Edgar Martínez
| Edgar Martínez | |||
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Martínez with the Seattle Mariners in 1997
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| Seattle Mariners – No. 11 | |||
| Designated hitter / Third baseman / Hitting coach | |||
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Born: January 2, 1963 New York, New York |
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| MLB debut | |||
| September 12, 1987, for the Seattle Mariners | |||
| Last MLB appearance | |||
| October 3, 2004, for the Seattle Mariners | |||
| MLB statistics | |||
| Batting average | .312 | ||
| Hits | 2,247 | ||
| Home runs | 309 | ||
| Runs batted in | 1,261 | ||
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As player As coach
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| Career highlights and awards | |||
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As player
As coach
Edgar Martínez (born January 2, 1963), nicknamed "Gar" and "Papi", is a former Major League Baseball designated hitter and third baseman and current hitting coach of the Seattle Mariners. He spent his entire 18-year Major League Baseball career with the Mariners. He is of Puerto Rican descent.
On December 19, 1982, the Seattle Mariners signed Martínez to a minor league contract. Martínez worked his way through the Mariners minor league system, making stops with the Chattanooga Lookouts and the Calgary Cannons. Martínez made his major league debut on September 12, 1987, and became a fixture in the Mariners' lineup in 1990, replacing Jim Presley at third base. He began his career as a third baseman and won an American League batting title in 1992, but then he tore his hamstring during an exhibition game at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, B.C. on an unzipped seam in the turf between first and second, just before the 1993 season, and never fully recovered.
Martínez became a full-time designated hitter in 1995. To date, he is the only designated hitter ever to have won a batting title, winning it in 1995 with a .356 average.
On August 9, 2004 Martínez announced his retirement, effective at the end of the season. Martínez said this about his choice of retiring and career in Seattle:
It is hard, very hard, I feel in my mind and my heart I want to keep playing. But my body is saying something differently, so I feel this is a good decision.
Martínez is perhaps best remembered for his performance in the 1995 American League Division Series against the New York Yankees in which he hit .571 and was on base 18 times in 5 games. In game 4 of that series, he hit a three-run homer, then a grand slam home run that broke a 6-6 tie, en route to an 11-8 victory. His RBI total in that game set a single-game postseason record. The win knotted the best-of-five series at two games apiece and forced game 5. Down 5-4 in the 11th inning of that decisive game, Martínez hit a two-run double, called "The Double" by Mariners fans, off Jack McDowell, winning the game for the Mariners, 6-5, and series, 3-2. The win sent the Mariners to the American League Championship Series for the first time in franchise history, against the Cleveland Indians, a series they would eventually lose in 6 games.
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