This spring—forty years after its inception—author Dale Tafoya shares the story of how the fate of a franchise was saved by swagger, hustle and more than a little electricity, in the new book “BILLY BALL: Billy Martin and the Resurrection of the Oakland A’s”, Foreword by Ken Korach (Lyons Press, March 24, 2020).The Oakland A’s had hit rock bottom in 1979.
Losers of 108 games, the once proud franchise that had won three straight World Series titles earlier in the decade was now being regarded as the “Triple A’s” or the “Oakland Pathetics”. Free agency had fleeced owner Charlie Finley’s folding dynasty. The stars that helped bring glory to the Bay Area, like Reggie Jackson, Catfish Hunter and Rollie Fingers, were now gone. Attendance was dreadful. The team was hemorrhaging money. The players were unhappy. The team could barely function as a major league team anymore. Finley could compete when baseball was a battle of wits, but now that it was all about money, he was falling behind quickly. He needed a different plan. A different path forward. He needed a leader with drawing power. He needed Billy Martin.
The story is amazing and no one tells it like Dale Tafoya. Spend a few segments discussing Billy Martin, Charlie Finley and some brilliantly reckless baseball that became a phenomenon.