Formerly a third baseman and first baseman, Martinez was the first round draft pick for the Seattle Mariners in 1988 out of the University of Tampa where he starred during his time on campus. He began his Major League career in 1990 and played for the Mariners, New York Yankees, St. Louis Cardinals, and Tampa Bay Devil Rays, before rejoining the Yankees in the 2005 season. During his 16-year MLB career, he scored 1,008 runs, drove in 1,271 runs, and hit 339 home runs. He had 100 or more RBI in six different seasons and was twice named to the All-Star team.\n', '

Tino Martinez was born in Tampa, Florida to a Cuban-American father with Spanish roots, and a mother with Spanish ancestry. He was raised in the neighborhood of West Tampa in Tampa, Florida. His grandfather owned a small cigar factory in which Tino, his brothers, and childhood friend and fellow future major-leaguer Luis Gonzalez worked as young boys. Martinez attended St. Joseph School in West Tampa until 8th grade, then attended Tampa Catholic High School for 9th and 10th grade before transferring to Jefferson High School for his final two years of high school. Martinez led both schools to state baseball championships. After graduation, he enrolled at the NCAA Division II University of Tampa.\n', '

Martinez played three years of college baseball at Tampa and was an All-American each year. As of 2011, Martinez still held school records in career home runs (54), career batting average (.399), career slugging percentage (.736), single season batting average (.452) and single season slugging percentage (.957). In 1988, he was a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award which has never been given to any NCAA Division II player. One year after graduating, he was inducted into the University of Tampa\'s athletics hall of fame. Since 2010, the Tino Martinez Award has been given to the most outstanding NCAA Division II baseball player. In 2013, Martinez was inducted into the National College Baseball Hall of Fame.\n', '

Return to Tino Martinez Autograph Profile