Book review: Billy Ball: Billy Martin and the Resurrection of the Oakland A's by Dale Tafoya.

Billy Martin was the greatest manager in baseball...in the short term. No one could turn a team around like Billy. Losers quickly turned into winners in his hands. These turnarounds came at a price. Billy, a terrific baseball man, was high energy and high pressure, and the burnout rate around him was almost as quick as the results.

Martin identified the players he thought could help him, and rode them hard. He used very aggressive tactics in managing, especially on the basepaths. Push hard, make the plays, out-hustle the other team and win, was the Martin way. All that required a level of energy that could only be sustained for so long. Sooner or later, things got away from Billy. It was always a hell of a ride along the way.

Tafoya, an A's fan, writes an affectionate book of the 1980-1982 era in Oakland, when a moribund team turned around and got to the playoffs. The 1979 A's club lost 108 games and looked pathetic and listless on the field. Martin was hired by equally mercurial owner Charlie Finley that offseason, and with few player acquisitions, the A's had a winning record in 1980 and made the playoffs in 1981. Fans came back to the Oakland Coliseum once again. Baseball in Oakland was saved. The savior, more than anyone, was Billy Martin.

As much as a story of Billy Martin, this is the story of a city and an era. The early 1980s were an interesting time in baseball, with free agency still new, a new age of the powerful manager in the mold of Martin, Whitey Herzog, and Jack McKeon, and the emergence of a future Hall of Famer in Oakland, local native Rickey Henderson. Billy Martin, most famous for managing the Yankees, returned to his Bay Area roots to take over the A's. Magic occurred, like a meteor burning across the sky.

Tafoya writes lovingly of all this, in a style that is mostly based on the accounts of participants and first-hand observers, with quotes from interviews conducted by the author and quotes taken from contemporary publications. That kind of approach leads to some repetition and overlapping observations, but it keeps things real and in the moment. This is a snapshot of time, remembered by those who were there.

Tafoya spends his first two chapters on the story of the A's leading to the moment, the third on a mini-biography of Martin, and spends the rest of the book on 1980-82. After the setup, we get the payoff. A's fans, fans of baseball history, and lovers of a good story will enjoy this book.

A signed copy of the book was graciously sent to me by the author for this review. Thanks, Dale!