Billy Martin
Chronology
| 1928 | Born May 16 in Berkeley, California |
| 1946 | Graduates from Berkeley High School; begins playing baseball on an Oakland Oaks farm team |
| 1947 | Is hired to play for Phoenix in the Arizona-Texas league; leads league in hitting, at bats, hits, doubles, and runs batted in; as third baseman leads league in putouts, assists, and errors |
| 1948 | Plays professional baseball on Casey Stengel's Oakland Oaks team; team wins Pacific Coast League pennant |
| 1950 | Stengel, now with New York Yankees, brings Martin on board as a utility player; Martin marries Lois Elaine Berndt on October 4—they will have one daughter, Kelly Ann |
| 1950-51 | Serves in U.S. Army |
| 1951 | Meets Mickey Mantle at Yankees training camp and the two begin a lifelong friendship |
| 1952 | Steps in from second base to catch a pop-up ball, saving a seventh-game win for the Yankees over the Dodgers, making it the Yankees' fourth straight World Series win |
| 1953 | Plays second base in Yankees' fifth straight World Series-winning season, batting .500; is divorced from Berndt |
| 1953-55 | Serves in U.S. Army |
| 1955-56 | Plays with Yankees; team wins another World Series in 1956 |
| 1957 | Martin is blamed for a headline-making brawl at Manhattan's Copacabana Club after his twenty-ninth birthday party; he is traded in June to the Kansas City Athletics and again at the end of the season, to Detroit |
| 1958 | Is traded to Cleveland; gets hit in the face by a pitch, breaking his jaw and ending his playing season; is traded to Cincinnati |
| 1959 | Marries Gretchen Winkler, an airline stewardess; they will have a |
| 1960 | Jim Brewer and the Chicago Cubs file a $1 million lawsuit against Martin after a brawl with Brewer on the pitcher's mound; Martin is traded to the Milwaukee Braves |
| 1961 | Is traded to the Minnesota Twins |
| 1962-64 | Works as scout for the Minnesota Twins |
| 1965-67 | Works as third-base coach for Minnesota Twins |
| 1968 | Is hired as manager of Twins' Denver Bears farm club; team finishes fourth and makes playoffs |
| 1969 | Is hired as manager of Minnesota Twins; is fired at end of season |
| 1971-73 | Manages Detroit Tigers; is fired in September 1973 |
| 1973-75 | Manages the Texas Rangers; is fired in July 1975 |
| 1975 | Is hired to manage the New York Yankees; Yankees finish first in league in 1976 and 1977 |
| 1978 | Martin resigns as Yankee manager after ongoing conflict with owner George Steinbrenner; Steinbrenner hires him back the next day for the 1979 season |
| 1979 | Steinbrenner fires Martin after Martin hits a marshmallow salesman in a barroom brawl in October |
| 1980-82 | Manages the Oakland Athletics, making "Billyball" famous; resigns after conflict with owner representative Roy Eisenhardt |
| 1981 | Is divorced from Gretchen Winkler |
| 1983 | Manages New York Yankees; is fired as manager after 1983 season but kept on payroll |
| 1985 | Is rehired as manager of Yankees but fired at end of season |
| 1988 | Marries Jill Guiver, a freelance photographer, with Mickey Mantle as best man; is hired for fifth time as manager of Yankees; is beaten up in a barroom brawl in Texas after losing a game in May; Steinbrenner fires him as manager in June but keeps him on as special adviser son, Billy Joseph |
| 1989 | Dies of injuries sustained in a car accident on Christmas night, December 25, in Binghamton, New York, at age 61 |
| 1990 | Martin's son, Billy Joe, throws out the ball to open the New York Yankees season; the Yankees win |
Additional topics
Famous Sports StarsBaseballBilly Martin Biography - "belli," But Tough, New York Yankee, Chronology, The Hard Years, Career Changes - SELECTED WRITINGS BY MARTIN: