Billy Martin: Baseball's Flawed Genius - Paperback

by Bill Pennington (Author)

A New York Times bestseller. From award-winning sports columnist Bill Pennington comes the definitive biography of one of baseball's most celebrated, mercurial, and misunderstood figures.

Billy Martin is a story of contrasts. He was the clutch second baseman for the dominant New York Yankees of the 1950s. He then spent sixteen seasons managing in the big leagues--and is considered by anyone who knows baseball to have been a true baseball genius, a field manager without peer. Yet he's remembered more for his habit of kicking dirt on umpires, for being hired and fired by George Steinbrenner five times, and for his rabble rousing and public brawls.

He was combative, fiery, intimidating, and controversial, yet beloved by the everyday fan. He was hard on his players and even harder on himself. He knew how to turn around a losing team like no one else--and how to entertain us every step of the way.

Now, with his definitive biography Billy Martin, Pennington finally erases the caricature of Martin. Drawing on exhaustive interviews with friends, family, teammates, and countless adversaries, Pennington paints an indelible portrait of a man who never backed down from the game he loved. From his shantytown upbringing in a broken home; to his days playing for the Yankees when he almost always helped his team find a way to win; through sixteen years of managing, including his tenure in New York in the crosshairs of Steinbrenner and Reggie Jackson, Billy Martin made sure no one ever ignored him. And indeed no one could.

He was the hero, the antihero, and the alter ego--or some combination of all three--for his short sixty-one years among us.

Back Jacket

Bill Pennington gives long-overdue flesh to the caricature . . . Pennington savors the dirt-kicking spectacles without losing sight of the man. New York Times Book Review

Even now, years after his death, Billy Martin remains one of the most intriguing and charismatic figures in baseball history. And the most misunderstood. A manager who is widely considered to have been a baseball genius, Martin is remembered more for his rabble-rousing and public brawls on the field and off. He was combative and intimidating, yet endearing and beloved.

In Billy Martin, Bill Pennington resolves these contradictions and pens the definitive story of Martin s life. From his hardscrabble youth to his days on the Yankees in the 1950s and through sixteen years of managing, Martin made sure no one ever ignored him. Drawing on exhaustive interviews and his own time covering Martin as a young sportswriter, Pennington provides an intimate, revelatory, and endlessly colorful story of a truly larger-than-life sportsman.

The hair on my forearms was standing up by the end of the fifth paragraph of this book s introduction. I knew Billy Martin. I covered Billy Martin. But I never knew him like this. Dan Shaughnessy, best-selling author of Francona

An exhaustive, detailed and fascinating look at a baseball genius whose biggest fight might very well have been against himself. Tampa Tribune

BILL PENNINGTON is an award-winning sportswriter for the New York Times. A former syndicated columnist, Pennington was a beat writer who covered much of Billy Martin s tenure with the New York Yankees. He is a fourteen-time finalist for and six-time winner of the Associated Press Sports Editors annual writing award.
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Author Biography

BILL PENNINGTON is an award-winning sportswriter for the New York Times. A fourteen-time finalist and six-time winner of the Associated Press Sports Editors' annual writing award, Pennington lives with his family in Warwick, New York.