Damn Yankees by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Damn Yankees

Page 311

teams to the postseason. Martin sought to catch the other team by surprise, using such techniques as stealing home, once having two Twins steal home on different pitches of the same at bat, with the slugger Harmon Killebrew at the plate. Stealing home is a tactic unlikely to succeed, yet Martin made it work, and his teams got better. Jaffe noted that with Minnesota in 1969, Martin ended such risky tactics well before the end of the season, by which time he had set the tone he wanted both with his team, and with opponents. Many people, including his off and on boss, George Steinbrenner, considered Martin a baseball genius for the intuitive way he managed his teams.

Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa stated of him; "Without reservation I would call Billy the most brilliant field manager I ever saw. He was unmatched. None of us felt up to him." Stengel stated in an interview a month before his death in 1975,

"He's a good manager. He might be a little selfish about some things he does and he may think he knows more about baseball than anybody else and it wouldn't surprise me if he was right." When asked why he had admired Martin as a player, Stengel replied, "If liking a kid who never let you down in the clutch is favoritism, then I plead guilty."

Falkner noted that what Martin wanted was "to win, period," and quoted him as saying; "I would play Hitler, Mussolini and Tojo