 40 or 50
31:26and you're very successful
31:27in your line of work,
31:28it's time to stop
31:29being a street kid.
31:31One May night
31:32in 1988,
31:32the years caught up
31:34with Billy Martin
31:35at a topless bar
31:36in Texas
31:37called Lace.
31:38My dad had gotten
31:39an almost gunfighter-like
31:41reputation.
31:42He'd been there
31:43with Mickey Mantle
31:44and his boys
31:45and they had left
31:46a little bit early
31:48and this guy
31:49wanted to take his shot
31:51at the champ.
31:52They threw him out
31:53in the street
31:53with a concrete wall
31:56that bashed his face
31:58into it
31:58and almost tore his ear off
32:00and just kind of
32:01left him out there
32:02for dead.
32:05A month later,
32:07Billy the Kid's
32:08legendary battles
32:09with umpires
32:10turned personal.
32:11Union head
32:12Richie Phillips
32:13threatened that the umps
32:14would eject Martin
32:15if he stepped
32:16outside the dugout.
32:17What Richie was
32:19trying to do
32:19was to call attention
32:21that he thought
32:22Billy was out of control
32:23and that
32:24it had to be
32:26the umpires
32:27if somebody else
32:28wouldn't bring him
32:28under control
32:29than we would.
32:31I defied
32:32Richie Phillips' stop.
32:33He said it was war.
32:35Yeah, it's war.
32:37Thank God
32:37there's no dead bodies.
32:38There's going to be
32:39some dead eagles though.
32:41people are now
32:43seeing the George and Billy show
32:45as a cartoon
32:48and Billy being the butt
32:49of everybody's jokes.
32:51I always felt sorry for him.
32:53He felt,
32:53I always felt
32:54he was a little boy lost.
32:56Off the baseball field
32:58he,
32:59it seemed like
33:00he didn't know
33:00where he belonged.
33:02On June 22nd, 1988
33:05after four decades
33:06of brilliant turbulence
33:07Martin took his lineup card
33:09out to the plate
33:10for the last time.
33:11The hirings and firings
33:13in New York
33:14took their toll
33:14on my father.
33:15They hurt every one of them.
33:17And he started saying things
33:19like,
33:20ah, you know,
33:21part,
33:21I don't know if I'm going
33:21to be around
33:22another ten years.
33:23Things like that
33:24that would make you
33:25uncomfortable.
33:31The century continues,
33:33Billy Martin searches
33:35for peace
33:36away from the turmoil
33:37of the Yankees
33:38and New York City.
33:39But old demons resurface
33:41and lead to his
33:42untimely demise.
33:44I thought he would
33:45never,
33:46never bite
33:47getting killed
33:48in a car.
33:51He loved to fish.
33:53We had an eight acre pond
33:54that was stuffed
33:55with bass.
33:56We had a couple of sheep
33:57and a few goats
33:58and chickens
34:00and things like that.
34:01But he just would love
34:03to walk his property.
34:04After divorcing
34:05his third wife,
34:06Heather,
34:07Billy Martin
34:08married Jill Guyver
34:09in 1988
34:10and soon
34:11took up
34:11the improbable life
34:13of a country squire
34:14on a horse farm
34:15in upstate New York.
34:16Billy was a city guy.
34:18Billy belonged
34:18in the city.
34:19But she
34:22separated Billy
34:23from most of
34:24Billy's friends.
34:25When two people
34:25love each other
34:26and, you know,
34:27when you're together
34:28and many times
34:29your very best friends,
34:30your family
34:31gets put on hold,
34:32kind of gets discarded.
34:36Jill was a woman
34:37who basically
34:37tried to take
34:38Billy's life over
34:39and put it in order.
34:40You were going to change
34:41Billy Martin?
34:43My wife told her
34:44one time,
34:45she said,
34:45you got a husband,
34:45you didn't get a hostage.
34:48Being a land baron,
34:50I think that
34:50impressed him.
34:51But he was miserable
34:53because he wasn't managing.
34:55Martin's misery
34:56deepened
34:56when his 88-year-old
34:57mother passed away
34:59on December 11,
35:001989.
35:01A shell of the old
35:02Billy appeared
35:03at the funeral.
35:03As soon as he spotted me,
35:05he come right over
35:06and, you know,
35:06he hugged me
35:07and I look at him
35:07and the thing
35:09that amazed me
35:10is I had my arms
35:11around a pack of bones.
35:13He was so frail
35:15and so wasted
35:21and I could also
35:21smell alcohol
35:22on his breath.
35:23He was fighting
35:24immensely with his
35:25brothers and sisters
35:26at that particular time
35:27and, you know,
35:29he just felt so outcast
35:30and it was very depressing.
35:33Jill was telling him
35:34lies about my brother
35:36and myself
35:36and how we were
35:38degenerates
35:38and, you know,
35:39drug addicts
35:40and lived on the streets
35:41and didn't have
35:42any kind of a life.
35:44After the funeral,
35:46the 61-year-old Martin
35:47went home.
35:48Gone from his life
35:50were baseball,
35:51his mother,
35:52and so many
35:53of his friends.
35:54Dejected,
35:55he invited his buddy
35:56Bill Reedy
35:57and his wife
35:57to spend Christmas
35:58in Binghamton.
35:59Billy hated Christmas
36:00because it pointed up
36:02for him everything
36:02that his family life
36:04had never been.
36:04Billy and Bill Reedy
36:06drive off
36:07to a local bar
36:08in Binghamton
36:09to start drinking
36:10about 10 o'clock
36:11in the morning.
36:11It wasn't power drinking.
36:13There was no thing
36:15and at the most
36:16we had five,
36:17okay,
36:18we had five beers
36:19which was nothing
36:19to me.
36:20So,
36:21it's around 5 o'clock.
36:23It's dust
36:23and it's not snowing
36:26but it's wet
36:27and it's icy.
36:29They have to negotiate
36:30a steep hill
36:32and at the bottom
36:33of the hill
36:33is Billy's driveway
36:35and Billy's truck
36:36slides into
36:38a ditch.
36:40and Billy
36:41being Billy
36:42rather than
36:43stepping on the brake
36:44and either walking home
36:47or backing out
36:49he floors it.
36:51And all he said
36:52was hold on
36:53or hang on,
36:54okay?
36:56And then a sudden stop.
36:58And he smashes
36:59directly in
37:00to a culvert
37:03and the collision
37:04causes Billy
37:05to break his neck
37:07and Billy dies.
37:11He was steps
37:12from his driveway.
37:15I was down
37:15on my knees
37:16in the snow
37:16and I had his head
37:18in my hands
37:18and I saw his eyes
37:20and it was the first indication
37:22that, you know,
37:22we were in trouble.
37:23He arrived here
37:24at 633
37:24and he expired
37:26at 650-16.
37:32First thing
37:33the guy asked
37:34was,
37:34who's driving?
37:36And I looked at the guy
37:37and I said,
37:37I am.
37:38I was.
37:39You know what?
37:39First of all,
37:40we didn't hit nobody.
37:42Just to hurt our side.
37:43I didn't know
37:43we'd hit Billy's house
37:44but I knew
37:44we just hit something.
37:46I tried to wake him up
37:47and I thought
37:47he was knocked out.
37:48Reedy's explanation
37:49for why he said
37:50he was driving
37:51was that he wanted
37:51to protect Billy's reputation.
37:54Billy was his buddy
37:55and he knew
37:55that Billy was on tap
37:56for yet one more round
37:58with George.
37:59It wasn't until
38:00later in the day
38:01at the hospital
38:02that Bill really found out
38:05that, you know,
38:06our dear friend
38:07Billy Martin
38:07was dead
38:08and he told
38:09the true story
38:10that Billy Martin
38:12was driving.
38:13People have said
38:14that Billy was driving.
38:15First of all,
38:16the alcohol level
38:17that Billy had
38:20was astronomical.
38:21It would be
38:22physical and possible
38:23no one in their right mind
38:24would have gotten
38:25into a car with someone.
38:26I mean,
38:26he wouldn't have been
38:26able to walk.
38:27I've been with
38:28Billy Martin
38:30thousands of times
38:31throughout the years
38:32when Billy had been
38:33drinking pretty good
38:34and he never,
38:36ever offered
38:37the keys to anybody.
38:39It really,
38:40in some way,
38:40doesn't matter
38:41who was driving
38:41because at the bottom
38:43of all of that
38:44was the same old demon,
38:46the same old specter
38:47that had haunted
38:47Billy all his life.
38:48And it broke my heart
38:50because,
38:50you know,
38:51I didn't want it
38:51to go that way.
38:53And then when you hear
38:55the rumor of somebody,
38:56you know,
38:56he was drinking this
38:57and that
38:57and, you know,
38:58the pattern
38:58and you go,
38:59golly,
38:59I wish it wouldn't
39:00have been that way.
39:01More than a few
39:02old friends
39:03attended Martin's
39:04funeral mass
39:05at St. Patrick's
39:06Cathedral
39:06in New York City.
39:07I kind of convulsed
39:09in tears
39:11and sobs
39:13and a man got up
39:15and grabbed my arm
39:16and kind of steadied me
39:18and walked me outside
39:20and said,
39:21I want to show you
39:22how many people
39:23loved your father.
39:25And we walked outside
39:26and you couldn't even
39:28see the sidewalk.
39:29There were people
39:31everywhere.
39:32It was,
39:33it was amazing.
39:36The man was Richard Nixon.
39:40Even in death,
39:41controversies swirled
39:42like bad weather
39:43around Billy Martin.
39:45In 1990,
39:46a jury concluded
39:47that Bill Reedy
39:48was the driver,
39:49finding him guilty
39:50of a misdemeanor.
39:51Meanwhile,
39:52a legal battle
39:53was being waged
39:54over Martin's estate.
39:56He was making money
39:57hand over fist.
39:59And when Billy died,
40:01$8.82.
40:03That's how much
40:03she said was left
40:04in the estate
40:05for Billy's two kids.
40:06He had IRS problems
40:08dating back,
40:09you know,
40:0910 years.
40:11And so there was
40:12a great deal of debt.
40:13And so we were just
40:14kind of getting out
40:15of the hole
40:15at that point.
40:16I've received letters
40:17now from Jill
40:19stating that
40:20if I want to purchase
40:22the items
40:23that my father
40:24wanted me to have
40:25and wanted Evie
40:26to have,
40:27that I could purchase
40:28them at half price
40:29and here was the price
40:30that I had to pay.
40:31I'm still waiting
40:33for the things
40:33that he left me
40:34in the will.
40:36Hopefully,
40:37you know,
40:38my children,
40:40his grandchildren
40:42that bear his name
40:43will get those things
40:44one day.
40:47I think the alcoholism
40:48and the soap opera
40:50elements of his life
40:51really get in the way
40:52of seeing him
40:53as a baseball man.
40:54He was terrible
40:55and he was sort of
40:55the embodiment
40:56of evil sometimes,
40:57but he did so many
40:58great things
40:59and he had such
40:59a power about him
41:00and he was so brilliant
41:02that you just
41:03couldn't turn away
41:04from him.
41:04I'll never forget
41:05one time
41:05we're in the clubhouse
41:06in Minnesota
41:06and this guy
41:07walks in the door
41:07and he was kind of,
41:09you know,
41:09really grungy looking
41:10and had kind of
41:11a weird looking outfit
41:12on and I'm watching
41:12Billy,
41:13he peels off
41:14a couple hundred
41:14dollar bills
41:15and gives them
41:15to this guy.
41:16He got his oil
41:16of his size.
41:17This guy was the,
41:18you know,
41:18his all-star shortstop
41:19with the twins
41:19and the guy's working
41:20as a janitor.
41:21Billy never forgot
41:21his old players.
41:22It all comes back
41:23to the love
41:24of the game
41:25and it will always
41:26be the memory
41:26in my mind
41:27watching him
41:28walk off
41:29that little swagger
41:30of his,
41:31that gunslinger
41:32swagger of his
41:33and just knowing
41:34that I just stole
41:35the ball game
41:35from someone
41:36and everybody's
41:37loving it.
41:38The four most
41:39important things
41:40in my life
41:40have been
41:42family,
41:44God,
41:45my friends,
41:47and being a Yankee.
41:54Martin was buried
41:55within sight
41:56of Babe Ruth's grave
41:57at Gate of Heaven
41:58Cemetery in New York.
42:00But his true
42:01resting place
42:01was determined
42:02in 1986
42:03when his number
42:04was retired
42:05and his bronze image
42:07placed among the stars
42:08in Yankee Stadium's
42:09Monument Park.
42:13Even though,
42:14you know,
42:14we think he had
42:14a kind of a tortured
42:15life in many ways,
42:17he went to his grave
42:18as New York Yankee
42:19number one.
42:20That was the most
42:20important thing to him.
42:22I may
42:23have not been
42:24the greatest Yankee
42:26that ever put
42:26the uniform on,
42:28but I am the proudest.
42:33Wow.
42:34Three days
42:35before Billy Martin's
42:36fatal accident,
42:37former Yankees coach
42:38Willie Horton
42:39got a phone call.
42:40It was Billy
42:41putting together
42:42a staff
42:43in advance of a meeting
42:44with George Steinbrenner
42:45for what he presumed
42:46would be his sixth run
42:48with the Yankees.
42:49For ESPN Classics
42:50Sports Century,
42:52I'm Chris Fowler.
42:53I'm Chris Fowler.
42:55I'm Chris Fowler.
42:56I'm Chris Fowler.
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