The Ballad of Billy and George; The Tempestuous Baseball Marriage of Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner

by Phil Pepe

• ISBN13: 9781599212821
• ISBN10: 159921282X
• Format: Trade Book
• Copyright: 2008-04-01
• Publisher: Lyons Press

Summary

They were compared to Mutt and Jeff, Hatfield and McCoy, even Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton: two stubborn and driven men whose on-again off-again partnership entertained the nation for two decades. When Yankees owner George Steinbrenner first hired former player Billy Martin to manage his famous American League franchise, they won the pennant and the World Series. But Martin was a scrappy, defiant son to Steinbrenner's role as fickle father. Feuds erupted and separations ensued when each accused the other of disrespect, and the dysfunctional house that Ruth built was frequently rocked by public arguments and name calling. Five times Steinbrenner hired Martin, and five times he fired him. This is a wonderful, blow-by-blow history of their combustible chemistry, drawn from exclusive interviews with Billy Martin Jr., Mickey Mantle, Reggie Jackson, Ron Guidry, Sparky Lyle, Goose Gossage, Bucky Dent, Clete Boyer, Graig Nettles, Lou Piniella, Clyde King, and Gene Michaels. Black and white photos enhance the drama, presented by a veteran sportswriter who covered the Yankees every day and whose previous books have been national bestsellers.

Author Biography

Phil Pepe has covered sports in New York for more than five decades.  He was the Yankees beat writer for the New York World Telegram & Sun from 1961-64, and for the New York Daily News from 1971-84.  He is the author of more than 40 books, including My Favorite Summer: 1956 with Mickey Mantle (Doubleday), which reached No. 7 on the New York Times bestseller list;  BillyBall  with Billy Martin (Doubleday); and Talkin’ Baseball: An Oral History of Baseball in the 1970s (Ballantine).

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Introduction	p. xiii
Collision Course	p. 1
Baseball Doctor	p. 21
Tiger by the Tail	p. 33
Two Different Worlds	p. 43
Casey's Boy	p. 51
The Copacabana ... and Other Arenas	p. 61
Do You Take This Manager?	p. 73
Candy Man	p. 85
The Last Straw	p. 95
Duel in the Dugout	p. 105
Mr. October	p. 115
Splitsville	p. 125
Reconciliation	p. 139
BillyBall	p. 157
Billy's Back	p. 171
"Now Pitching, Ed Whitson ... Catching, Billy Martin"	p. 185
Proudest Yankee	p. 195
Vodka and Old Lace	p. 207
Epilogue	p. 215
Timeline of Key Events	p. 227
Bibliography	p. 235
Index	p. 237
About the Author	p. 247
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Excerpts

The Ballad of Billy & George

 

In the beginning, Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner got along swimmingly.
“Their common denominator,” said Martin’s lawyer, Judge Eddie Sapir of New Orleans, “was that every day they won a ballgame the Lord added some life back into each of them. And every day they lost, the Lord took a little life away from them. That was their common denominator: their burning desire to win.”

As owner and manager of the New York Yankees, George Steinbrenner and
Billy Martin made beautiful music in their first two full seasons together with two American League pennants and one World Series championship . . . and a lot of noise, a cacophony that reverberated across the baseball landscape and still resonates to this day.

“There was a friendship between them,” said Martin’s son, Billy Martin Jr.
“That friendship would turn sour at times. They were two men with large egos and those kinds of people butt heads. There were times when I know dad wanted to rip George’s throat out. And there were times when he wanted to give the man a hug. I think theirs was the classic love-hate relationship.”

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Excerpted from The Ballad of Billy and George: The Tempestuous Baseball Marriage of Billy Martin and George Steinbrenner by Phil Pepe
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.