[LansdowneSt]

As a player on the great New York Yankees teams of the 1950s and later as a manager with five different major-league clubs, Billy Martin was known to be brash, bold, and fearless. He played the game hard and made no excuses for the way he handled himself on or off the field. Many people, including his off-and-on boss, George Steinbrenner, considered Martin a baseball genius for the intuitive way he managed his teams.
Asked about Martin’s prowess as a field general, former Yankees manager Casey Stengel, who had known Billy since his minor league days in Oakland, told The Sporting News in an interview printed on August 23, 1975: “He’s a good manager. He might be a little selfish about some things he does and he may think he knows more about baseball than anybody else and it wouldn’t surprise me if he was right.” Asked why he thought so highly of Martin as a player, Stengel replied, “If liking a kid who never let you down in the clutch is favoritism, then I plead guilty.” As difficult, irascible, and pugnacious as he was, Martin commanded respect as a manager. In 1987, in a poll of 600 former players, he ranked eighth among some heavyweights – behind Stengel, Joe McCarthy, Walter Alston, John McGraw, Connie Mack, Earl Weaver, and Al Lopez, and ahead of Whitey Herzog, Sparky Anderson, and Tommy Lasorda.

On August 10, 1986, the Yankees retired Martin’s jersey number 1 and dedicate a plaque with his likeness at Monument Park in Yankee Stadium. The plaque read, “There has never been a greater competitor than Billy.” Speaking at the dedication, Martin said with great emotion, “I may not have been the greatest Yankee to ever put on the uniform but I was the proudest.” During his tenure as a major-league manager, Martin’s off-field exploits were legendary; he got into fights with team officials, bar patrons, a cab driver, a marshmallow salesman, various fans, and two of his pitchers.

After leaving the Yankees in 1988, he remained on the team’s payroll as a special consultant. A short time later, rumors began to circulate that Billy would return to manage the Yankees in 1990. In the early evening hours of December 25, 1989, Martin’s pickup truck skidded off an icy road near his country home in Fenton, New York, and plummeted 300 feet down an embankment, flipping over and landing on its right side. The 61-year-old Martin was killed in the accident, and his good friend from his days in Detroit, Bill Reedy, was seriously injured. The two had been drinking at a local bar, and Martin allowed Reedy to drive his truck home that evening. The crash occurred mere feet from Martin's home driveway. - SABR

percolaten, this is being saved as his player fg ID (Historical Minors) so it could works as a player (no facial hair) but I tried to keep him at an age where he'd be okay as a manager for you - even without his iconic mustache.