The Oakland Athletics 70’s dynasty finally hit rock bottom in 1979. The three consecutive titles were only four years in the rearview and yet here was a team that had just lost ninety-eight, ninety-three and now a hundred and eight in 1979.
What they did have was a twenty year old rookie outfielder in future Hall of Famer Ricky Henderson and a young talented pitching rotation. What they didn’t have after the season was a manager after firing Jim Marshall. Enter Billy Martin.
Billy Martin Won Everywhere
Billy Martin really was the magic elixir, right from his first managerial season in Minnesota where he took the Twins from seventh to first. He didn’t however manage them the next season.
It was a pattern he’d repeat in Detroit and Texas, turn losses into wins and management against him. There were so many embarassing incidents.
10/05/74: Billy Martin is named AL Manager of the Year. #StraightUpTX pic.twitter.com/ZO9EOS3kfp
— Texas Rangers Baseball History (@TxRangerHistory) October 5, 2024
In Minnesota he got into a fist fight with one of his pitchers and was reported seen drinking heavily on roadtrips. In Detroit he fueded with slugger Willie Horton. In Texas he was fired after he publicly criticized the owner for not knowing anything about baseball.
Home to Yankees
Today in 1985, Billy Martin is hired for his fourth stint as Yankees manager. I'm sure this time will be different. pic.twitter.com/q8hXosBrss
— Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) April 28, 2016
Fired by the Rangers Martin went back to the Yankees where he won four championships as player in the 1950’s. George Steinbrenner was looking to make a splash and sure enough Martin won again, a pennant in 1976 and a series win the next season.
Martin’s big mouth cost him once more as he fueded with the team’s star again, this time it was Reggie Jackson. He took a verbal shot at Reggie and for some reason that only he knows he took a shot at the boss as well.
“The two of them deserve each other. One’s a born liar, the other’s convicted”.
Threatened with firing, Martin resigned a few days later, more than halfway through the 1979 season. The Next season it was the A’s turn as owner and G.M. Charlie Finley brought him in to manage, which brings us to the 1980 Athletics.
Young A’s Rotation
Martin did indeed weave his magic. The A’s went from fifty-four wins to eighty-three thanks to Ricky Henderson and a young talented rotation. Rick Langford (28), Mike Norris (25), Matt Keough (24), Steve McCatty (26), and Brian Kingman (26).
That group of five starters made every single start but three. 159 of 162. It wasn’t about the starts, it was about the finishes. Martin would have them set a record with ninety-four complete games. That was almost double the next closest team.
In days before pitch counts mattered this group just stayed out there and absorbed the workload as Martin went about his business as if he didn’t have a bullpen. Bob Lacey was the only other pitcher with more than forty-four innings pitched.
Norris once threw 152 pitches while tossing all fourteen innings of an extra inning game. Rick Langford led the league in complete games with 28, Mike Norris followed with 24 and Matt Keough with 20.
The Fall Out
Langford led the league in complete games again in 1981 but his career was pretty much over. His ERAs went from 3.26 in ’80, 2.99 in ’81, 4.21 in ’82 and he was pretty much done.
Norris was runner up for the 1980 Cy Young when he won twenty-two games. He would win only twenty-four more. The arm problems started the next season and he was done two seasons after that.
Keough’s future was the same. Significant dips in his ERA, 2.92, 3.40, 5.72 and he was never effective again, making only eight starts after the age of twenty-seven.
McCatty followed that 1980 season with a second place finish in the ’81 Cy Young voting going 14-7 with a 2.33 ERA but he had trouble staying healthy after that.
Kingman who lost twenty in 1980, only pitched in three more seasons. He pitched three games in relief in ’83 and never pitched in the big leagues again.
