Really, now. Were you voters joking? Ha, ha, very funny.
Russell Martin had as much business ranking third among NL catchers in All-Star voting last week as the state of Florida has conducting the voting. Was there a problem with hanging chads? Understanding the instructions?
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| L.A.'s Russell Martin is making a big-time impact in his second big-league season. (AP) |
"Tremendous young player," San Diego Padres manager Bud Black says. "He's a force. He's a force behind the plate. He's got a rocket. Offensively, he's hitting for power, average, he can steal a base.
"You don't see that combination in a catcher very often. Ivan Rodriguez, as a younger player, had that ability."
Was there something you were missing? Were you penalizing the guy because he only ranks second among all NL catchers in home runs (seven)? Second in batting average (.307)?
The guy is more well-rounded than anything Goodyear produces, yet there he was, left to pick up the pieces after the early All-Star votes were counted and run through the shredder.
Then, just when we were heading for crisis management, Monday arrived and ... Martin zoomed right past the New York Mets' Paul Lo Duca and Atlanta's Brian McCann and into the lead.
Oh, and he's also not only thrown out 33 percent of baserunners attempting to steal when he's behind the plate, but the 3.59 ERA Dodgers pitchers have posted when he's active ranks third among NL catchers.
Surely you know the guy?
Right?
"To tell you the truth, West Coast baseball is pretty much hidden," says Dodgers starter Randy Wolf, who spent the past seven seasons pitching in Philadelphia and who, when asked what he had heard about Martin before signing with the Dodgers this winter, spends about two minutes stammering and drawing a blank.
"On the East Coast, nobody talks about it," Wolf continues. "Russell, I didn't hear much about him. Watching him play speaks louder than anything I would have heard. He listens. He asks questions.
"He catches like a quarterback."
And plays like Coltrane with a saxophone, improvising here, freelancing there, nearly every note perfect pitch.
Russell Nathan Jeanson Coltrane Martin Jr., 24, was born in Ontario, Canada, spent part of his childhood in Paris, most of the rest of it in Montreal. His father, who was separated from his mother when the kid was two, played the saxophone in subways and on streets.
Russell Sr.'s passion was jazz. Russell Jr.'s passion was baseball.
The name?
Well, first thing is, it's listed as Russell Nathan Coltrane Jeanson Martin Jr. in the Dodgers' media guide, but Martin says it should be the way it's written three paragraphs above. That's the way it appears on his birth certificate, anyway.
"There are so many names I forget where they all go," he says.
Russell is his father. Jeanson is his mother's maiden name. Nathan is his middle name. And his smooth father just sort of slipped Coltrane in there like an extra note.
By high school, Russell Jr. moved in with his father so he could attend Polyvalente Edouard-Montpetit High School. The place has another famous baseball alumni -- ex-Dodger by the name of Eric Gagne.
"The reason why I stayed with my dad in Montreal was because it was one of the only high schools around that had baseball," Martin says. "And it was the only school where I could play baseball in the winter."
He fell in love with the game in Canada when he was just four or five and never wanted to be anything other than a major leaguer ever since. Baseball in Montreal? It was such an afterthought that no other high schools fielded baseball teams for Martin's school to play.
"We just had three classes before lunch, and then after lunch it would be baseball, or conditioning," Martin says.
Still. It was a heck of a lot more baseball-friendly than Paris.
"It was tough when you're a kid and all you care about is playing baseball with your friends," Martin says of his two years in France.
Oh, he made some friends there, and he rounded them up for pickup games.
"They just couldn't play," he says, chuckling. "It wasn't fun. I'd try and teach them."
Mostly, he was a third baseman. That's where he was playing at Chipola Junior College in Marianna, Fla., when the Dodgers made him their 17th-round pick in the 2002 draft. It was that fall, in the Instructional League, when Dodgers' catching instructor John Debus thought Martin had a chance to be something special if the club moved him behind the plate. Terry Collins, then the Dodgers' farm director, signed off on it.
Martin wasn't far behind. They told him it would be a quicker path to the big leagues, and the kid who grew up idolizing Ozzie Smith, Ken Griffey Jr., and every Expo from Larry Walker to Delino DeShields to Tim Wallach and Gary Carter, jumped at the chance.
Three full summers in the minors, and he landed in Dodger Stadium last season. Batted .282 with an on-base percentage of .355. The Dodgers, who earned the NL wild-card slot, were 71-43 when he started behind the plate. Landed with John Roseboro and Benito Santiago as the only rookie catchers ever to hit 10 or more homers and steal 10 or more bases.
And this year? So far, the growth chart is headed due north.
Pudge Rodriguez?
"That's what he is, man," Dodgers outfielder Luis Gonzalez says. "He's got that hockey mentality, I think. He's a Canadian kid, and he's taken out third basemen, second basemen."
He runs with abandon. Against San Diego last week, with Martin on first base in a scoreless game in the seventh, Padres starter Chris Young threw over seven times over a two-batter span, and pitched out twice.
"I'm not looking at him as a catcher or as a first baseman," Young says. "He's a good baseball player.
He handles the pitching staff with aplomb. Though young, Martin is as smooth guiding veterans through a game as kids.
"He has all the intangibles you want," Wolf says. "And as far as knowledge of the game. ..."
The most difficult aspect of changing positions, Martin says, is acquiring and maintaining that knowledge.
"Learning every little detail of all major leaguers, because you're part of every single play," he says. "It was tough because I was so comfortable at third base, so confident that I could have played there at a big-league level.
"But I knew it was a better fit for me to go behind the plate, where I could use my arm and my speed. I don't have great speed, but for a catcher I have good speed."
Sometimes he still gets tripped up. That game last week when Young wouldn't leave him alone? The throws over, and a couple of theft attempts on foul balls, wore him out. He stumbled rounding second base, his legs going too fast for his tired body, and was thrown out in a key Dodgers loss. Monday night, after learning he had moved into first place in the All-Star voting, he was charged with a passed ball and an error throwing to second in the first inning.
But those times are few and far between. Manager Grady Little says that the way Martin handles the pitching staff, it's "the ingredient of a great catcher. I don't know if it's something you can develop."
"One of his very, very top qualities is that he can take his performance offensively and leave it in the dugout when he goes out to catch and work with our pitchers to put zeroes up on the board," continues Little, who has piloted nearly 2,000 minor-league games and more than 500 major-league games during a two decades-plus managerial career. "That's his No. 1 thing.
"That's a tough thing to do. That's what separates a lot of young catchers from going on, from becoming regular catchers in the major leagues to becoming so-so catchers, maybe somebody who platoons."
Despite the name, Martin makes more music on the field than off of it.
"I can listen to the blues and to jazz," he says. "I enjoy it. But it's not one of my passions."
Meantime, back home in Montreal, Russell Martin Sr. is playing some with a jazz combo now. He's telling his son he's gotten a lot better.
"He says I've been an inspiration to him," Martin says. "But c'mon. He could always play. He just didn't believe in himself."
Usually, that's the bar that holds the most powerful notes together. While the father may have struggled with it, it's something the kid has never lacked, whether he was playing third base, catcher or anywhere else.
"I was thinking about him today when I rode past Santa Anita Park," Little was saying before a game over the weekend, referring to Los Angeles' famous horse track. "In a lot of ways, Russell Martin is like Seabiscuit, a West Coast horse that no one thought much of because no one saw him run."
Now, finally, the secret is beginning to emerge.
"That's awesome, man," Martin says of his All-Star ballot ascension this week. "It means the fans are complimenting me for my effort, and I'm grateful for that."
Little and the organization greeted the news heartily, too.
"We're proud for him," Little says. "We're proud of the fact that a lot of people across the country are seeing what we're seeing every day."
