I remember most of what happened. You saw the box on Cerrone. Rhoden was used as the DH because he was a better hitter than what else was on the roster. Thats how sad the Yankees were that year. Rhoden had also come from the Pirates so he was used to hitting. Martin was far from an awesome manager. He was an awesome arguer (?), he was good with small ball but was horrible with pitching staffs and his relationships with the players quickly degenerated. He didnt know how to adapt to situations and it was his way or nothing. I'm suprised no one brought up his fight with Reggie in the dugout against the Red Sox on national TV in this thread especially with what happened in Chicago a few days ago.
It was never really a matter of Billy being a good manager. It was just comical back in those days of utter ineptitude to see the merry-go-round at the manager position. Plus, Martin's tirades were legendary. It was just the only fun thing about the Yankees at the time.
Wasn't that the season Martin was fired even though the team was in first place? If I remember this right, Piniella was the GM and he took the Lace incident as the opportunity to take over as manager. And failed miserably, as usual. Never liked Lou as a manager.
88 was also the season Chambliss pinch hit once and Piniella eventually traded Buhner for Phelps. Not good.
