Lake Howell grad reaches World Series
Nationals manager Dave Martinez seeks championship against Houston Astros in Fall Classic.
During a career that saw him play for nine Major League Baseball franchises in 16 seasons, Dave Martinez enjoyed some big moments.
The Lake Howell High School graduate made his major-league debut for the Chicago Cubs at iconic Wrigley Field on June 15, 1986. He collected his 1,000th career hit with the crosstown White Sox nine years later. He delivered the first hit in Tampa Bay Rays history, a third-inning single, on March 31, 1998.
Martinez’s biggest night in baseball will arrive Tuesday night.
The second-year manager will lead the Washington Nationals in their first World Series game in franchise history when they face the Astros at Minute Maid Park in Houston.
The first pitch is set for 8:08 p.m. Fox (WOFL-Channel 35) will broadcast every game in the best-of-seven series.
“We’re on top of the world,” said Martinez’s brother, Eric. “My parents always dreamed of this moment for him. This is a culmination of everything Dave has worked for and all the sacrifices he’s made, as well as my parents.”
Dave Martinez, 55, is not the only Central Florida connection in this World Series. Astros right-hander Zack Greinke played at Apopka High School and is scheduled to start when the series shifts to Washington for Game 3 on Friday night.
That game will be the first World Series contest in the nation’s capital since 1933 when the New York Giants ousted the Washington Senators in five games. Hall of Famer Joe Cronin was the Senators’ manager.
Martinez’s 75-year-old parents, Ernesto and Lilly, were not born yet.
The Nationals advanced by defeating the Milwaukee Brewers in the National League wild-card game, then ousting the 106-victory Los Angeles Dodgers in the NL Division Series and sweeping the St. Louis
Cardinals in the NLCS.
“Two of Dave’s kids and I were at Game 4 when they won the NL,” said Ernie Martinez, who is 50 years old and Eric’s twin. “It was an amazing feeling. He thanked us for being there and supporting him. He never doubted that this team would do it.”
Martinez’s parents moved the family from Long Island, New York, to Central
Florida because it was a better environment to raise their four children and the weather was more conducive to year-round sports, Eric said. They settled in Casselberry.
Nicknamed Lefty, Ernesto Martinez played semi-pro baseball and saw athletic potential in his children. Besides Dave, his siblings are involved heavily in youth sports. His brothers coach travel baseball in Ocala, where his parents and siblings now reside, and Eric is the baseball coach at West Port High School.
Martinez’s 45-year-old sister, Millie LaBorde, helps run a club volleyball program.
“I just feel it’s more stressful for us watching [these games] than it is for Dave,” Eric said.
Now Martinez has done something that Dusty Baker, Davey Johnson and Frank Robinson (combined managerial victories: 4,300) could not. Martinez (managerial record: 175-149) has led the Nationals from a 19-31 start to four victories from the city’s second World Series championship. The first came in 1924.
Ernie Martinez and his parents plan to attend Games 3 and 4 in Washington. Some family members might go to a decisive Game 7 on Wednesday, Oct. 30, in Houston if the series extends that far.
One sibling, though, won’t attend.
“I have a weird superstition,” LaBorde said. “I don’t watch. I watch the score on my phone. It’s just one of those things. Sometimes it’s just best for me to walk away. It’s so intense, but I couldn’t be more proud of my brother.’’
So is Eric.
“He was calm and confident when we spoke,” Eric said. “He’s got his eye on the prize and has nothing but praise for his team.”