Morrie Martin
Ballplayers Wounded in Combat
| Date and Place of Birth: | September 3, 1922 Dixon, MO |
| Date and Place of Death: | May 25, 2010 Washington, MO |
| Baseball Experience: | Major League |
| Position: | Pitcher |
| Rank: | Private |
| Military Unit: | 49th Engineer Combat Battalion US Army |
| Area Served: | European Theater of Operations |
Morris W. "Morrie" Martin was born on September 3, 1922, in Dixon,
Missouri, where he gre up on a farm. After watching the 17-year-old
left-hander pitch back-to-back shutouts for an amateur team during the
summer of 1940, scout, Wally Schang, asked Martin if he'd like to play
professional baseball. In February 1941, the youngster received a
telegram inviting him to spring training in Leesburg, Florida. The
Chicago White Sox were impressed with what they saw and he joined the
Grand Forks Chiefs of the Class C Northern League for the season, where
he was 16-7 with a league-leading 2.05 ERA, easily making the All-Star
team. The following year he was promoted to the St. Paul Saints of the
Class AA American Association, where he was 1-4 in 25 appearances.
On December 28, 1942, Martin's baseball career was put on hold as he
entered military service with the Army at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri.
He trained at Camp Polk, Louisiana, and was assigned to the 49th
Engineer Combat Battalion. In 1943, the 49th were sent to Oran, Algeria,
in North Africa, as part of Operation Torch. Although not involved in
combat in North Africa, it was still a dangerous place for American
servicemen as locals were known to sneak into military barracks and kill
servicemen for their possessions. "It was scary over there," recalled
Martin.
In the spring of 1944, following an amphibious landing at Sicily,
Martin's unit headed to England in preparation for D-Day. The engineers
were among the first troops to go ashore at Omaha Beach, Normandy,
clearing gaps in beach barricades to make way for the coming assault.
Martin was involved in the taking of a key bridge at Sainte-Mère-Église,
France, liberating the port city of Cherbourg, and the battle at St-Lo.
It was at at-Lo, on July 23, 1944, that Private Martin was hit by shrapnel, suffering wounds in
his arm, hand and neck. "It wasn't too bad," said Martin, who received a
Purple Heart. "They just patched me up and I went right back at it."
"When the battles would start, you remember how they got started," he
said. "You remember the noise and the guns, and the artillery going off.
But then I guess you just block it out of your mind. After everything
started, it just goes blank. I don't remember a lot of things. I know it
was hell, I remember that."
The Engineers then advance through Belgium, where the weather
deteriorated drastically. Martin suffered frostbite to his feet. "I
couldn't hardly walk," he said, "they were in such bad shape."
Moving into Germany, he was buried alive when the house he was in was
shelled. Left for dead, he and two other soldiers clawed their way out
and rejoined their battalion.
Martin and the 49th ECB later helped capture the Ludendorff Bridge at
Remagen, the last bridge standing on the Rhine. At was there that he
suffered a bullet wound to the thigh. He was sent back to a hospital in
Saint-Quentin, France, where doctors planned to amputate his leg. He
remembers waking up as a nurse informed him they were planning to
amputate his infected leg.
A nurse had learned that Martin was a ballplayer told him he could
refuse the operation and, instead, take a chance on being treated with a
still-experimental infection-fighting drug — penicillin. It took more
than 150 shots of penicillin. "I owe that nurse my leg," he said.
Once he was able to walk again, Martin was sent to a hospital in Paris
for two months of convalescence. He was then granted a furlough and
shipped home on August 2, 1945 — his father's birthday. His father often
told him, "That was the best birthday present I ever got in my life."
Reflecting on his military service years later, Martin said, "We had a
job to do and we did it. I don't have regrets about the time I missed in
baseball. I'm proud of what we did. I'd do it again."
Martin was discharged from the Army in December 1945, and was determined
to return to professional baseball. He contract was acquired by the
Brooklyn Dodgers and in 1946, he was 14-6 for the Asheville Tourists of
the Class B Tri-State League, with a 2.71 ERA in 173 innings. He began
1947 at Danville of the Class B Three-I League and after seven good
starts returned to St. Paul after a five-year absence. Used as a
reliever the rest of that year, he became a starter again in 1948, and
responded with a 13-11 record. He pitched in the Junior World Series
against another Brooklyn farm club, the Montreal Royals, and then spent
the winter in Cuba, pitching the Almanderas team to a title.
Martin made it to the major leagues as a 26-year-old rookie in 1949. He
pitched 10 games for the Dodgers and had a 1-3 record. He was back in
the majors in 1951, this time with the Athletics. It was to be his best
season with an 11-4 record and 3.78 ERA, beating every American League
team at least once. In total, Martin pitched 10 seasons in the majors
with the Dodgers, Athletics, White Sox, Orioles, Cardinals, Indians and
Cubs. Primarily a relief pitcher, he pitched a career-high 58 games in
1953, with the Athletics, posting a 10-12 record and 4.43 ERA
Martin returned to the minors after his major league career ended in
1959. He was with Houston in 1960, and had a brief coaching career
before retiring.
Morrie Martin worked as a salesman in the meatpacking industry as well
as coaching and organizing youth baseball. He sucummbed to lung cancer
on May 25, 2010, in Washington, Missouri. He was 77 years old and is
buried at St. Francis Borgia Cemetery in Washington.
Date Added December 15, 2017. Updated May 26, 2020
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