MONTREAL — Even though the municipality of Chelsea, Que., recently opened a baseball diamond in his name—thanks in large part to a $150,000 investment from the Jays Care Foundation—Blue Jays catcher Russell Martin doesn’t want anyone getting confused about how much time he actually spent in the small town of 7,000.
It was only about two years. He mostly remembers the days and nights he spent with his mother, step-father, and sister. And if you were going to come across a young Martin at the time, it likely wasn’t going to be at the ballpark.
“I really didn’t play much baseball there and I don’t want to pretend like I did,” Martin said Friday before the Blue Jays’ fourth annual two-game exhibition series at Montreal’s Olympic Stadium. “I feel like it’s a little bit ironic that they have a baseball field over there. I wish that I would have a baseball field in Montreal, too, at some point. Because Montreal is where I played pretty much all of my baseball as a kid growing up.”
Still, it’s always nice when they name things after you. And it’s always nice to see Martin back on home turf, playing ball before the 50,000+ raucous Quebecers who will surely rain praise upon him every time he makes a plate appearance this weekend.
Martin’s face is plastered all over the promotional material for these two games against the Pittsburgh Pirates. And while Expos colours will dominate, there will be no shortage of #55 jerseys filling Olympic Stadium’s blue and yellow seats. If you ask the 34-year-old catcher what it all means to him, he’ll tell you it feels like something pure.
“It’s exciting, the fact that the people seem like they’re amped for the games. They come ready to cheer. People are passionate about their sports in Montreal and in Canada,” Martin said. “When the people are excited and you give your best effort out there, I feel like they recognize that and appreciate that. It’s kind of like a nice cycle. You give your best effort, people appreciate it, they give you their energy. And that’s the beauty of sports, I think.”
The beauty is also in the evolution. Martin’s entering his 12th season as a major league ballplayer, and he’s doing things differently than he has in any of the ones he’s played prior. He’s noticeably leaner this spring after a diligent winter of training and preparation, utilizing the many performance resources the Blue Jays provide to put himself in the best position possible to withstand a six-month season.
A big part of that, ironically, is doing less. Martin says he’ll focus this season on better recovering from the stress he puts his body under and not wearing himself down with unnecessary busywork.
“I think I’ve acquired a better understanding of how to take care of my body through the years. Now, I believe that I’m just more apt to maybe think about getting more rest after the game,” Martin said. “Maybe it’s because I’m getting a bit older and I don’t have as much energy later at night. But I think nutrition comes into play. Recovery, sleep—all that kind of stuff.
“If you do too much, it’s really hard to recover when you’re playing every single day. I think I just have a better global understanding of what my body needs. I think that’s going to help.”
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Martin struggled late in 2016 with a significant injury in his right knee, which necessitated off-season arthroscopic surgery in November to clean up some torn cartilage. He tried to do all the things he would normally do if he wasn’t carrying the damage. But the injury significantly hampered him at the plate, which explains the .161/.315/.310 batting line Martin put up from the beginning of September through the end of the season.
Still an incredibly valuable player both as a game-caller and defensive catcher, Martin started every playoff game his team played. But he managed just three hits and three walks over 36 post-season plate appearances as the knee ailment—and a finger injury he picked up early in the playoffs—completely eradicated his abilities at the plate.
Now healthy and taking an increasingly holistic approach to his work before and after games, Martin’s hopeful his ever-evolving methods will help him avoid a similar late season sag. And maybe even inspire some of his teammates to work similarly.
“I feel like we have a great team. I think we just need to stay healthy,” Martin said. “This year, I think I just have a better global understanding of what my body needs. I think that’s going to help. And most players on the team, I think, share that same concept of how we need to take care of ourselves.”
That all starts this weekend in Montreal, where the Blue Jays will get their first taste of a major league atmosphere since last October. The month the team spends playing before the Grapefruit League’s small, sleepy audiences is important. Plenty of preparation occurs. But sometimes it takes a loud, boisterous mass of people, which Olympic Stadium will surely provide, to help wake ballplayers up on the eve of the regular season.
“It’s good because you get to feed off the energy of the crowd,” Martin said. “You get the nerves going a little bit more. How you make decisions in front of a crowd can definitely be different. Just how you react when the pressure’s on. It really has everything to do with the energy from the crowd. If there was nobody in the stands, it would be a completely different ballgame.”
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