Career
Martinez, who threw left-handed, pitched fourteen seasons in Major League Baseball between 1974 and 1988, primarily as a relief pitcher. Martinez was drafted by the Washington Senators in the 35th round of the 1969 amateur draft, but did not sign with the team He began his MLB career with the New York Yankees in 1974 after signing as a free agent.
On June 15, 1976, he was involved in a major trade, moving to Baltimore along with Rick Dempsey, Rudy May, Scott McGregor and Dave Pagan in exchange for Doyle Alexander, Jimmy Freeman, Elrod Hendricks, Ken Holtzman and Grant Jackson.
Three of these players—Martinez, the catcher Dempsey, and the starting pitcher McGregor—were to have leading roles in the Orioles" World Championship of "83. Martinez may be best known for picking off three Toronto Blue Jays at first base in one inning during an August 24, 1983 game at Baltimore"s Memorial Stadium.
The Orioles, having replaced both their starting catcher and his backup while rallying to tie the game in the ninth inning, entered the tenth with reserve infielder Lenn Sakata in the game at catcher. Three consecutive Blue Jays hitters reached first base and each one, thinking it would be easy to steal a base on Sakata, took a big lead.
A grass roots fan club was created for Tippy Martinez near the bull pen in left field of Memorial Stadium in 1980, called "Tippy"s Tweeters" Fans blew on an Official Oriole Tweeter every time Tippy came into the game as the reliever and when he struck out the side.
Martinez finished his MLB career with the Minnesota Twins in 1988. In December 2006, Martinez became the pitching coach of the York Revolution of the Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.
