Billy Ball

Billy Martin and the Resurrection of the Oakland A's

De: Dale Tafoya

Narrado por: Barry Abrams

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 owner, Charlie Finley, was looking for a buyer. First, though, he had to bring fans back to the Oakland Coliseum. Enter Billy Martin.

Dale Tafoya describes what, at the time, seemed like a match made in baseball heaven. The A's needed a leader to reignite 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, his immediate embrace by Oakland fans, and the A's return to playoff baseball. In Oakland, Martin's 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.

©2020 Dale Tafoya (P)2020 Tantor

Billy had more depth than this book

Good gracious. Here you have a subject worth doing a deep dive into, and instead we get this repetitive mush not even skimming the surface. Martin is a great case study, pulling in trauma, a dysfunctional home, and a mentality to beat someone up before they do the same to you. But none of that psychology is even addressed. By contrast, look at John Miller's The Last Manager and explore the inner turmoil of Earl Weaver. Or maybe audible should make a recording Bill Pennington's excellent work on Martin. At least we could have had some sense of what Billy Ball style was, but we are left with skimming through entire seasons. And the narrarator is better suited for Saturday morning Bible for kids show. I am surprised I lasted 4 chapters.

Better Options

Unfortunately this book is very mediocre. As a fan of BB and Billy I wanted to like it but there are far better books about Billy and the Oakland A’s.

The narrator spoke like he was reading a kids book trying not to frighten a group of four year olds.

The most annoying aspect was how repetitive the story was. Often within several minutes.

Repetitive and Surprisingly Drab

Billy Martin was an exciting, brilliant, engaging and complicated character. I looked forward to this book. Unfortunately, the author seemed pressed to fill pages and rambles on repeating storyline and themes. The book is overly focused on backroom ownership politics ad nauseum and the real story is drowned out.