Billy Ball

There was no more polarizing manager in baseball than the hot-tempered, hard-drinking, risk-taking Billy Martin. During a time of economic uncertainty and waning baseball interest in Oakland, Billy Ball filled the stands, rejuvenated fans, and saved professional baseball in the city. Based largely on interviews with former players, team executives, and journalists, Billy Ball captures Martin's homecoming to the Bay area in 1980, his immediate embrace by Oakland fans, and the A's return to playoff baseball.

Dale Tafoya is author of Bash Brothers: A Legacy Subpoenaed (Potomac Books, 2008) and has followed Oakland A's baseball for thirty years. His work has appeared in the Oakland Tribune, Contra Costa Times, Orlando Sentinel, Modesto Bee, The Source, and Beckett Baseball Card Monthly. In addition to his writing credits, Tafoya has been a guest on ESPN Radio, FOX Sports, Cumulus Media and Comcast Sports. Tafoya resides in the San Francisco-Bay Area.