Word: martinisms
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...Martin, the man of high emotions, saw the championship-as he saw everything-in personal terms. "This was a goddam tough team to manage. I held this club together. That man," he said, referring to Steinbrenner, "almost cost us the pennant." Steinbrenner saw it more coldly. "We put this team together without Billy; we got him the best players money could buy. He's crazy to take the credit for our success...
...biggest name money could buy was Outfielder Reggie Jackson, whom Steinbrenner, over Martin's strong objections, signed last winter to a $2.9 million five-year contract. From the day Jackson stepped into the clubhouse, the Yankees, already out of sorts, were never out of trouble. Jackson's huge salary was highly resented and even more so was his erratic play. The players treated him like an outcast. But for Martin, Jackson always posed a different kind of threat: the big slugger, he feared, might come between him and control of his players. By the middle of June what...
Steinbrenner felt it was Martin who was baseball dumb. In the middle of July an event took place that Steinbrenner insists was the true turning point. He had flown to Milwaukee for an evening meeting with Martin and then went to bed. Shortly after midnight, two key players, Munson and Lou Piniella, knocked on Steinbrenner's door. They were distraught about the chaos on the team and bluntly told Steinbrenner that the Yankees could not win with Martin as the manager. Was this the way the owner ran his other companies, they challenged him? Steinbrenner was somewhat startled...
Still, for the next month, Martin refused to adopt the changes. When he finally did, the Yankees began to roll; they won 40 of their next 50 games. Jackson, his spirit at last lifted by batting fourth, drove in 49 runs. But even that did not satisfy the outfielder of the powerful shoulders and the tender ego. At the end of the season Jackson stood in the corner of the locker room and said: "I wouldn't wish what happened to me here on anybody." He had already told Steinbrenner he would refuse to play another season for Martin...
...after the Yankees clinched the pennant, Martin sat alone in his office. At 49, his bony legs still showed the scars of his early playing days. He had lost his appetite during the season and now took pills to make himself eat. Steinbrenner was still on his mind. "I just can't be the kind of person George wants me to be," he said. "All those goddam meetings, stats, 40 laps in the outfield, discipline. Jesus Christ, discipline. He'd let Babe Ruth go for discipline...