Billy Martin Dies in a Car Accident on Christmas Day

On December 25, 1989, Billy Martin was killed in a single-vehicle accident near his home in Fenton, New York, outside Binghamton. He was 61 years old. The pickup truck driven by his friend William Reedy slid off an icy road and struck a concrete culvert at the base of Martin's driveway. Martin, riding in the passenger seat, died from severe injuries. Reedy survived and was later convicted of driving while intoxicated.

Intensity defined Martin's life, both on the field and off. As a player, he was a scrappy second baseman who won four World Series rings with the Yankees in the 1950s and earned the 1953 World Series MVP award. As a manager, he was brilliant and volatile in almost equal measure. He managed the Twins, Tigers, Rangers, Athletics, and Yankees, winning a pennant or division title with three of those five teams.

His relationship with Yankees owner George Steinbrenner became the most famous management saga in baseball history. Steinbrenner hired and fired Martin five times between 1975 and 1988. A dramatic press conference preceded each return, and a confrontation, a bar incident, or both marked each departure.

Martin won 1,253 games as a manager. His teams played hard, ran aggressively, and frequently overachieved. He also left chaos in his wake. Fistfights with players, arguments with umpires, and conflicts with ownership followed him from city to city. The pattern never changed, and neither did the results. Martin's teams won, and Martin self-destructed, and the cycle started again somewhere else. On Christmas Day 1989, the cycle ended.