On This Date in Sports May 16, 1957

In collaboration with the Sportsecyclopedia.com

New York Daily News. Getty Images.

While celebrating the birthday of their feisty second baseman Billy Martin, several New York Yankees get involved in a brawl at the Copacabana nightclub in Manhattan. Among the players involved in the fracas with Martin were Hank Bauer, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Johnny Kucks, and Mickey Mantle. Manager Casey Stengel fined each player $1,000, as Billy Martin was traded to the Kansas City Athletics a month later.

The Yankees were kings of New York in 1957, with New York Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers on their way to California. The Yankees had played in eight of the last ten World Series, winning seven entering the 1957 season. One unsung player was their feisty middle infielder Billy Martin. On the night of his 29th birthday, after beating the Kansas City Athletics 3-0 on a shutout by Bob Turley, Billy Martin and five of his Yankee teammates  Hank Bauer, Yogi Berra, Whitey Ford, Johnny Kucks, and Mickey Mantle accompanied by their wives went to a night out at the Copacabana the nightclub in New York at the time.

While the Yankees were enjoying a night out, members of a local bowling club were also in attendance, as Sammy Davis Jr. performed on stage. The bowling club began to get rowdy, much to the annoyance of the Yankees who wanted a quiet night on the town with their wives. Things began to get heated when several members of the blowing club began heckling Davis on stage, hurling racial epithets. Both Billy Martin and Hank Bauer took exception to the name-calling and began arguing with the local bowlers. After a few minutes, a fight broke out, which resulted in a local deli owner named Edwin Jones suffering from a broken jaw.

When the news of the brawl hit the papers the next day, the Yankees management was embarrassed as Hank Bauer faced criminal assault charges for the injuries to the deli owner. Five of the Yankees involved were fined $1,000 each, with Johnny Kucks getting a reduced fine of $500 because he was one of the lower-paid players on the ballclub. Manager Casey Stengel, in retaliation, also dropped Bauer in the lineup to eighth. When asked why he did not do the same to Mickey Mantle, the manager quipped, “I want to win.”

The charges against Hank Bauer would eventually be dropped when a Grand Jury cleared him. When the dust settled, the Yankees brass blamed Billy Martin, who the team always worried was a bad influence on Mickey Mantle, due to his well-known heavy drinking. On June 15th, the Yankees would exile Martin to Kansas City, trading him to the Athletics with Woodie Held, Bob Martyn, and Ralph Terry for Ryne Duren, Jim Pisoni, and Harry Simpson.

The Yankees would win another pennant in 1957, losing the World Series in seven games to the Milwaukee Braves. Billy Martin was deeply hurt by the trade but would one day return to manger the Yankees in 1975.