December 7, 1995, 30 years ago: The New York Yankees send pitcher Sterling Hitchcock and 3rd baseman Russ Davis to the Seattle Mariners for 1st baseman Constantino "Tino" Martinez and pitchers Jeff Nelson and Jim Mecir.
Davis and Mecir were incidental. Hitchcock pitched well for the Mariners, and then pitched against the Yankees for the San Diego Padres in the 1998 World Series. Nelson turned out to be a key reliever for the Yankees over the next few years.
The key was Martinez. He had already become a star for the Mariners, and was a big reason why they beat the Yankees in the 1995 American League Division Series. And, with Don Mattingly retiring, the Yankees needed a new 1st baseman.
December 7, 1995 was Martinez's 28th birthday -- and his daughter, Victoria, was born the same day. He had started his career wearing Number 14, in honor of Lou Piniella, a former Yankee star and a friend of the family in their shared hometown of Tampa, Florida. But when Piniella became the Mariners' manager, Martinez knew he had to give the number up. He switched to 23. When he became a Yankee, that was the number worn by the outgoing Mattingly. He knew he didn't want the backlash that would have come from wearing 23. He saw that 24 was available, and that the next-lowest number was much higher, so he took 24.
Broadcaster John Sterling called the lefty slugger "The Bamtino." He did far more for the Yankees than Donnie Baseball. Blasphemy, you say? No, it's not, and I'll give you 4 reasons why: 1996, 1998, 1999 and 2000. In 1997 -- oddly, not one of the Yanks' Pennant years -- he had 141 RBIs, and his 44 homers were the most by a Yankee between Roger Maris (and Mickey Mantle) in 1961 and Alex Rodriguez in 2005.
The Tampa native hit 339 home runs in his career, 192 as a Yankee. And he hit 2 of the most dramatic homers in Yankee history, the grand slam that won Game 1 of the 1998 World Series, and the homer that sent Game 4 of the 2001 Series to extra innings.
Tino was the 1st player of the Joe Torre Dynasty to get a Monument Park Plaque, although his Number 24 remains in circulation. As much as anyone else, he was one of the player who got the Yankees over the hump in 1996, and kept them there into the dawn of the 21st Century.
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