J.C. Martin
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
J.C. Martin (born Joseph Clifton Martin on December 13, 1936 in Axton, Virginia) is a former Major League Baseball player.
The left-handed hitting, right-handed throwing Martin played for the Chicago White Sox from 1959-1967, New York Mets in 1968 and 1969 and Chicago Cubs from 1970-1972.
Martin was scouted by the White Sox as an amateur free agent in 1956. After five seasons in the ChiSox farm system, which included callups to the majors late in 1959 and 1960, Martin became a regular in 1961. Splitting time between first base and third base, Martin batted .230 with five home runs and 32 runs batted in.
Martin converted into a catcher in 1962, after Al Lopez convinced him to go down to the minor leagues and learn to catch. Regular catcher Sherm Lollar was at the tail end of his career at the age of 37; moreover, the White Sox had traded Earl Battey and Johnny Romano and had no catchers in their farm system. As the team’s regular catcher, Martin batted only .205 in 1963 and .197 in 1964; however, he exhibited his value to the team in catching a pitching rotation that contained the likes of Gary Peters, Juan Pizarro, Joe Horlen and Ray Herbert, as well as closer Hoyt Wilhelm.
In 1965 Martin batted a career-best .261; however, he also set a major league record with 33 passed balls (after committing 24 the year before)—due, in large part, to catching knuckleball pitchers Wilhelm and Eddie Fisher. This record stood until Geno Petralli committed 35 passed balls in 1987.
In 1967 Martin batted .234 on a team that was involved in a four-way pennant race with the Minnesota Twins, Detroit Tigers and Boston Red Sox for the American League pennant, which the latter of these teams won on the final day of the season. The White Sox had been eliminated from pennant contention after losing a doubleheader to the lowly Kansas City Athletics on September 27. After the season, Martin was traded to the New York Mets to complete a deal that had been made earlier in the season. On July 22 of that year the Mets had traded Ken Boyer and a player to be named later to the White Sox for two players, one of whom (Martin) was also a player to be named later. Sandy Alomar, Sr. was traded to the White Sox on August 15 to complete one side of the trade, and the trade of Martin to the Mets on November 27 completed the other. In another deal that same offseason, the White Sox traded Tommie Agee and Al Weis to the Mets with four players (one of whom was Tommy Davis) going to the White Sox.
In 1969 Martin, as a backup catcher to Jerry Grote, played on a Mets team that surprisingly won the World Series in five games over the Baltimore Orioles. In Game Four of that Series, Martin was involved in a controversial play. With the game tied 1-1 in the bottom of the 10th inning and pinch-runner Rod Gaspar on second, Martin, pinch-hitting for Tom Seaver, bunted to the mound and, while running to first, was hit on the arm by Pete Richert’s errant throw, the error allowing Gaspar to score the winning run. Replays later showed that Martin was running inside the baseline, which could have resulted in him being called out for interference; however, the umpires said they didn’t make the call because they felt Martin didn’t intentionally interfere with the play.
In his career Martin batted .222 with 32 home runs and 230 RBIs in 908 games played.
