Word: pennants
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...September night in the last days of a frantic pennant race and Yankee Manager Billy Martin tossed in his bed, looking for ways to get even with his boss. For a moment, still thinking like the street fighter he used to be, he had a drastic idea. He would walk right up to Owner George Steinbrenner, insult him and goad the boss into striking him. Too wild, he decided. If only Steinbrenner would stop sending those foolish statistics down to the dugout during the game, stop pushing him so hard to discipline the players. Discipline, Martin thought...
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...
...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...
...point is this: that after the season the Yankees had, in which they won all the Big Games and played close to .700 ball in the last two and a half months, anything that the team did was pure gravy. They won the pennant despite all the verbal rattail-flicking that went on off the field, despite injuries to their pitching staff that clogged them throughout, despite having a $100,000 fungo hitter in Ken Holtzman, despite Bucky Dent's mediocrity, despite George Steinbrenner's obtrusive presence...
...summer game has ended. It is October, and while the perennial champions--Cincinnati and Pittsburgh--and the new challengers--among them Chicago--have faltered, two teams have survived the 162-game schedule to earn the right to wage battle for the National League pennant...