ARLINGTON, Texas — Call him the Detroit Tigers’ 26th man.
Or perhaps he’s their First Son.
Regardless, Victor Jose Martinez , the 7-year-old son of designated hitter Victor Martinez , is very much a part of the Tigers. As he did so often over the past two years when his father played for the Red Sox, Victor Jose dresses in uniform and runs around the clubhouse before games. During batting practice, he plays catch with whoever will engage him. (With the Red Sox, it usually was David Ortiz’ son, D’Angelo .) In July, he campaigned for his father to be named to the All-Star Game in the final fan vote (”Hello, my name is Victor Jose Martinez,” he said in a video posted on the Tigers’ official Web site. “I really want my dad to go to the All-Star Game. Because since my friends are there — David Ortiz and everybody — and I really want everybody to vote for my dad. Please vote for my dad!”) And when the Tigers extinguished the Yankees in the Division Series on Thursday night, Victor Jose was present in the clubhouse for the celebration.
“I lost my dad when I was 7 years old, and I never got to spend time with him like this,” Victor Martinez said yesterday. “I want to make to sure I spend the most time I can with my family. Unfortunately, my daughter can’t be like him. I can’t have my daughter in the clubhouse like he can. But it just makes me feel really happy just to see his face, his big smile every day. He’s a kid that really enjoys being around the guys. It’s really special. He loves to be at the ballpark, around the guys. That’s him. This is a profession where we miss a lot for our family. We’re gone for 10 days, come back home for seven. It’s just tough. I want to spend as much time with him as I can.”
Terry Francona absolutely adored “Little Vic,” and surely, they will reunite on the field here today. (Francona will be subbing for Tim McCarver on the Fox broadcast.) Victor Jose was incredulous last week when his father explained to him that Francona no longer will be managing the Red Sox.
“His reaction was like, he was pretty sad,” Martinez said. “I saw his face. It was like, I tried to say something. He was like, ‘Daddy, why? What happened?’ It was tough. It was really sad.”
Big Victor, meanwhile, has emerged as a leader in the Tigers’ clubhouse. He finished fourth in the American League with a .330 average, and although he hit only 12 homers, he finished second on the team with 103 RBI ( Miguel Cabrera had 105). Tigers manager Jim Leyland isn’t a big believer in chemistry — “I think the fact that he hit .330 has made him a lot better in the clubhouse,” Leyand said — but over the past few weeks, he has used the words “godsend” and “major force” to describe Martinez’ influence.
“He’s been absolutely tremendous,” Leyland said. “And I really give him a lot of credit, because I think a lot of guys at some point have an issue with just DH-ing. And I think that (Tigers GM) Dave Dombrowski and our people, John Westhoff and Al Avila, they made it pretty clear that’s what he would be doing most of the time. I think he’s accepted that, and I think he’s set into that role tremendously, so it’s not an issue.”
Last December, nobody took issue with the Red Sox’ decision to let Martinez walk to Detroit, where he received a four-year, $50 million contract. In essence, they replaced Martinez and Adrian Beltre with Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford , and they immediately were pronounced World Series favorites.
In the end, though, it’s worth wondering how much Martinez’ presence was missed in the clubhouse.
This entry was posted on Saturday, October 8th, 2011 at 3:51 pm and is filed under General . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
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