Presented by VETERANS PLUMBING.
This Day In Sports…July 24, 1978:
New York Yankees manager Billy Martin “resigns” a day after saying slugger Reggie Jackson and owner George Steinbrenner “deserve each other” with the infamous line,“One’s a born liar, and the other’s convicted.” Despite claiming it was for health reasons, Martin was fired (for all practical purposes). The reaction from fans was overwhelmingly negative, and five days later during the Yankees’ annual Old-Timer’s Game, Steinbrenner announced that Martin would return as manager in 1980. He’d actually re-hire the fiery former second baseman early in the 1979 season after letting Bob Lemon go.
The tumult had been building slowly but surely all season. Martin benched centerfielder Mickey Rivers after he appeared to loaf while chasing a fly ball early in the season. One of the last times the Yankees flew commercially, an alcohol-fueled brouhaha erupted and it was all charters from then on. As injuries to the New York pitching staff mounted, the team fell further and further behind the Boston Red Sox in the American League East. Martin was stressed, and Steinbrenner was losing his patience.
Then, as rumors swirled that Steinbrenner wanted to trade Martin to the Chicago White Sox for manager Bob Lemon in mid-July, Martin tried to suspend Jackson after he disobeyed signals from the dugout while batting. Jackson ended up sitting for five games, and when he returned, Martin had lost it. Lemon had already been fired by the White Sox, so Steinbrenner hired him, and he led the Yankees to a late-season surge—and eventually their second straight World Series title over the L.A. Dodgers.
It was the first of five times Martin was fired under Steinbrenner’s watch. After he returned in 1979, Martin made it only to the offseason before he was axed again following a fight with a marshmallow salesman in a Minneapolis bar. Martin’s next stint came in 1983, and Steinbrenner replaced him with Yogi Berra after the Yankees finished second in the AL West. In 1985, Berra was fired 16 games into the season, and back came Martin. Late in the campaign, Martin got into a fight with pitcher Ed Whitson and suffered a broken arm. Martin was gone again after the season (though he stayed on as an “advisor”).
The last hurrah came in 1988. The Yankees started well, but a month into the season Martin got into another brawl in a Dallas nightclub. Then came a three-game suspension after he kicked dirt on an umpire in a game against Oakland. Martin barely made it to the end of June before Steinbrenner pulled the plug for good. He never managed again, and he died in a car crash on Christmas Day, 1989.
(Tom Scott hosts the Scott Slant segment during the football season on KTVB’s Sunday Sports Extra. He also anchors four sports segments each weekday on 95.3 FM KTIK and one on News/Talk KBOI. His Scott Slant column runs every Wednesday.)