Billy Martin (1928–1989) was an American Major League Baseball second baseman and the on-again, off-again manager of the New York Yankees. Known first as a scrappy infielder on the championship Yankee teams of the 1950s, he built a reputation as a manager who would initially make bad teams good, and then be fired amid dysfunction. In each of his stints with the Yankees, he led them to winning records before being fired or forced to resign by team owner George Steinbrenner. Martin led the team to consecutive American League pennants in 1976 and 1977; they lost in the 1976 World Series but triumphed over the Los Angeles Dodgers in 1977, Martin's only World Series championship as a manager. He was forced to resign midway through the 1978 season, returned in 1979, and was fired at season's end. From 1980 to 1982, he managed the Oakland A's, earning a division title with an aggressive style of play known as "Billyball". After the A's fired him, he managed the Yankees three more times. (Full article...)