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Martinez Says Return to Bronx Will Be Last Stop
By VIV BERNSTEIN
Published: January 1, 2005
Tino Martinez does not know where he fits in with the Yankees,
whether he will be the starting first baseman in 2005, a designated
hitter or a backup infielder when the season opens in April. But
right now, he said, he does not care.
Martinez wanted to return to the Bronx, where he won four World
Series titles in six years from 1996 to 2001. On Thursday, he finally
did. Martinez agreed to a one-year contract worth $2.5 million to $3
million, with a team option for a second year, and he vowed he would
finish his career with the Yankees.
"To be back now, this is the last uniform I'm going to put on,"
Martinez, 37, said Friday in a conference call with reporters. "If
I'm playing for the Yankees, I'm never going to play for another team
again, whether I play one year, two years. I want to win a world
championship again as well."
The Yankees have not won the World Series since 2000, when Martinez
was a fixture in the Bronx at first base. But he figured he was done
with the Yankees after the 2001 season, when they signed Jason Giambi
to a seven-year, $120-million contract. Martinez went to St. Louis
for two seasons before being traded to Tampa Bay.
All the while, he wanted to return to the Yankees, he said.
"I didn't know that when I left three years ago to go to the
Cardinals and Giambi came in that I would ever come back to New
York," Martinez said.
But, he added, "I always kept the door open."
Martinez said he had been in contact with the Florida Marlins this
off-season, but he held off signing to see if the Yankees would make
an offer. The Yankees brought Martinez back amid speculation that
they would try to buy out the final four years of Giambi's contract,
after The San Francisco Chronicle reported that Giambi had admitted
using steroids while testifying before a grand jury in the Balco
steroids case.
Giambi had an awful 2004 season, playing in only 80 games because of
a variety of injuries and illnesses, including a benign tumor on his
pituitary gland. He batted .208 with 12 home runs and did not play in
the postseason, when the Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox in the
American League Championship Series.
In Giambi's place, the Yankees relied on Tony Clark and John Olerud,
free agents who are not expected to return.
That could leave Martinez, who batted .262 with 23 home runs and 76
runs batted in last season, as the Yankees' regular first baseman.
But Yankees General Manager Brian Cashman said on Friday that Giambi
was expected to join the team for spring training, even though there
has been speculation that the Yankees will find a way to part ways
with him.
"I know there's a lot of speculation about his situation," Cashman
said. "All I can really say on that is that he's a member of this
organization until something or circumstances dictate otherwise.
"The signing of Tino Martinez or somebody else would have happened
regardless of the current controversy surrounding Jason."
Martinez is expected to provide solid defense and a steady influence
in the clubhouse, as he did when he was a fan favorite with the
Yankees earlier in his career.
He also brings insight into another new Yankee, pitcher Randy
Johnson. Martinez and Johnson were teammates with the Seattle
Mariners from 1990 to 1995 and helped beat the Yankees in a memorable
1995 American League division series.
"He'll bring a lot of what Roger Clemens brought," Martinez said of
Johnson's impact on the Yankees. "He's an intimidating factor, a
dominating pitcher, but yet, in between starts, he's a workaholic.
"For a guy to be 40, 41 years old, to have the passion he has - the
desire to be great and better than everybody else - is very similar
to Roger Clemens. I think a lot of the other pitchers on the team are
going to learn a lot from him as much as they did from Roger Clemens.
"I think he's that kind of pitcher and that kind of influence in the
clubhouse."
--
If you're not have fun in baseball,
you miss the point of everything.
--
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