Sport: Nice Guys Always Finish . . . ?

A dash of polar opposites in the '77 Series

This year's World Series could not have pitted against each other two teams, the Los Angeles Dodgers and New York Yankees, that were more disparate. The Dodgers represent old-style baseball under a California sun. Nurtured on the Dodger farm system to live by simple virtues, they respect their owner, love their manager and hit home runs. The Yankees reflect the clamor and chaos of New York City. High-powered and high-salaried, they are as disputatious, selfish and disdainful of each other as they are talented—a galaxy of stars, singularly burning with a hard, cold light. The following stories probe beyond the line scores into the contrasting characters of the two teams. The story on the fractious Yankees was reported and written by Senior Correspondent Robert Ajemian. That on the ever-lovin' Dodgers was written by Associate Editor B.J. Phillips with reports from John Quirt and Jack Tobin in Los Angeles.

The Yankees

It was a September night in the last days of a frantic pennant race and Yankee Manager Billy Martin tossed in his bed, looking for ways to get even with his boss. For a moment, still thinking like the street fighter he used to be, he had a drastic idea. He would walk right up to Owner George Steinbrenner, insult him and goad the boss into striking him. Too wild, he decided. If only Steinbrenner would stop sending those foolish statistics down to the dugout during the game, stop pushing him so hard to discipline the players. Discipline, Martin thought as he lay awake, actually longing for a physical confrontation. That's all Steinbrenner ever thought about.

For his part Steinbrenner, a barrel-chested former athlete and coach who became head of a shipbuilding company, considered himself a man who knew how to handle street fighters. Before he hired Martin—who had been dumped from his past three managing jobs—Steinbrenner closely questioned the other owners. The pattern, as he saw it, was clear: Martin each time—in Minnesota, Detroit and Texas—had shrewdly turned the players against management to his own advantage. "These other guys didn't choose to take Billy on," said Steinbrenner. "I felt I could change him." As a start, he got Martin to accept a conditional contract stating that if the manager caused any dissension, his salary could be withheld, a contract Martin soon sharply resented. From the very beginning of the year, Steinbrenner hovered over his manager, offering unwanted advice, badgering him. Their confrontations were often stormy. One night after a difficult Yankee loss, Steinbrenner called the locker room to pass on some advice to his smoldering manager, and Martin—while the owner was still speaking—ripped the phone out of the wall.