Appreciating the retired single-digit numbers of the New York Yankees
Number One
Billy Martin, #1 (number retired on August 10, 1986)
It would be difficult to make a statistical argument that Martin should have his number retired as a player or manager of the Yankees. The other players in the single-digit club were far better than Martin ever was and his on-again, off-again career as manager of the Yankees doesn’t come close to the sustained excellence of the Joe Torre years. But the thing about Martin that can’t be argued is that he was a New York Yankee right down to his core.
As a player, Martin lasted 11 years in the big leagues despite having just two season in which he was league average overall (worth at least 2 Wins Above Replacement) and he was never league average as a hitter (career 80 wRC+, meaning 20% below league average as a hitter when league and ballpark are taken into account). He spent his first six full seasons with the Yankees, with a one-year break for military service in 1954, then started his seventh year with the team before being traded away during the season.
Despite his pedestrian career statistics, Martin turned his game up a notch in the World Series. He played in five different Fall Classics and the Yankees won four of them. He hit .333/.371/.566 in the World Series overall. In the Yankees’ six-game victory over the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1953, Martin was 12-for-24 with five extra- base hits. He also made one of the greatest catches in postseason history in 1952 when he came in from playing a deep second base to make a lunging catch, saving the Yankees’ lead in the seventh inning of Game 7.
Martin’s playing career came to an end in 1957 after a much-publicized brawl at the Copacabana nightclub in New York. He had always been a fighter, even back in his days growing up in the San Francisco/Oakland area, where he was an amateur boxer. He also liked to party and after the brawl at the Copa, Yankees general manager George Weiss traded him to the Kansas City A’s.
The next go-around for Billy Martin with the New York Yankees was as a manager. He had success with the Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers, and Texas Rangers, but always wore out his welcome within a few years. The Yankees hired him in the middle of the 1975 season. He led the team to the AL pennant in 1976, but lost the World Series to the Cincinnati Reds in a four-game sweep. He took them back to the Worlds Series in 1977 and this time they won, defeating the Los Angeles Dodgers in six games.
Despite his success in New York during this time, it wasn’t a smooth ride for Martin. He battled with tempestuous owner George Steinbrenner and megastar outfielder Reggie Jackson. Martin oncesaid that Jackson and Steinbrenner deserved each other because “one’s a born liar and the other’s convicted.” That got him fired during the 1978 season and it was the first of five hirings and firings of Martin by Steinbrenner. One can only imagine the Trump-like tweets from Steinbrenner had Twitter been around in the 1970s.
Martin last managed the Yankees in the first part of the 1988 season. The team had a 40-28 record and were just 2.5 games behind the Detroit Tigers, but a four-game losing streak brought down Steinbrenner’s wrath. It wasn’t just the losing streak, though. Martin, even at 60 years old, had shown signs of an out-of-control temper and a drinking problem.
In May, Martin was ejected from a game for arguing with an umpire. While drinking in a topless bar after the game, he got into an argument and a fistfight and ended up with 40 stiches around his left ear. He claimed he had been beaten up by three men, which proved to be a lie.
In late May, general manager Lou Piniella resigned because of repeated difficulties dealing with Martin. The very next day, Martin was ejected for arguing a call and picked up two handfuls of dirt and tossed them at umpire Dale Scott. Martin was also criticized by the pitchers on the Yankees for his bizarre usage patterns, including a stretch where he used 45-year-old left-hander Tommy John three times in five days.
Finally, in June, Martin objected to the activation of catcher Don Slaught from the DL. He didn’t think Slaught was ready and railed to the press about GM Bob Quinn, who had taken over for Piniella. Steinbrenner gave him the axe shortly thereafter.
On Christmas Day, 1989, Martin was drinking at a bar near his home. According to sources at the bar that day, he appeared too drunk to drive home and the bartender asked, “Who’s driving?” A friend of Martin held up the keys and said he would drive them home. On the drive home, the pickup truck they were in skidded down an embankment on a hairpin curve. Martin was not wearing a seatbelt and was killed when he flew through the windshield.
Three years before his death, Martin had his number retired and was honored with a plaque in Monument Park on August 10, 1986. The plaque read, “There has never been a greater competitor than Billy.” During the ceremony, Martin said, “I may not have been the greatest Yankee to put on the uniform, but I am the proudest.”