Tino Martinez hits one for Jefferson High on the way to the state finals and a career in baseball.
Tribune file photo (1985)
Tino Martinez: Jefferson '85
Highlights: Led the 1988 United States baseball team to the gold medal in the Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea. Was named MVP of the World Amateur Championship in Parma, Italy, hitting .413 with four home runs and 18 RBIs. ... After being a three-time Division II All-American as well as an Academic All-American at the University of Tampa, he was a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award, presented to the country's best amateur baseball player. He still holds UT's career records in batting average (.398), home runs (54) and RBIs (222). ... Helped lead Tampa Catholic to a state championship in 1982 as a ninth grader, then led Jefferston to the state finals in 1985. ... He is a two-time American League All-Star, making the team once each with the Mariners and Yankees, and has been the starting first baseman for the Yankees the past four years, in which the Yankees have won three World Series. ... In 1997, he hit .298 with 44 home runs and 141 RBIs.
Today: Martinez, 32, is in the prime of his major-league career. He lives in Tampa with his wife, Marie, and their three children: Olivia (7), T.J. (6) and Victoria (4).
Having young kids and being a celebrity has been a funny experience for Tino Martinez.
"Right now they just think it's funny,'' Martinez said. "They know their dad plays for the Yankees. And the kids at school know that, but they don't really care. They don't know if I'm a good ballplayer, or whether every dad plays baseball, or does whatever they want. The good thing is I have two girls. They don't have to live up to it.''
But there is a son, 6-year-old T.J.
"My little boy, I've puposely called him T.J. because I don't want him to be Tino Martinez when he's growing up and feel like he's got to be a good baseball player,'' Martinez said. "I just want him to have fun and do whatever he wants to do and, like my parents told me, do good in school first. Have fun, get your degree, then do whatever you want.''
Having said that, what's the scouting report on T.J.? Martinez laughed at the question.
"He's all right, he's a pretty good little ball player,'' Martinez said. "The thing is he likes to play. They play T-Ball. He wants to play. He wants me to throw him balls. Wants to learn how to catch. He notices every little thing watching the game on TV. In New York when we're away, all the games are televised. He sees all the games. And every little detail he sees, like 'Dad, how come you were mad with the umpire?' And I'm like, 'what did I do?' He sees how Derek Jeter bats. He sees how so and so throws.
"He loves Derek Jeter. The way he hits. He can show you how everybody hits. The way they stand. Chad Curtis has this thing where he throws it in from the outfield, comes running in, throws the ball and flips over. Where he picked it up one day. I guess TV. 'I'm going to show you how Chad Curtis throws the ball.' He throws it and does a flip on the floor. He sees every little thing.''
Like the time during the 1998 season when then Orioles reliever Armando Benitez hit Martinez in the back.
"He asked me why the guy from the Orioles hit me,'' Martinez said. "Why was I mad? I tried to tell him, it's no big deal, it's a guy just being stupid. I tell him it doesn't hurt. Now he'll get hit with a ball every now and then and he's like 'it doesn't hurt.' ''
Like his son, talent showed early for Tino Martinez.
As a ninth grader at Tampa Catholic, Crusaders coach Frank Permuy had two pro prospects on the team in Richard Monteleone and Lance McCullers. Both had major-league futures, which Permuy did not want to interfere with, so he did not play either in the field on the days they weren't pitching. Instead they played designated hitter, leaving Martinez to play first.
"I was a back-up right-fielder,'' Martinez remembers. "[Permuy] didn't want them playing first, where they might get spiked or turn an ankle. So I got the chance to play first and I had a great year.
"That year helped me a lot because all the pro scouts were coming out to see Richard and Lance and they'd see me, too. They'd tell me I was a good player and to keep working at it. That really got me going.''
Tampa Catholic won the state championship that season. Martinez then transferred to Jefferson as a junior. As a senior, Martinez led the Dragons to the state finals in 1985. After the season, the Boston Red Sox selected him in the third round of the June draft, but he opted to take a baseball scholarship to the University of Tampa.
"That was tough [not signing a contract],'' Martinez said. "My parents convinced me, though. They wanted me to go to college. If I was a good enough player I'd make it. If not it wasn't meant to me and I'd have my degree.''
Martinez lacks a semester's worth of credits from getting his business management degree.
"My mom is still on me to get it,'' Martinez said.
By the time the Mariners selected him in the first round of the 1988 draft (14th player overall), Martinez had rewritten the Spartans' record book while earning Division II All-American honors for three seasons.
Martinez is now the toast of New York as part of a powerful New York Yankees team that has won three World Series in the last four years.
"It was weird, because he was one of us, but he was special,'' said Lelo Prado, the University of Louisville's baseball coach, who grew up with Martinez and now is his brother-in-law after Martinez married his sister Marie. "We all knew this guy was going to make it. Sometimes when [baseball] practice was over, Tino would still be out there practicing. When I played, I knew I wasn't going to make it. So if I went 0-for-2, I'd go home. Tino would still be out there working and he'd gone 3-for-3. It was like he knew.'' |
