The Delorean takes us back to 2004 & Tino Martinez

Tino Martinez was never what most baseball fans would consider a household name, but thru the mid to late 90’s and early into the new millennium, Martinez was someone that opposing pitchers knew to look for.

Playing for the Seattle Mariners and New York Yankees, Martinez finished as high as 2nd in the AL MVP voting, averaged 33 home runs a year, and was a consistent threat drive in 100 runs each season. He made 2 All-Star games, helped the Yankees win the world series.

Martinez spent two years in the NL, playing for the St. Louis Cardinals, before making a trip back to the AL…with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

At that time, the Devil Rays were known for spending money on veteran stars who were a bit passed there prime, in hopes to drive fans into the seats, runs across the plate, and “w’s” into the win column.

All things considered, Martinez did not have a horrible season in the one year he spent with the Rays.

Batting .262 with 23 home runs and 76 RBI’s, Martinez stood as a man amongst men, in a land filled with players like Midre Cummings, John Halama & Randall Simon.

While Martinez did transform the team into a playoff contender, his one year with the team adds to the tradition of having solid, if not Hall of Fame talent at the first base position.

Prior to Martinez taking hacks as a first baseman for the team, Fred McGriff manned first base, followed by Steve Cox and Travis Lee, neither of whom played to there potential with the team. After Martinez spent a year in that spot, Lee spent two more disappointing seasons at first, and then we began to see the emergence of Carlos Pena a year or two later.

McGriff is thought by some to have had a Hall of Fame career, and Pena is well on his way to being the Rays All Time home run leader, and has come at this point in his career, after almost finding himself out of baseball completely three years ago.

Martinez only spent one year in Tampa, but his winning tradition followed him. Kind of. Until last years epic World Series run, 2004 was the best season in Tampa Bay franchise history. The team went 70-91, which was a great increase over the 2002 franchise worst 55-106.