Billy Martin

"I may not have been the greatest Yankee to put on the uniform, but I was the proudest."

"If hed only known himself half as well as he knew his game, he might have been the best."

"I didnt throw the first punch. I threw the second four."

"Some people have a chip on their shoulder. Billy has a whole lumber-yard."

"Hes humorless, dedicated, relentless, fearless, tireless and reckless, as tightly wound as a power line, about as safe to cross as a mine field."

"Billy Martin proved what a powerful strategic tool paranoia is. He believed that everyone was against him. And so he spent every waking moment figuring out how imaginary enemies could be defeated in their nefarious plots. And sometimes he not only created strategies to defend against things that would never be done against him, but he realized that those attacks were in themselves novel and he would then try those attacks that he had already dreamed up a defense for. Thats why he was so wonderful at suicide bunts and double steals and any way that you could humiliate or psychologically defeat the other team, he was sure thats how the world reacted to him. He was sure the world hated him. And so he turned that really raw, frightened paranoia into wonderful strategic intelligence."

"To keep the five guys who hate you away from the other five guys who are undecided."