How Billy Martin's fiery attitude helped him win as a player with the Yankees

Paying tribute Billy Martin on the 25th anniversary of his tragic death on Christmas Day in 1989, much has been written about Martin’s fiery nature as a manager, especially his many run-ins with the late George Steinbrenner. The persona that Martin exhibited as a manager, very closely reflected the energized spirit that willed him to success as a young ballplayer.

Back in 2008, I had the opportunity to speak with Gene Valla, Martin’s teammate in the Yankees minor league system. Valla was three years older than Martin, but they both grew up in the San Francisco area, with Valla attending San Francisco Polytechnic and Martin attending Berkeley.

In 1950, the Bay Area natives reunited while playing for the Yankees Triple-A affiliate in Kansas City. Martin was sent down from the big league club for more experience a month into the season. During their time playing together, Valla described Martin as having a penchant for victory despite his ordinary appearance on the field.

“Martin was a character,” the late Valla said during our 2008 phone interview from his home in San Francisco. “He was a good double play partner, very loose. He was a very aggressive ballplayer. He wasn’t the type that you would say that he would look like a winner, but he [became] a winner. He went back up with the Yankees [in 1950] and they won the World Series.”

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Charlie Silvera | A gentleman of the Yankees dynasty

Charlie Silvera is a gentleman for any era. Last week, after 18 months, I received this nice note and signed baseball card from the former New York Yankees catcher apologizing for the delay in responding to my letter. At the time of writing to him, I enclosed an article I wrote about the passing of his former teammate Duane Pillette.

The 88-year-old Silvera won five straight World Series rings as a member of the Yankees from 1949-1953. Serving as a backup to Hall of Fame catcher Yogi Berra, he only had one season when he had more than 100 at-bats. His teammates nicknamed him the "Payroll Bandit," because they jokingly felt he was stealing money from the club.

After his playing career finished, Silvera followed his good friend Billy Martin as a coach while he was with the Minnesota Twins and Texas Rangers. He remained involved in the game as a scout with the Chicago Cubs as recently as 2011.

Silvera told some more inside Yankee stories about Berra, Martin and Joe DiMaggio to Ed Attanasio of This Great Game.

Below is a 15-minute 2012 interview from the Inside China Basin podcast where Silvera discusses his role in the Yankee dynasty and the San Francisco pipeline that fed the New York Yankees from DiMaggio through the championship teams of the 1950s.



Video of Charlie Silvera at the 2008 Yankees Old Timers Day

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