JOE GIRARDI & BILLY MARTIN; MORE SIMILAR THAN YOU THINK

I'm not going to lie to you. I never ever thought that there was any similarities between Joe Girardi and Billy Martin...EVER!  These are 2 guys that had totally different lifestyles off the field, they played the game at different times and Billy came and went constantly during the Steinbrenner era.  No comparison right? Wrong.  There are people smarter than me that come up with this stuff that totally interesting to look at stats, well, like the one below from Ken Davidoff of the New York Post.  He Tweeted the one below and I was impressed, in fact, I loved it so I kept it and I wanted to share it with you.

So there you go, a great stat I would have never thought about if Davidoff didn't put it out there.  No doubt it's impressive.  Could that similarity between Billy and our current be the end of it? Not so fast.  I have to tell you, the other night in Detroit when Joe Girardi ran out of the dugout and started screaming at the umps and was booted from the game, I had weird flashbacks of Billy Martin running out like a crazy person, kicking dirt on the umpire. 

In fact, my wife and I were watching and said "Who was that manager the Yankees had that used to get nuts?" "Billy Martin," I said, Alfred Manuel 'Billy' Martin," I said.  When Billy did it, he usually had a strategy and I thought the same thing with Joe the other night.  Sure, Billy was looking for a fight, but he was clearly getting his team pumped up and more times than not, he'd get booted.  It was pure comedy, but if you know me, I appreciate the umpires as well because I know being an ump can be a thankless job. So yeah, arguing is fine, but there needs to be some kind of respect too. 

 Billy Martin was back and forth on the Yankees so many times, I almost thought he had won championships with the Yanks 2 times, not 1 like Davidoff tweeted.  But Ken's right, Billy won as manager of the 1977 Yankees and in 1978, it was Bob Lemon.  Hey, sue me, sometimes I forget.  That's why Ken's stat was so great. Obviously we know from recent history that the Yankees didn't make it to the playoffs in 2008 and then won it all in 2009, Girardi's second year as manager...he too, one time, so far at least.

Billy Martin's career as Yankee manager over all was 556-385. He had 2 pennants and 1 World Series title.  Billy was a gem, he was aggressive and he knew the game cold, better than alot of other managers.  Ironically, many great managers are catchers. Look at Joe Torre for instance? But Billy aggression goes back to the days when he played for Casey Stengel. 

It's been documented for years that Stengel loved Martin's aggressiveness and Billy clearly carried that over when he became a manager.  And see... that's where I find Joe Girardi and Billy Martin's managing style very different. I don't feel like Joe is aggressive enough on the base paths, I want to see more running, more hit and run, more manufacturing runs and less solo homers.  Sure, I love Joe pumping up his team and jumping out of the dugout to argue a call, but when he's in there, thumbing through the binder, sometimes I wish he'd just close it and go on instinct and strategy much like Billy did.

Look, people don't care for Joe as the Yankees manager. I'm not one of them. I like Joe, and sure, I wish he'd walk away from the binder once in a while, but he's getting there.  I'd much rather he be more aggressive, but hey, what the hell do I know?  After all, Davidoff's stats are pretty damn impressive if you think about it; Girardi 412-288 and Martin 410-290 in the first 700 games as manager. 

Hell... Joe's clearly doing something right...

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