Customer Reviews

Wild, High and Tight: The Life and Death of Billy Martin

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This was a very interesting book about a very interesting man. Interesting is about the nicest thing I can think to say about Billy Martin. Although his exploits have been legendary, the stuff in this book takes it too a new level. According to the author, Pete Golenbock, Martin has several women going in different cities at the same time. He was supporting an underage girl and her family on the West Coast and engaged on the East Coast. His life, as portrayed in this book, was more out of control than you suspected. Golenbeck caters to our interest in these areas and with life on the field, in the club house and in the owners office. You have to catch your breath periodically when reading about the life of Billy Martin.

On the negative side, the book turns into a defense of the person traveling with Martin the day of his fatal accident. You'll recall that Christmas Day story that told how his friend from Detroit was behind the wheel when it happened. You may recall later on (after consulting with his lawyer, no doubt) the driver suddenly became the passenger. Strangely, the lone eyewitness decided he was actually sitting elswhere in the vehicle after he had time to think about it. Along comes Golenbock to the rescue with photos, medical reports and diagrams showing how Billy was actually the driver. Sorry, I'm not that interested. Let the courts decide that one. The book should have been shorter than it was. I came away with the idea that intimate information was shared with the author in return for his public defense of Martin's passenger/chaffeur. It was a disjointed way to end the otherwise interesting book. But then, Martin's death was a disjointed way to end an otherwise interesting life.

Billy Martin's life can be summed up quickly. Brilliance and tragedy. Which is a good recipe for a biography.

Billy Martin could be the best manager in history to bring a sorry, downtrodden franchise and bring it to contention. Mike Schropshire chronicles this in the hilarious story of the 1972 Texas Rangers "Seasons in Hell".

He later did it with the 1980 Oakland A's, who had no pitching, defense, or offence to speak of.

Billy Martin may have been one of the most astute judges of talent, and sharpest baseball practishoners to ever patrol a dugout.

But it was with the New York Yankees that he made his reputation. Put into a cambustible situation with George Steinbrenner as his boss, in front of the most shark-like media in the country, Billy Martin's weaknesses became more glaring, and his brilliance more reported on, than any other coaching job in the country. Make no mistake, Billy Martin was great copy. He was funny, irreverent and original.

But it was his weaknesses that destroyed him. Alcohol, women, and a dependence on George Steinbrenner he could not break. This is all well documented, in an entertaining read by Peter Golenbock. The only unfortunate part of the book is that it was written in the early 1990's, before the Billy Martin story really ended. There were still law suits that had not been settled, and other stories to come out of the Billy Martin legend.

Billy Martin is a very colorful subject, and this is an excellent chronicle of the man, his life and times.

Ever want to get to know someone famous that you have haven't met? This is absolutely the best of the many biographies I have ever read. I feel like I know Billy Martin and understand where he was coming from with his sometimes erratic behavior. The George Steinbrenner relationship is very vividly explained and the impact of his personality on Martin's life. It is also some of the best writing you will ever see. Peter Golenbock has the ability to write whatever he wants to. You don't have to be a baseball fan to enjoy this one. Mike Murphy

One of the best sports biographies that I've read. It tells of the relationship Billy had with George Steinbrenner and Billy's women (well a few of them anyway). You've heard of women who couldn't pick men, well Billy couldn't pick women or at least those you might want to consider for a long-term relationship. His daughter gave him good advice about his women, but unfortunately he didn't take it. Billy's family and friends detested his last wife. Billy wouldn't get rid of his women once he had them and felt obligated to keep them. The book tells of Billy's battles with teams' front offices and owners. The book is a long one, but I couldn't put it down so the time went fast.

I am going to start this review with a night I'll never forget as I walked into a popular spot in my hometown and saw at the end of the bar a man dressed in an Oakland A's uniform with the glittery green jacket with MARTIN on the back. I normally don't go for celeb's but I here I was alone, a very staunch baseball fan, and had a nice little buzz going on. I approached 'Martin' who after I offered him a enthusiastic Hi and offer to buy him a drink and got immediate laughter from, and this thing that he was just promoting by pay and NOT the real Billy Martin ("I'm an Impostor" several times in the evening) . Anyway he had an 'entourage' there, and after looking at him from about 6 inches away saw that he had some good Hispanic about him, and thought he really probably was. That didn't deter me from talking baseball and held his attention as I went through my own biography of my baseball life, Yankee lineups (I didn't watch Yankee baseball til Martin was gone on CBS as I was 22 years Martin junior), my desire to be the next Bobby Richardson until things didn't go my baseball way, etc. etc. He was kind and not boisterous, but did notice that some of his girls in his entourage got his eyes going into sharpness when he had to tend with them. He said they were having a problem with one of the girls because she forgot her ID apparently. Only interests me now because as the evening wore on and 30 years later when I got my interest piqued into who I was really with that night (and had all these incidents verified), determined that to be the future #3 wife, Heather Ervolino who was underage at that time. So when he invited me to go with them to another club, I followed and sat at a large table with wife #4, Jill Guiver. She was a knockout and immediately upon one look just looked down...but true to the book she was the Queen of Epithet, and she lashed out at me (and him as well) to Talk which made me just get up, ask her to dance, and when the N of No came out, went to a table and got a gal to dance out of just her getting me hot under the collar. I just wanted to leave after that, but Billy changed a tad in demeanor and demanded me to leave my name and number which I did, a little reluctantly, cause I didn't particularlly like the 'tude. I write this blog because in the book Heather was kept away from Billy's other girls which I knew to be true, so that would put a different light on one of the main topics of Golenbock's book, Martin's penchant and balancing of women. (Billy was known to tell a few 'untruths' in his Biograpies by some of his close inner circle - Golenbock). So, they knew each other and were willing 'concubines' to a celebrity. Also, the next morning Martin called me and said he had something for me. "What?!"... I have a roster spot for you on a local semi-pro team. I could hardly process this even though baseball was all my life like Billy's in so many ways when I was young, passion-wise. Through my hangover (Billy was not close to being drunk)...all I could muster was, I am 31 years old, and if I were 25 it would be a totally different story... He just said, Okkkk, and that was it. As I read up this year on all this by reading this book and others and looking online, I found that was just the type of guy Martin was, one who would go out of his way to make a way for Field of Dream baseball folk a chance at something in baseball. Think back, I really could have been his Bill Reedy, he was that accessible, fun, and I would say real.

Now for the book. This is by far the best a baseball fan could ever hope for as far as the research goes and it is "exhaustive" as Peter Golenback says, even as opposed to his other famed biographies. He goes into the profiles from infancy George Steinbrenner and his family, Billy's family from the old country to his Mom where you will see a lot of Billy's personality, develop. Friends, former players, ex-wives, give great accounts as well. There is so much there for the reader to draw his own analysis of Billy instead of the just accepting the author's conclusions...there is THAT MUCH there! I think if one is as keen on the underbelly of things that go on a baseball field, you will be enchanted totally with this piece of work. True baseball folk, and that's not beat writers that haven't spent the need time on the diamond, know that Billy's baseball, BillyBall, translates into a person who developed with enthusiasm beyond any of his peers baseball knowledge from being Billy Stengel on a Yankee bench to what he would go through to meet his mission from 6 years old to play professional baseball. He truly is one of a kind and that really translated into making players, even oldtime MVP's later in their careers, better. He made the teams better ala having the temperment and field generalship of a John McGraw and being innovative to understand talent to manufacture runs on the baseball field, by whatever it took, and that might be bringing it in Wild, High, and Tight....just like he felt he deserved to live his life off the field. The reader will from this book understand many things that just aren't part of any broadcast or media accounts. There is a reason for Steinbrenner vs. Martin and Guiver vs. Martin, and through these morsels of in depth looking into what can be looked at, will find a lot of the underbelly for us to draw these conclusions. Everybody wishes things migh be different, and I am sure Billy would have benefited by having more interests than just baseball and women...and I wish surely that I would have kindled a future friendship than the one I developed that night. If he had not died by a freak accident with his best friend, I might have been able to jaunt down the highway here about an hour away, where I could have just gone up to his house or plopped myself next to him on a barstool (I don't drink) and take up where we left off. I would have much more to tell him and I know he would have listened. I know he would be interested on how I think I could make any Major Leaguer a .300, 30 homer man, easy...:) (When I met him, I told him the truth..I hardly ever struck out, couldn't hit for power, and found stealing a base was equal to sex...:)) I am just going to end this, do yourself get this read and be very self-absorbed, if yer a baseball fan, and if you know anything about baseball and have any say, put this man in the Hall of Fame where he belongs. Even his 'Great Adversary', George Steinbrenner, acknowledged him by retiring his famous #1 and had a place for Billy in Monument Park with all the other Yankee greats, and a day set aside for his day for his 1986 day, who he said was the best day of his baseball life.

The excellent biography by Peter Golenbock actually covers indepth the lives of Martin and George Steinbrenner.

So much had been written about the relationship between the two, but the reader will learn so much about the pair in the closing chapters. This is the point where Martin's professional career and personal life is in a shambles and Steinbrenner seemingly dangles the opportunity of managing the Yankees one more time to "Number One," since he has what amounts to a personal services contract with "The Boss."

Golenbock's research into the death of Martin is outstanding and was highly controversial at the time of publication. Essentially, Golenbock reports, Martin's friend in the truck falsely admitted to police that he was driving the vehicle at the time it struck the culvert, knowing it would help Martin's family in dealing with the financial meltdown he had suffered in the final years of his life.

The only negative is the typographical errors, something that plagues most of Golenbock's books. Even the reprint of The Bronx Zoo contained its original typographical errors!

I think it's safe to say the book certainly isn't prominently on the shelf in Steinbrenner's office in Yankee Stadium, but it remains the most thorough writing concerning the lives of Martin and Steinbrenner.

Without generating undeserved sympathy for the man, this book documents the sad life of Billy Martin, the extent to which his troubles were self-inflicted, and his tortured relationship with George Steinbrenner. The insecurities of both of these men feed on each other's, with each convinced that the other is out to upstage and destroy him, and each ultimately proving the other right, time after time. The years have provided an interesting postscript, however. Just as Martin's early death seemed almost inevitable because of his inability to confront and defeat his demons, author Golenbock ends the book with a forecast of inevitable doom for Steinbrenner, predicting with certainty that his many shortcomings will stop the Yankees from ever again achieving respectability. Golenbock was wrong, of course. Steinbrenner's late 90s Yankees are among baseball's all-time great teams, guided by a superb manager with no apparent interference from above. Perhaps Steinbrenner did in fact learn something from Martin's sad demise.

Compard to David Faulkner's bio on Martin, this one by Golenbock has more insider details about Martin's life that make it the more interesting read. What does it in, unfortunately is Golenbock's peculiar analysis. Like so many people who like to ultimately elevate Billy the man higher than he deserves, more time is spent blaming George Steinbrenner for all of Billy's problems off the field. And it soon gets to the point where Golenbock actually performs what was once the impossible and makes you think he's too harsh on Steinbrenner. The bottom line is that Billy Martin, unlike his friend Mickey Mantle, never came to terms with what drinking and carousing could do to his life and for that, he had only himself to blame for not checking into the Betty Ford Clinic like Mantle did. Billy kept drinking not because of George Steinbrenner, but because of who he was, and that was a person with no morals whatsoever.