Anniversary of Note

60 years ago today, October 5th, 1953, Billy Martin brought the Yankees to a place no baseball team had ever gone before. His walk-off single (I know, the term had yet to be coined) in the bottom of the 9th drove in Hank Bauer to give the Yanks a 4-3 win over the Dodgers in the sixth (and final) game of the World Series -- as the Bronx Bombers became the first club ever to win five consecutive World Series Championships!

It was quite a fall classic for Martin, who hit .500 (12 hits in 24 times up) with 8 RBIs, including the series-ending hit off Brooklyn's Clem Labine. And he was nearly as impressive when the Yanks returned to the fall classic in 1955 and '56, when he hit .320 and .296, respectively. That's where he earned his reputation as a clutch player in the eyes of Yankee fans.

But then there was that temper! A feisty player during his career, his antics -- depicted here so vividly on the cover of the Yankees 1983 Media Guide (one of his five terms as Yankee skipper) -- earned him a place in George Steinbrenner's revolving door of managers. Have you ever seen any other team use its manager's short temper as part of its marketing?

So our second anniversary has to be the 30th of this distinctive collectible.

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