Johnny Leonard Roosevelt "Pepper" Martin was born on February 29, 1904 near Temple, Oklahoma. He was the son of George Washington Martin, a farmer. When he was six, the family moved to Oklahoma City, where the elder Martin was a house painter and carpenter. As a youth Martin played both baseball and football.
His formal education ended at Irving Junior High in Oklahoma City.
After his graduation he held a number of jobs as a laborer before joining a semiprofessional baseball team in Guthrie, Okla. His professional career began with Greenville, in the East Texas League, in 1924. His playing skills soon attracted the attention of scout Charley Barrett, who signed him to a contract with the St. Louis Cardinals' Fort Smith, Ark. , farm team. In 1928, after he had played for several of the Cardinals' minor-league teams, Martin moved up to the major-league club in St. Louis. He spent most of the season as a pinch runner, then returned to the minor leagues. He came back to stay in 1931. His potential was such that in June the Cardinals traded away their regular center fielder Taylor Douthit, who had played when they won the National League pennant in 1930, and installed Martin in that position. In 123 games in 1931, Martin hit . 300 and batted in 75 runs, but it was that season's World Series against the Philadelphia Athletics that brought his greatest fame. He sparked his team by stealing five bases and setting a new World Series record of twelve base hits in twenty-four times at bat. He was directly responsible for three of the four Cardinal victories that brought the team the championship. Martin electrified fans by his ability to run seemingly at will against Mickey Cochrane, one of baseball's finest catchers. "Red" Smith, then a sportswriter for the St. Louis Star, exaggerated only slightly when he wrote, between the fifth and sixth games of the series, that the rest of the Cardinal team had " become merely an indispensable background for the greatest one-man show the baseball world has ever known. " In the years that followed, Martin played sometimes in the outfield and sometimes at third base. In 1934 he was the third baseman when the Cardinals again won the pennant and the World Series, this time against the Detroit Tigers. Martin played for St. Louis through the 1940 season. He then returned to the minor leagues as a player-manager until the World War II manpower shortage brought him back to the Cardinals in 1944. Again the team won the pennant and World Series; during the season he hit . 279 in 40 games. In 1945, Martin resumed minor-league managing, and played sporadically through 1947. He made token playing appearances in 1949, 1951, and 1958. As manager of the Miami Sun Sox in 1949, he was suspended for putting his hands on an umpire's throat during an argument. In 1956, Martin returned to the major leagues for one year as a non-playing coach(assistant to the manager) of the Chicago Cubs. Although he continued his affiliation with baseball up to the time of his death at McAlester, Okla. , he also worked during his last years as a prison athletic director and cattle rancher. In 1, 189 major-league games (not counting World Series and All-Star games), Martin had 1, 227 hits in 4, 117 times at bat, for an average of . 298. He hit 59 home runs, scored 756 runs, and had 501 runs batted in. He stole 146 bases and three times led the National League in that category 26 in 1933, 23 in 1934, and 23 in 1936.
Martin was known as the Wild Horse of the Osage because of his daring, aggressive baserunning abilities. Martin played in Major League Baseball as a third baseman and an outfielder for the St. Louis Cardinals during the 1930s and early 1940s. He was best known for his heroics during the 1931 World Series, in which he was the catalyst in a Cardinals' upset victory over the Philadelphia Athletics. Martin's career totals mark him as a good ballplayer but no superstar, and not of Hall of Fame caliber. What set him apart from his contemporaries what made him an enduring legend in baseball was that marvelous ten-day period in October 1931 when he dominated the World Series as completely as any player ever has.
Martin was five feet, nine inches tall and weighed 170 pounds. He had a weather-beaten face with a hawk like nose and broad, boyish grin. His uniform (which he wore without underwear) was frequently dirty, because he played baseball with joyous abandon, running hard and sliding hard. His exuberant style earned him the nickname "Wild Horse of the Osage. " His rough-and-tumble style (sliding headfirst into bases and often fielding hard-hit balls after stopping them with his chest) typified the play of the "Gashouse Gang, " as that year's Cardinal team came to be known. Off the field Martin was given to zany antics: dropping water-filled paper bags out of windows, driving a midget car in races, playing guitar in the Cardinals' unmelodious "Mudcat Band, " and dropping sneezing powder in hotels. Once he and several teammates masqueraded as painters and disrupted a dignified luncheon in Philadelphia. With it all he acquired a reputation as a down-to-earth, generous, good-natured, and honest man.
Martin married Ruby A. Pope on November 9, 1927; they had three daughters.
12 April 1853 - 2 January 1928
1903 - 15 February 1947
2 March 1898 - 7 December 1969
12 January 1894 - January 1972
7 November 1909 - 21 January 2009
6 May 1929 - 30 November 2017
