Billy Martin’s place on a villains list is the kind of baseball twist that would have suited him just fine. The man spent his life snarling at authority, arguing with stars, and leaving a trail of Yankee championships behind him.
Now, nearly 37 years after his death, he’s been slotted at No. 10 on an independently run baseball page’s ranking of the game’s biggest villains - and he’s not alone. Two other Yankees landed in the top 10 as well.
The list, published this week by “Baseball’s Greatest Moments” on X, includes Alex Rodriguez at No. 2 and Roger Clemens at No. 4.
Rodriguez was cited for his season-long 2014 suspension in the Biogenesis case, while Clemens was linked to the 2007 Mitchell Report. Barry Bonds finished first, followed by Pete Rose at No.
- Jose Altuve checked in at No.
5, Chase Utley at No. 6, Manny Machado at No.
7, John Rocker at No. 8 and Ty Cobb at No. 9.
Martin’s inclusion stands out for a different reason: the rings. He won five World Series titles, more than anyone else on the list.
Three Yankees - Martin, Rodriguez and Clemens - account for eight of the 14 championship rings represented among the 10 names. The only other manager on the ranking is Martin, and no franchise had more players on the list than the Yankees.
That’s a long way from Oct. 5, 1953, when Martin made himself a Bronx legend. With Game 6 of the World Series tied in the ninth after Carl Furillo’s two-run homer, Martin lined a Clem Labine sinker through the middle.
A runner came home from second, and the Yankees won 4-3 to clinch their fifth straight title, a streak no club has matched since. Martin’s hit was his 12th of the Series, tying a World Series record, and he was named MVP.
Allie Reynolds got the win and Labine took the loss.
That moment turned Martin into a Yankees hero for life. He won four rings as an infielder with the club in 1951, 1952, 1953 and 1956, then added another as manager in 1977.
The Yankees later retired his No. 1.
But the temper was always part of the story. A 1957 fight at the Copacabana nightclub got him traded to Kansas City.
Two decades later, he and Reggie Jackson nearly came to blows in the Fenway Park dugout on national television. George Steinbrenner hired Martin to manage the Yankees in August 1975, then fired him or pushed him out repeatedly.
The final stint ended on June 23, 1988, with the team at 40-28 and two games back in the race, and Lou Piniella taking over.
Martin’s managerial run also included the 1977 championship, the Yankees’ first in 15 years, plus division titles with Minnesota in 1969, Detroit in 1972 and Oakland in 1981. Only Texas, in that stretch, got past him without one.
The other entries on the villains list come with their own sharp one-liners. Machado’s spot was tied to a comment about hustle during the 2018 postseason with the Dodgers.
Asked about his effort level, he dismissed the idea by saying, “not my cup of tea.” Martin’s most famous quote arrived in July 1978, when he aimed at Jackson and Steinbrenner at the same time: “One’s a born liar, the other’s convicted,” he said.
Rose’s story has shifted, too. On May 13, 2025, Commissioner Rob Manfred removed him from the permanently ineligible list in a letter to Rose’s attorney, writing that “permanent ineligibility ends upon the passing of the disciplined individual.”
Cobb’s place on the list still carries a Yankees angle of sorts. His infamous charge into the stands came on May 15, 1912, at Hilltop Park against the New York club that would become the Yankees.
He attacked heckler Claude Lucker, who had lost eight fingers in an industrial accident. Detroit players protested Cobb’s suspension, and the replacement Tigers fell 24-2 to the Philadelphia Athletics.
The Hall of Fame picture for the Yankees trio is still stalled. Rodriguez got 40% of the vote in January, his fifth year on the BBWAA ballot, well short of the 75% needed.
Clemens came up short again in December 2025, receiving fewer than five votes from the Contemporary Baseball Era Committee alongside Bonds, with Jeff Kent getting elected instead. Martin is not in Cooperstown; he died on Dec. 25, 1989, in a car crash in upstate New York, four months after Rose accepted his ban.
Rose could come before the Classic Baseball Era Committee as soon as late 2027.
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