Oct. 3, 1977 – Pay me if I win, Martin says

NEW YORK – Naturally, with two days to kill before the American League Championship Series against the Kansas City Royals would commence at Yankee Stadium, the Yankees couldn’t keep their mouths shut.

So, Billy Martin chose this day to essentially goad his favorite sparring partner, who happened to be his boss, The Boss, into committing to giving him a new contract if he happened to lead the Yankees to the world championship.

“If we win everything,” said Martin, “I think it’s a must for George to come up with another contract for me. If he didn’t, I’d think seriously about asking permission to talk to other clubs.”

Imagine the timing of this today. Can you think of any manager, or a coach in another sport, pulling that rabbit out of his hat two days before the start of the playoffs? One of the reporters listening to Martin’s rant had the nerve to bring up the infamous seven commandments Steinbrenner had laid down earlier in the year, the ones that George said Martin had to follow if he hoped to keep his job. The last one was, thou shalt be honorable, and you could imagine Steinbrenner didn’t consider Martin speaking out about his contract as dishonorable.

“The hell with the commandments,” said Martin. “Only (God) can give you commandments. I haven’t changed anything and I’m not going to. If I’m fired, it’ll be his loss. He’ll find out these guys aren’t that easy to manage. If he wants to fire me, he can press a button right now. If he buys $50 million worth of players, I’ll beat him with another club and he knows it. If I come back (with another club), I’ll make him cry.”

Martin was smiling when he said all this, and he remarked, “George knows how to take a joke now. I needle him all the time about it. I think I’m going to keep him for two more years.” Still, in a town like New York where the media hung on every word Martin, Steinbrenner and the rest of the Yankees uttered, and then turned it into a back page headline, he probably should have just shut his mouth.

Steinbrenner, not exactly a fun-loving, jovial sort, didn’t take kindly to this little diatribe. “I expected this to happen sooner or later,” he said. “He’s crazy if he tries to take the credit for our success. This is just another example of his immaturity. Do you think that if we had not finished first, that he would have taken the blame? He’s playing this thing out in the papers. We were warned about this when we hired him.”

#BillyMartin #GeorgeSteinbrenner