Mellowing Martin Gives Credit to the Yankee Players

In the old days, had it turned out this way, you’d have seen an entirely different Billy Martin.

There would’ve been no holding him back.

He’d be walking around 10 feet tall, trying to look a little humble without doing a very good job of it, anxious to take on whomever or whatever was next in line just to see if he could top himself.

Not this time.

Naturally, it make him feel good that George Steinbrenner is giving him all the credit for the New York Yankees’ big turnaround and that Steinbrenner is saying he feels “Personally vindicated” for bringing him back to manage the Yankees a fourth time. But Martin isn’t letting any of that go to his head.

“George has been super and it’s nice to hear the things he has been saying about me, but you know as well as I do, the players make the manager,” Martin said, standing at his desk in the Yankee Stadium office before a recent game with the A’s.

“The players are the ones who have been doing it, not me,” Martin went on. “They’ve been taking the exta base, they’ve been working the suicide squeeze, they’ve been doing everything. We were 5-5 on our last road trip and we should’ve been 9-1.”

Martin replaced Yogi Berra on April 28 at which time the Yankees had won but six of their 16 games and were last in the American League East. The general reaction to Martin’s return was negative. Oh, no, not again, groaned most of the voices in the anvil chorus.

Where there was such a clamor more than a month ago over Martin coming back and Berra being shown the door, there is only silence now. Steinbrenner obviously is enjoying the whole scenario. Where are the critics now, he wonders.

How come no one is telling him what a genius he is for going against public opinion and bringing back Martin, under whom the Yankees have won 20 of 33 games before Friday’s game at Milwaukee.

Steinbrenner says it’s all Martin’s doing. The manager is the one responsible for turning the Yankees around.

“Some people say it’s Don Baylor’s leadership or Dave Winfield’s that got us going. Baloney,” the Yankees’ boss insisted. “The credit goes to Billy Martin.”

Those words from a man who had harshly criticized Martin before were satisfying for the Martin, to say the least. He talked about another aspect, though.

“My greatest satisfaction has been the way the players have responded,” Martin said. “They’ve made the job a pleasure. I’m eating good now. Much better than before. I just think it was a shame about all the junk that was said and written when I came back. Some said they didn’t think I could manage anymore. I never had any doubt in my mind I could still manage. I don’t even think that was the real issue with those who were criticizing. They were making it a matter of personalities between Yogi Berra and Billy Martin.”

Martin claims there’s no difference in him now from before, but there is, and even those players who were with the club his last time around have noticed it.

“He’s more subdued,” Winfield said. “The fires still burn inside him and he wants to win as much as he always did, but he’s more restrained than he was before. The way he’s with the umpires now is a good example. You know how he always used to kick dirt all the time when he was arguing a decision and he’d get mad. He isn’t doing that anymore. Look, we’d appreciate the way he’d support us and go after the umpires, but the umpires didn’t. That only made us a bigger target for them.”

Martin firmly believes the Yankees can catch the Blue Jays and win the East. He wouldn’t be Billy Martin if he didn’t think that way. He hasn’t changed that much.

The one thing he doesn’t want is a strike.

“I hope it doesn’t happen,” he said. “I’d like to see both sides come to some kind of agreement on salaries. I think there should be a reasonable limit to them. A guy hits .240 and gets $600,000. I think that’s ridiculous. Owners have to make a living, too. If there’s a strike, who are we hurting? We’re hurting the fans. How much can they pay to see a ball game? Players salaries go up, then the price of tickets have to go up. That’s not right.”

Martin’s $400,000 plus makes him the highest paid manager. A guy in his office asked him how much he thought he’d be getting if he still was playing.

“I’d be making a million,” Martin said without blinking. “That would be wrong, too.”