Damn Yankees by Edward Drobinski - HTML preview

Damn Yankees

Page 313

Also present in the vehicle that night was Martin's friend Bill Reedy, who had been drinking with Martin at a local bar, and who was seriously injured in the accident.

Martin was eulogized by Cardinal John O'Connor at St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York, before his interment at Gate of Heaven Cemetery in Hawthorne, New York. His grave is located about 150 feet from Babe Ruth's. The following epitaph, spoken by Martin at his number retiring ceremony at Yankee Stadium in 1986, appears on the headstone; "I may not have been the greatest Yankee to put on the uniform, but I was the proudest."

Steinbrenner and former United States President Richard Nixon, along with many New York Yankee greats, attended Martin's funeral service.

Pennington noted that the new owners of Martin's farm sometimes find fans wanting to see where he died, or leave makeshift memorials by the roadside where the accident occurred. Martin's grave has remained well visited by Yankee fans, sometimes before driving to the Bronx to take in a home game. Andrew Nagle, who oversaw the cemetery, stated; "People want to leave some acknowledgement of what he meant to them. ... We don't let go of the people that touched us. ... It's the same with Billy Martin.

People won't let him go. They won't forget him."