Billy Ball: Billy Martin and the Resurrection of the Oakland A's

by Dale Tafoya

Overview

In the early 1970s, the Oakland Athletics became only the second team in major-league baseball history to win three consecutive World Series championships. But as the decade came to a close, the A's were in free fall, having lost 108 games in 1979 while drawing just 307,000 fans. Free agency had decimated the A’s, and the team’s colorful owner, Charlie Finley, was looking for a buyer. First, though, he had to bring fans back to the Oakland Coliseum. Enter Billy Martin, the hometown boy from West Berkeley.

In Billy Ball, sportswriter Dale Tafoya describes what, at the time, seemed like a match made in baseball heaven. The A’s needed a fiery leader to re-ignite interest in the team. Martin needed a job after his second stint as manager of the New York Yankees came to an abrupt end. Based largely on interviews with former players, team executives, and journalists, Billy Ball captures Martin’s homecoming to the Bay area in 1980, his immediate embrace by Oakland fans, and the A’s return to playoff baseball. Tafoya describes the reputation that had preceded Martin—one that he fully lived up to—as the brawling, hard-drinking baseball savant with a knack for turning bad teams around. In Oakland, his aggressive style of play came to be known as Billy Ball. A’s fans and the media loved it.

But, in life and in baseball, all good things must come to an end. Tafoya chronicles Martin’s clash with the new A’s management and the siren song of the Yankees that lured the manager back to New York in 1983. Still, as the book makes clear, the magical turnaround of the A’s has never been forgotten in Oakland. Neither have Billy Martin and Billy Ball.

During a time of economic uncertainty and waning baseball interest in Oakland, Billy Ball filled the stands, rejuvenated fans, and saved professional baseball in the city.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493071197
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	03/01/2023
Pages:	264
Sales rank:	1,037,400
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.70(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Dale Tafoya is author of Bash Brothers and One Season in Rocket City. Tafoya’s work has appeared in the New York Daily News, the New York Post, Sports Illustrated, The Athletic, Chicago Tribune, Baseball Digest, Beckett Baseball Card Monthly and other noteworthy publications. Tafoya resides in the San Francisco-Bay Area.

Table of Contents

Foreword Ken Korach 1

Prologue: Finley's Last Manager 5

Chapter 1 The Triple As 11

Chapter 2 Baseball's Boat People 25

Chapter 3 Forever Young 28

Chapter 4 Casey's Boy 47

Chapter 5 The Odd Couple 69

Chapter 6 Billy Ball 81

Chapter 7 The Renaissance 91

Chapter 8 Haas-Minded 109

Chapter 9 The Miracle Worker 121

Chapter 10 Aces and the Outfield 129

Chapter 11 The Resurrection 143

Chapter 12 Urban Cowboy 157

Chapter 13 The Revival 165

Chapter 14 Postseason Dreams 183

Chapter 15 Rainy Days 193

Chapter 16 The Steinbrenner Siren 211

Epilogue: Organization of the Year 217

Acknowledgments 219

Notes on Research and Sources 221

Bibliography 225

Index 231

Editorial Reviews

"The story is amazing and no one tells it like Dale Tafoya."

Castle Country Radio

"A wild, wacky, blissful read about a magical baseball run. Billy Martin is best remembered as a Yankee, but his time revitalizing the A's speaks to a larger-than-life figure's impact on a franchise in need of a jolt. This is tremendous stuff."

Jeff Pearlman

Berkeley-born Billy Martin saved Major League Baseball in Oakland. Dale Tafoya's Billy Ball brings the Martin legend and legacy back to life with a well-crafted deep dive into Martin's many often-contradictory sides and his time leading the A's.“

Sports Illustrated

"Back home and at the height of his managerial powers, Billy Martin turned the rag-tag A's into a winner and a pop culture phenomenon. Billy Ball explains in great detail how he pulled it off. The story seems especially amazing given the lack of daring and the decline of influence among managers today."— TOM VERDUCCI, New York Times bestselling author, Fox and MLB network analyst "Dale Tafoya has written a first-class piece of journalism on Billy Martin's effect on Oakland when he took over as manager of the A's in 1980. Billy, who was from the Bay Area, took a dreadful team and built it into a winner. These were the glory days of Billy Ball." — PETER GOLENBOCK, author of Wild, High, and Tight: The Life and Death of Billy Martin "A wild, wacky, blissful read about a magical baseball run. Billy Martin is best remembered as a Yankee, but his time revitalizing the A's speaks to a larger-than-life figure's impact on a franchise in need of a jolt. This is tremendous stuff." —JEFF PEARLMAN, The New York Times bestselling author of eight books, including The Bad Guys Won! “In Billy Ball, Dale Tafoya takes us back to a time before the analytics revolution, when the manager was not a figurehead but a must-see celebrity who could re-shape a team's whole outlook. Tafoya brings Billy Martin to life through exhaustive research and captivating insights from players, coaches, reporters and others who lived through an exciting era in Oakland baseball that finally gets the book it deserves.” —TYLER KEPNER, The New York Times

From the Publisher

"Dale Tafoya has written a first-class piece of journalism on Billy Martin's effect on Oakland when he took over as manager of the A's in 1980. Billy, who was from the Bay Area, took a dreadful team and built it into a winner. These were the glory days of Billy Ball."

Peter Golenbock

"Back home and at the height of his managerial powers, Billy Martin turned the rag-tag A's into a winner and a pop culture phenomenon. Billy Ball explains in great detail how he pulled it off. The story seems especially amazing given the lack of daring and the decline of influence among managers today".

Tom Verducci

"There was never a dull moment when Martin was in the mix. This book proves it and more."

Tom Hoffarth

"Tafoya does an excellent job of re-creating Martin’s rise and fall in Oakland and his epic battles with [Charlie] Finley. Fine baseball history."

Booklist

"Dale Tafoya’s new book, “Billy Ball: Billy Martin and the Resurrection of the Oakland A’s,” is an excellent read about the early 1980s A’s renaissance, led by the always interesting Martin.”

New York Post

Martin was Charlie Finley’s last manager and although he didn’t lead the A’s to any pennants, his impact enabled the franchise to remain in Oakland. This focuses on an often overlooked period, more successful than many realize, in Martin’s career.”

Tulsa World

"[Billy Martin's] homecoming 40 years ago helped revive a pathetically cheap and disrespected franchise that still carries some of his tenets.. .. Tafoya stays on course with how much Martin changed the culture of a once-ragtag franchise. .. Martin proved you can go home and be revered.. ."

Chicago Tribune

In Billy Ball, Dale Tafoya takes us back to a time before the analytics revolution, when the manager was not a figurehead but a must-see celebrity who could re-shape a team's whole outlook. Tafoya brings Billy Martin to life through exhaustive research and captivating insights from players, coaches, reporters and others who lived through an exciting era in Oakland baseball that finally gets the book it deserves.”

Tyler Kepner