Henry "Marty" Martinez
| Date and Place of Birth: | November 7, 1916 Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands |
| Date and Place of Death: | January 5, 1945 Pacific Ocean |
| Baseball Experience: | Minor League |
| Position: | Infield |
| Rank: | Aviation Machinist's Mate Second Class (AMM2c) |
| Military Unit: | US Navy |
| Area Served: | Pacific Theater of Operations |
A strong, speedy young fellow with an effervescent nature and
a tremendous yen for the game.
Oakland Tribune March 12, 1938
The Oakland Tribune once described Henry "Marty" Martinez as “a
strong, speedy young fellow with an effervescent nature and a tremendous
yen for the game.” That pretty much summed him up although his yen and
talent for sport stretched far beyond baseball.
Henry Martinez was born in Honolulu in the Hawaiian Islands, and his
family moved to Mountain View, near San Jose, California, when he was 10
years old. Martinez was an athletic sensation in high school. A star on
the baseball team, he was named All-Santa Clara Valley half back in
football two successive years, he captained the basketball team for
three years, and headed the track team for two years. In track, Martinez
specialized in sprints and the broad jump, establishing a valley record
of 21 feet 8 inches in the latter event.
In the spring of 1934, Martinez entered the University of Southern
California to play football, but two weeks later he quit because the
football coach told him he would not be allowed to play baseball in the
spring. Martinez returned to his Mountain View home and took a job in a San
Jose department store. He played semi-pro baseball during 1934 and 1935
with the San Jose Bees and the San Mateo Blues in the State League and
also played with the Mountain View Athletics. His aggressive, all-out
nature on the playing field attracted much attention and during the
winter of 1935, the young infielder signed a professional contract with
the Oakland Oaks of the Class AA Pacific Coast League. He attended their
spring training camp in Modesto and was assigned to the Vancouver Senior
A League where he played for the Athletics and batted .309, leading the
league in stolen bases and triples.3 Martinez was back at spring
training with the Oaks in 1937. This time he was assigned to the Des
Moines Demons of the Class A Western League, where he hit 12 home runs
and led the circuit with 119 games played, while finishing third in the
league with 28 stolen bases despite batting only .216.
In the spring of 1938, Martinez gained a spot on the Oaks’ roster as a
utility infielder, but after eight games he was farmed out to the
Spokane Hawks of the Class B Western International League. In 118 games
with the Hawks, Martinez batted .262 and stole 29 bases, receiving
honorable mention on the all-star team. He joined the Seattle Rainiers
of the Pacific Coast League in 1939, appearing in 35 games and batting
.282, before returning to Spokane for the remainder of the season and
batting .270 in 78 games.
Martinez was All-Western International League after batting .315 for
Spokane in 1940, scoring 130 runs, stealing a league-record 46 bases and
collecting 15 triples in helping the team finish in first place. In
1941, he was All-Western International League again, hitting .339
(second best in the league), scoring 131 runs with 14 triples and 33
steals as the club again finished first. One of the most popular players
ever to don a Spokane uniform, he was sold to the Portland Beavers of
the Pacific Coast League by club owner Bill Ulrich for 1942 When the
Beavers' regular third baseman, Marv Owen, was forced out of the opening
game with a hand injury, Martinez filled in and saw regular action as a
utility infielder. He played 85 games for the last-place club and batted
.243 with 26 RBIs.
Leaving behind his wife, Dorothy, at their home in Redwood City,
California,
Martinez entered military service with the Navy at the end of the 1942 season and
was stationed at Naval Air Station Pasco in Washington, where he also
had the opportunity to play baseball. In 1944, Martinez served in the Pacific as an
Aviation Machinist’s Mate Second Class aboard the USS Ommaney Bay escort
carrier. The escort carrier took part in the Mariana and Palau Islands
campaign followed by several battles during the Philippines campaign in
1944 and early 1945. She was heavily damaged in a kamikaze attack on
January 4, 1945, and AMM2c Martinez was seruously wounded. Taken aboard
the escort carrier USS Manila Bay, Henry Martinez died the following day
- January 5, 1945.
“Such news comes as a sad blow,” said Owen,
the Beavers' third baseman he had replaced in 1942. “Marty was a fine
ball player, a real fellow and a splendid team man.”
Martinez was buried at sea and he is remembered at the Manila
American Cemetery at Fort Bonifacio, in the Philippines.
|
Team |
League |
Class |
G |
AB |
R |
H |
2B |
3B |
HR |
RBI |
AVG |
|
| 1937 | Des Moines | Western | A | 119 | 501 | 82 | 108 | 14 | 4 | 12 | 56 | .216 |
| 1938 | Oakland | PCL | AA | 8 | 23 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .087 |
| 1938 | Spokane | Western Intern'l | B | 118 | 493 | 75 | 129 | 26 | 10 | 0 | 46 | .262 |
| 1939 | Seattle | PCL | AA | 35 | 78 | 9 | 22 | 4 | 0 | 2 | 8 | .282 |
| 1939 | Spokane | Western Intern'l | B | 78 | 296 | 48 | 80 | 14 | 2 | 5 | 32 | .270 |
| 1940 | Spokane | Western Intern'l | B | 142 | 539 | 130 | 170 | 24 | 15 | 10 | 93 | .315 |
| 1941 | Spokane | Western Intern'l | B | 132 | 490 | 131 | 166 | 32 | 14 | 4 | 88 | .339 |
| 1942 | Portland | PCL | AA | 85 | 284 | 37 | 69 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 26 | .243 |
Henry Martinez (catching) with Hugh Luby (batting) and Floyd Newkirk at the Oaks spring training camp in Brawley, California, 1938
Thanks to Astrid van Erp for help with photos for this biography
Date Added February 1, 2012 Updated May 26, 2020
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