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Billy Martin Jr. relives memories of his dad, one of the most colorful players and managers in baseball history
Alfred Manuel Martin, aka Billy Martin, would get a kick out of this: His grandson, Billy Martin III, wants to become a baseball umpire.
Baseball fans who remember the feisty original Billy Martin know he was anything but a friend of umpires. They may recall Martin getting face to face with umpires whose calls he disagreed with, even kicking dirt on their shoes—and often getting tossed.
Author Leigh Montville (“Ted Williams” and “The Big Bam”) dubbed Martin an “incandescent ballplayer/manager/jerk/sweetheart … [an] irrepressible brawler with a grand mind for the game.”
But many people don’t know about the famous New York Yankees manager, who was hired and fired five times for that role.
His son, Billy Martin Jr., was referred to as Billy Joe by author Bill Pennington in “Billy Martin: Baseball’s Flawed Genius.” According to the book, published in 2015, in the 1977 season, “Billy Joe went to all the home games with his father and often went on the road with the Yankees. It was an enjoyable time for him, running around in Yankee Stadium wearing a miniature replica of his father’s number 1 jersey and spending days and nights with a father he had not seen regularly since Billy took the Yankees job in 1975.”
What an adventure that must have been for a 13-year-old boy!
“There was actually a funny picture in the paper on the day I was born,” Billy Jr., now 58, said. “My mother was in the hospital bed, with her hair perfect, holding me. And my father’s got the pen in hand, laying across the bed with a [big] grin, and the headline says, ‘Martin signs son to million-dollar contract.’
“That officially makes me the first million-dollar bonus baby—and the first million-dollar bust!”
His father was killed in an automobile accident on Dec. 25, 1989, his wild life cut short at the age of 61. Martin Jr.’s mother, Gretchen, died in 2021, losing her battle with cancer.
Billy Martin Sr., a second baseman and versatile infielder, played for seven different teams over his 11-year MLB career, compiling a .257 batting average. An All-Star in 1956, he was a member of six different pennant-winning teams. In 28 World Series games, he batted .333 with five home runs, helping the Yankees win four World Series.
In 16 years as a manager, he led five different organizations, including the Yankees five times, compiling a .553 winning percentage and winning the 1977 World Series.
What was it like growing up as the son of Billy Martin?
“It’s the shadow you grow up: It’s wonderful at times, it’s terrible at times,” Martin Jr. said. “It opens doors for you sometimes; it shuts doors for you sometimes. People think if you’re Billy Martin’s son, you’re pugnacious, or you drink too much. Who knows what they’re going to think? Some of it’s true; some of it’s not.
“As a kid, I remember going to one of Mickey [Mantle] Jr.’s high school games, and I’ll never forget two old men in the back: ‘He ain’t no Mickey Mantle, that’s for sure.’ Hearing that, I was wondering what they’d say about me.
“I should have been smart enough at the time to say to those men, ‘By the way, how many big-leaguers are as good as Mickey Mantle?’ The kid’s in high school, ya moron.’
“I never knew what it was like to have another dad. I would say to my friends sometimes, ‘I wish my dad worked at General Motors with your dad. You get to see him every night.’”
What is his greatest memory of his dad?
“Just him winning in ’77. I knew how important that was to him,” he said. “The year before, they got swept by the Big Red Machine. I was in the dugout or behind the dugout, sometimes, and, yeah, that was special.
“His special moment of all time, I would say, was the day they retired his number—Billy Martin Day—when he won that first World Series as a manager, and—this one shocked me—it was 1986, and I was interning for the Yankees. … I found a knife made for him to kind of commemorate Billy Martin Day—I found a couple; the husband made the knife, and the woman did the scrimshaw. I wanted a picture or something of him on the side. I asked him, ‘What was your favorite moment in the game— ever?’ I thought he was going to tell me when he was the MVP of the 1953 World Series.
“He hit .500. Mickey Mantle told me he got screwed out of a hit … my father never [told me]. Dad’s up to bat and hits a ball on the Peewee Reese [shortstop] side of second base. Peewee can’t get to it. Jackie [Robinson] ranges from second base, basically dives into left field, and the ball hits off the very end of his glove in a complete layout. Mickey said everybody in the building knew it was a hit, but they gave [Robinson] an error. It screwed my father out of what would have been a record 13th hit in a World Series.
“His all-time favorite moment—after a sidebar of sorts, which follows—was the 1978 Oldtimers game when they announced that he was coming back [to manage]. That was, by the way, the longest ovation in Yankee history. Mickey would have gotten it on Mickey Mantle Day, but [stadium announcer] Bob Sheppard stopped it at like 11 minutes on Mickey Mantle Day: ‘OK, folks, let Mickey talk.’ Nobody stopped this one for Dad.”
What is Martin Jr.’s favorite baseball memory?
“I was in Fenway Park one day. I’m shagging balls in left field and I’m wearing Thurman Munson’s mitt. A ball hits the Green Monster and makes that iconic ‘thunk’ that only the Monster sounds like. It just hit me right then. Babe Ruth used to run around this outfield, and Ted Williams and the DiMaggio brothers. And I’m getting goosebumps and the next fly ball to me, I was wobbling—the history kinda hit me right there, in that moment. I realized how lucky I was to be his son and experience the things I got to do.”
Martin's Legacy
Martin Jr., a sports and music agent whose clients included former MLB pitcher Joe Nathan and former manager Kevin Kennedy, obviously believes his dad belongs in the Baseball Hall of Fame.
“Phil Pepe’s sat in on a lot of those [old-timers committees] in the past. Al Kaline voted him out because he said he wasn’t fun to play for.
“The thing that hurts him the most, I think, is the on-and-off Yankee crap—the five times on and off. If you look at every other manager in the Hall of Fame, they’re in one spot for a significant amount of time—Earl Weaver was in Baltimore forever. Whitey Herzog, who, by the way, was fired in Texas because he lost 105 games when they hired my pop, who won with the same team the next year. And when they were [later] playing against each other years ago, Kansas City vs. the Yankees, he owned them.”
One of Martin’s most famous incidents was a confrontation with Yankee star Reggie Jackson during a televised game at Fenway Park in 1977. Martin Jr. remembers the incident well.
“I don’t think [Reggie] was loafing,” he said. “Here’s what you’ve got to understand about Reggie: The most important thing to Reggie is not embarrassing himself. Do you remember when the ball bounced off Jose Canseco’s head? Something like that would destroy Reggie, having that ball bounce off his head. He didn’t have confidence in himself defensively—he laid up for that ball. He would have to dive to make that catch, ok, and Reggie didn’t want to dive and look like a fool. It was just a part of his ego; if he really botched that ball? Other guys could’ve made it; Paul Blair could have made it; I don’t think Reggie could have, and risk diving and really screw up that game. I’m sure on the field and in the dugout, too, it looked like he was dogging it.
“Many years later, Reggie said, ‘Billy and I both tried many times to make it work; it just didn’t.’ You know what—that’s the truth,” Billy Jr. said. “To say that Dad was racist? That’s the biggest joke.”
Martin Jr. remembers his dad being a “good-luck charm” as a player.
“When he roomed with Yogi [Berra], MVP. When he roomed with Mickey, Triple Crown. When he roomed with Whitey [Ford], Cy Young. When he roomed with [Phil] Rizzuto, MVP,” he said.
“Casey would bat him in the 8-hole usually unless Whitey was pitching. And then Whitey would bat in the 8-hole [and] Dad batted in the 9-hole. … [Casey] just did that to piss Dad off because he knew they were both best buds, and he wanted to push his buttons a little bit.
“Do you know where he batted in the World Series? Right behind the Mick, because Casey knew he was a different bird in the postseason.
Why was my father a .250 hitter during the regular season but a .333 hitter—almost 100 points higher—against the best pitching [in the World Series]? That doesn’t make any damn sense at all; Dad was all about winning.”
Another incident Martin was known for was the infamous brawl at the Copacabana nightclub in 1957, which led to him being traded to Kansas City. There is still debate and disagreements over what really happened when Martin and the Yankees brawled with a group of bowlers who were heckler friends of Sammy Davis Jr.
“Word has recently come out, like in the last 10 years. There was a bouncer that worked there and his name was ‘The Fixer,’ and he also worked for the mob,” Davis Jr. said. “I can’t think of his name right now. There’s a picture on Facebook somewhere, him in the middle of Dad and Mickey, smiling really big, [with the caption] ‘Johnny the Fixer So and So … .’ He wasn’t working there that night, just enjoying the club. And he saw Dad get up and walk over, and Hank [Bauer] walked with Dad to the bowling team throwing racial insults at Sammy Davis Jr. It was Dad’s birthday, and he wanted to see his buddy Sammy’s show at the Copa. So they walk over there and Dad says, ‘I want you to shut your mouth or I’m going to shut it.’”
The “Fixer” did the punching, Billy Jr. says.
“He wanted to do it for Dad and those guys and he wanted them to be happy, but when they got in trouble, he was afraid to say anything or he’d lose his job,” Billy Jr. said.
Martin Memorabilia
Martin Jr. has some of his dad’s baseball memorabilia, but he has other mementos that are just as important to him.
“Real stuff: His cowboy boots and clothing, and regular street stuff—not much sports memorabilia,” he said. “When he died, it all went to an auction.
“I’ve got a Martin guitar given to him and Mickey back in the ’50s. I’ve got a pistol—you’ve probably seen this picture —it’s Mickey holding a pistol at Dad, like he’s shooting him at a poker table. They bought those pistols together. Little things like that. … I’ve got his ’76 World Series ring, which was his first as a manager; I’ve got his 1950 World Series ring, which was his first as a player. That’s kinda cool.”
Martin Jr. said his dad’s favorite place to manage was New York, of course.
“He came up in 1950, World Series, championship. And here’s something nobody knows: My father’s first at-bat [in 1950], Casey brings him up—he’d been up for about two weeks because Casey wanted his brain in the dugout. So the Yanks are up by seven or eight, late in the game, and Casey finally lets Dad get an AB. He leads off, I think it was the eighth inning, he gets a double in his first at-bat. Gets up again in the same inning and gets another knock. And Joe DiMaggio says, ‘Way to break in, kid.’
“His first two at-bats were both hits in the same inning; that‘s never happened in baseball history. Ironically, who were they against? The Red Sox.”
Other interesting tidbits about Martin Sr. include:
• “Joe DiMaggio was like a big brother to Dad,” Martin Jr. said.
• “Dad loved George Brett. And have you ever seen anybody so mad? [The pine-tar rule] was a silly as hell rule, but it was a rule.”
• “I watched him show some love to Rickey Henderson one day in the clubhouse, and I said, ‘That’s pretty cool,’” Martin Jr. recalled. “He explained to me, ‘Some of them love me; some of them hate me. I just need to know. Then, I can figure out how to push their buttons. Some of them need love; some of them need a kick in the ass; some of them, I don’t need to say a damned word to. It’s my job as a manager to figure that out.’
“Rickey Henderson said [Dad] is one of the three most-influential people in his life.”
And, yes, Billy Jr. is familiar with his dad’s 1972 Topps baseball card, on which he is literally giving the finger behind the batting cage as the Tigers manager. He thinks it gave Billy Ripken the idea for his famous FF card pose.
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