June 20, 1977 – Tigers 2, Yankees 1
- Sal Maiorana
- Jun 20, 2017
- 3 min read
DETROIT – Billy Martin lived to see another day. Or, as it turned out, about another full calendar year as manager of the Yankees.
Prior to the Yankees’ fourth consecutive loss, one that dropped them 3.5 games behind the surging Red Sox who won in Baltimore, general manager Gabe Paul said, “There will not be a change in our organization regardless of what has been said. We don’t feel there’s a better manager than Billy Martin and we want the Yankees to have the best.”
There had been a report by Milton Richman of United Press International that Martin would be fired and replaced by Yogi Berra, one of Martin’s coaches, within days and there was enough smoke to make you think there was a fire.
When the club arrived in Detroit, Martin, Paul, George Steinbrenner, Reggie Jackson and Thurman Munson had a pow-wow at the team hotel to iron out the problems that had boiled over in Boston, problems that had actually been festering all the way back to spring training. After the meeting, Steinbrenner and Paul went off to privately decide what to do about Martin as Martin nervously awaited his fate.
Steinbrenner felt compelled to fly to Detroit because he believed Martin had come unhinged. “Is that any way for a balanced man to appear on national television?” Steinbrenner said, referring to a newspaper photo showing Martin and Jackson chest to chest in the dugout at Fenway. “The team looks out of control. Eight weeks ago, I decided it would be best if I stayed away. There were things I could not tolerate at the time. Even in spring training I felt the team was not mentally prepared to defend a pennant.”
Martin spent part of the day playing golf with good friend and Yankee broadcaster Phil Rizzuto, but the Scooter reported that, “I beat him for $100. He wasn’t even looking at the ball. He must have sent me back to the clubhouse five times to make a call to see if anything was happening. I’ve known him 28 years and I’ve never seen him like that before.”
Paul gave Martin the news a couple hours before game-time, and pledged his allegiance moving forward.
“There were some things that had to be straightened out, and they were straightened out,” said Paul. “From the first pitch to the last out there’s no better manager in baseball than Billy, and he’s the one we want.”
Steinbrenner initially said the decision on what to do with Martin was solely on Paul, but the owner fessed up a couple days later that he, naturally, made the final call. “My decision to become involved in the situation in Detroit was dictated solely by my desire to take some of what was becoming an overwhelming burden off Gabe’s shoulders. I know I had been driving him pretty hard.”
At that time, he also made it clear that despite rumors, he was fully backing Paul as his general manager. “I never would have come to the Yankees without him, and he knows that,” Steinbrenner said of Paul, who had advised him to purchase the team in 1972 from CBS.
In the game, the Yankees fell victim to Mark “The Bird” Fidrych who limited them to three hits, the second game in a row they had managed just three hits. Jackson drove in the only run with a sacrifice fly, but he also lost a ball in the lights in the seventh inning that led to the winning run, making Don Gullett the hard-luck loser despite allowing just five hits.
“This might sound funny, but this was a good game for us,” Martin said. “We’re really fired up and ready to go now. It’s just a bad break that Reggie lost that ball in the lights.”
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