George Steinbrenner Was Right

One thing I can say about the late George Steinbrenner: he may have been wrong about a lot of things, but I think his constant hiring and firing of Billy Martin was actually a good, sound idea. Martin, who helped turn Steinbrenner’s Yankees into a championship team, was a great manager, particularly when it came to improving the performance of players; he almost always got a better season out of a team than they had before he joined, and many players had career-best years under him. But Martin was so intense and insane that no one could stand playing for him for more than a year, or two, tops.

The players would revolt and the team would go downhill, and he’d have to be fired. Everyone fired Martin not long after he joined. The only difference with Steinbrenner is that he would wait a few years and then bring Martin back, to start over with players who were not yet ready to kill him. The way I think about it is this: Martin was really Steinbrenner’s regular manager from 1976 until his death. It’s just that he had to be relieved of his duties every few years because there was no way he could manage a team for several years continuously. by macleans

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