Tino Martinez

Constantino "Tino" Martinez (born December 7, 1967) is an American former professional baseball player.

In 1986, he played collegiate summer baseball with the Falmouth Commodores of the Cape Cod Baseball League and was named a league all-star.

Formerly a third baseman, Martinez was the first round draft pick for the Seattle Mariners in 1988 out of the University of Tampa, where he starred during his time on campus.

During his 16-year MLB career, he scored 1,009 runs, drove in 1,271 runs, and hit 339 home runs.

He had 100 or more RBI in six different seasons and was twice named to the All-Star team.

Tino Martinez was born and raised in the neighborhood of West Tampa in Tampa, Florida, to a Cuban-American father with Spanish roots and a mother with Italian and Greek ancestry.

His grandfather owned a small cigar factory, in which Martinez and his brothers, as well as childhood friend and fellow future major-leaguer Luis Gonzalez, worked as young boys.

In 1988, he was a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award, which has never been given to any NCAA Division II player.

One year after graduating he was inducted into the University of Tampa's athletics hall of fame.

He played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Seattle Mariners, New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals, and Tampa Bay Devil Rays from 1990 through 2005.

He also won the Home Run Derby in 1997.

Martinez hit two memorable home runs as a Yankee in the World Series.

He is known as "Tino", a shortened version of his first name, but was also nicknamed "The Bam-tino" after his home run in Game 1 of the 1998 World Series.

The first came off Mark Langston in Game 1 of the 1998 Series.

The Yankees had tied the game earlier in the inning with a Chuck Knoblauch three-run home run.

The following three batters got on base, and Martinez came to the plate.

After taking a very close pitch with a 2–2 count, which appeared to be strike three but was not ruled as such by umpire Richie Garcia, Martinez hit the next pitch into the upper deck for a grand slam, giving the Yankees a four-run lead.

Martinez's second memorable World Series home run came three years later, on October 31, 2001.

The Yankees were down to their last out trailing by two runs, two outs in the 9th inning, when Martinez came to the plate with a runner on.

He hit a game-tying home run to right center off Arizona Diamondbacks closer Byung-hyun Kim, and the Yankees went on to win the game.

The feat was repeated the following night by Scott Brosius.

However, the Yankees would lose Games 6 and 7 and thus the Series.

His best season statistically came in, when he was second in the American League in home runs and RBI (with 44 and 141 respectively), and finished second in AL Most Valuable Player voting.

Martinez attended St. Joseph School in West Tampa until 8th grade, then attended Tampa Catholic High School for 9th and 10th grades, before transferring to and graduating from Jefferson High School.

Martinez led both of his high schools to state baseball championships.

With Tampa Catholic, he had future Major Leaguers Lance McCullers and Rich Monteleone as teammates.

Martinez enrolled at the University of Tampa, where he played college baseball for the Tampa Spartans in NCAA Division II.

He played three years for Tampa, and was an All-American each year.

Since 2010, the Tino Martinez Award has been given to the most outstanding NCAA Division II baseball player.

As of 2011, Martinez still held school records in career home runs (54), career batting average (.399), career slugging percentage (.736), single season batting average (.452) and single season slugging percentage (.957).

He also served as a hitting coach for the Miami Marlins in 2013.

In 2013, Martinez was inducted into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame.

The Seattle Mariners drafted Martinez in.

Martinez's first Major League manager was Lou Piniella, who had also grown up in the West Tampa neighborhood, and who knew Martinez's uncle and mother.

Martinez had several mediocre seasons, but broke out in when he drove in 111 runs, hit 31 home runs and batted .293.

The Mariners clinched the AL West and went on to play in the first season of divisional postseason play against the New York Yankees.

Following that season, the New York Yankees acquired Martinez, along with Jeff Nelson and Jim Mecir, for Sterling Hitchcock and Russ Davis.

Before the trade was finalized, Martinez and the Yankees agreed to a five-year, $20.25 million contract extension.

Martinez succeeded Don Mattingly as the Yankees' starting first baseman.

Martinez was with the New York Yankees as they won four World Series championships in five seasons:, , , and.