Edgar Martinez
#11

Designated Hitter

Seattle Mariners

This site is dedicated to supporting the candidacy of Edgar Martinez for the Baseball Hall of Fame. When I began this campaign in August of 1999, most folks thought that I must be kidding or nuts. Edgar and Hall of Fame - ha! Edgar has now retired. Before he retired, Edgar convinced many of the skeptics. MLB has recognized Edgar as the greatest Designated Hitter of all time by renaming the Designated Hitter Award as the Edgar Martinez Award.

For some folks that isn't enough. They say that the Designated Hitter position shouldn't even exist in baseball. For those folks, and a few others, I want to make everyone aware of Edgar's qualifications for the Hall of Fame that go far beyond the best Designated Hitter of all time. Edgar was one of the finest hitters of all time period. The Graphic above by Bert Chiu shows Edgar with Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, Stan Musial, Rogers Hornsby, and Lou Gehrig. Edgar and those 5 Hall of Famers are the only players in history to have a batting average of .300 or more, on-base percentage of .400 or more, a slugging percentage of .500 or more, 2000 hits, 300 home runs, 500 doubles, and 1000 walks.

According to stats at Popaward.com and Baseball-reference.com, of retired batters who have come to the plate over 5000 times, only 15, including Edgar, have put together a lifetime BA of over .300, a lifetime OBP of over .400, and a lifetime SLG of over .500. Of the 15 retired players who have reached that level, 13 are in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Only Shoeless Joe Jackson and Edgar Martinez are not, and Shoeless Joe has Kevin Costner lobbying for him. I took up the role of lobbying for Edgar, because so many people, even Edgar fans, were saying that Edgar is a good player and a great guy, but not quite Hall of Fame material. I think many now realize that Edgar is not only Hall of Fame material, but an exceptional individual who will honor the Hall of Fame by his presence. In an era of sour, me-first players, building personal stats to get a big contract, Edgar Martinez stood out by his willingness to help the team - move the runner to 3rd base by hitting to the right side of the infield, working the count so the runner could get an extra base, helping young players, and many other things that don't show up in the box score or lifetime stats.

Major League Baseball recognized the quality of the man by awarding Edgar the Roberto Clemente Humanitarian Award On October 25, 2004, during the 3rd game of the World Series at Busch Stadium in St Louis. Edgar is the 34th recipient of the award and the 3rd Mariner. Edgar is the 1st player from Puerto Rico to be honored with the Clemente Award. Roberto Clemente is regarded as the greatest baseball player from Puerto Rico. Clemente was killed in a plane crash in December 1972, while ferrying relief supplies to earthquake victims in Nicaragua.

Edgar is the greatest Designated Hitter in baseball history - Major League Baseball has recognized that. Edgar's career DH batting average is several points higher than Paul Molitor. Edgar is #1 all-time in DH home runs. Edgar #1 all-time in DH rbi, and he has done it in 300 fewer games and 700 fewer at-bats. Edgar finished 2nd all-tme in DH hits, less than 50 behind, accomplished in 700 fewer at-bats.

I began this campaign as a small effort by one individual. But as you read this page and its links you will find significant contributions by at least 6 other people who have dedicated a lot of time and effort to gather stats and quotes. If you also appreciate Edgar Martinez and would like to see him inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame soon, let us know. You can contact us at edgar@abarim.com

Because of the problems with computer viruses and spam please put Edgar in the heading of the email.

And visit http://edgarmartinez.com/ which is Edgar's personal web site.

 

Abarim privacy policy: Any links or photographs which are on the site are with the permission of the owner of the linked site or the photograph. Any remarks are posted only after obtaining the permission of the person quoted. Names of respondents are not given or sold to anyone or any organization. You may email or otherwise contact us with the assurance that nothing will be posted or published without your permission. We would like to be able to compose a list of Edgar supporters, but inclusion on that list will only be done with the permission of each person.

 

 

According to information at Baseball-reference.com, Edgar has led the American League 2 times in batting average, one RBI title, once in runs scored, 3 times in on-base-percentage, once in OPS (on-base +slugging), 2 times in doubles, once in grand slams, and has appeared in 7 All Star games. Edgar has won 5 Silver Slugger awards and has been named the American League Player of the Month 5 times. Edgar has been selected as the Outstanding Designated Hitter 5 times. No other player has won the DH award more than 3 times. Edgar is the only DH ever to win a batting title and holds the record for the best season batting average ever recorded by a DH, which, in a way, already puts Edgar in the Baseball Hall of Fame.

Edgar was inducted into the Hispanic Heritage Baseball Hall of Fame on September 9, 2003; I wasn't there because my wife was in the hospital, seriously ill, that night. But I was at Safeco Field on June 2, 2007, when the Seattle Mariners acknowledged Edgar's contributions to the team by inducting Edgar Martinez into the Seattle Mariner Hall of Fame. I thought the Mariners should also have retired #11, but maybe that will happen in a few years.

Edgar was the key player in the Mariners 1995 victory over the Yankees in the American League Divisional Series. Edgar hit 2 home runs and drove in 7 runs, including the winning run, in pivotal game 4, and drove in the winning runs in game 5 to win the series. Edgar was 12 for 21, a .571 batting average, during that series, and had 6 walks for an on-base percentage of .667 (18 times on base in 27 plate appearances). Only Barry Bonds, in the 2002 World Series, when Mike Scoscia had his pitchers walk Bonds 13 times, has a higher on-base percentage in any postseason series. Edgar's contributions defeated the Yankees and saved Major League Baseball in Seattle. SAFECO Field is the fruit of that effort; it is truly "The House That Edgar Built." The Mariners have appeared in the postseason 4 times in 8 years, 3 times reaching the American League Championship Series. Edgar Martinez is the only player who has appeared in every postseason game in Mariner history. Edgar leads all Mariners with 24 postseason RBIs.

The following chart is a comparison of Edgar Martinez and other active players to players already in the Baseball Hall of Fame. 18 Players completed their careers with 6 or more POP (Premium Offensive Player) seasons. A POP season is one in which the player has a BA over .300, OBP over .400, SLG over .500. All 18 are in the Baseball Hall of Fame. Edgar Martinez now has 7 POP seasons in a row and a total of 8 POP seasons in his career. Only 3 players have more than 7 POP seasons in a row - Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, and Stan Musial. The following chart shows all players, active and retired, who have achieved 6 or more POP seasons. Notice that every retired player who has 6 or more POP seasons has been inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. All data in the following chart is courtesy of www.popaward.com and may be verified at that site. The chart has gotten out of date, and I will see about updating it soon. (as of May 31, 2011) But, the comparisons are still valid.

15 retired players (including Edgar Martinez) finished their careers with a BA over .300, OBP over .400, SLG over .500 (minimum 5000 plate appearances). Of those 15, 13 are in the Baseball Hall of Fame, and only Shoeless Joe Jackson and Edgar Martinez are not in the Baseball Hall of Fame. 5000 plate appearances is not an arbitrary number. It takes about 5000 plate appearances (10 seasons in the Major Leagues) to qualify for the Baseball Hall of Fame Most of the data in this chart comes from Baseball-reference.com

Edgar's numbers in the above table were updated at 4:00 PM, March 21, 2005.

I had intended to add another chart comparing Edgar to the other 5 players (all in the Hall of Fame) who have 500 doubles, 300 home runs, 1200 walks, .300 career BA, .400 career OBP, and .500 career SLG. But that will slow the loading of the page for modem users. The 5 are Babe Ruth, Ted Williams, Lou Gehrig, Rogers Hornsby, and Stan Musial. All 5 are in the chart above, and in Bert Chiu's graphic at the top of the page.

Arne Christensen has gathered up a stack of Edgar lore and anecdotes/trivia, and compiled into a post on his career at http://miscbaseball.wordpress.com/2009/12/01/edgar-martinez-lore/

Bruce Maigatter sent me an email of reasons why Edgar should be in the Hall of Fame. In addition to stats he includes a lot of quotes by Edgar's peers. Read this at http://www.abarim.com/bmaigatter.htm

John Pinza Todd has done some exhaustive research, showing that Edgar is one of the most successful doubles hitters of all time. John's site is located at: http://www.geocities.com/pinzatodd/doubles_eff.h

The graphic at the top of the page was designed by Bert Chiu, also know as RoundTripper in the Mariners Forum.

Robert Thomas provided 2 charts comparing comparing Edgar Martinez to some of the all-time greats.

John Furgele gives his reasons why Edgar Martinez belongs in the Baseball Hall of Fame at

http://johnny228.wordpress.com/2008/02/20/is-edgar-martinez-a-hall-of-famer/

I have begun to get notes from Edgar's fans up at www.abarim.com/edgar's_friends.htm

I hope to begin an endorsement page with the names of those who support Edgar for the Baseball Hall of Fame. On that page I want to list the names and cities of Edgar supporters. I will again contact those who have written over the last 5 or 6 years for permission to use your name. Please contact me if you don't hear from me or if you have never contacted this site.

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