Albert Lee Martin (born November 24, 1967) is a former

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

left fielder In baseball, a left fielder, abbreviated LF, is an outfielder who plays defense in left field. Left field is the area of the outfield to the left of a person standing at home plate and facing towards the pitcher's mound. In the numbering system ...

. He played 12 seasons in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

, mostly for the

Pittsburgh Pirates The Pittsburgh Pirates are an American professional baseball team based in Pittsburgh. The Pirates compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) Central division. Founded as part of the American Associati ...

. He also played one season in the

KBO League The KBO League (), officially the Shinhan Bank SOL KBO League, is the highest level league of baseball in South Korea. The KBO League was founded with six franchises in 1982 and is the most popular sports league in South Korea. The Kia Tigers ar ...

Early life

Martin graduated from John A. Rowland High School in Rowland Heights, California, in 1985.

Professional career

Martin played for four teams in the majors: the Pittsburgh Pirates (1992–99), the

San Diego Padres The San Diego Padres are an American professional baseball team based in San Diego. The Padres compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. Founded in 1969, the club has won two NL penna ...

(2000), the

Seattle Mariners The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) American League West, West division. The team joined the American League ...

(2000–01), and the

Tampa Bay Devil Rays The Tampa Bay Rays are an American professional baseball team based in St. Petersburg, Florida. The Rays compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) East division. Since its inception, the team's home venu ...

(2003). His best season was in 1996 when he hit .300 with 18

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the ball is hit in such a way that the batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safely in one play without any errors being committed by the defensive team. A home run i ...

s and 72

RBIs A run batted in (RBI; plural RBIs ) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if the bat ...

. That year he also stole 38 bases. He played for the KBO's

LG Twins LG Corporation (or LG Group) (), formerly Lucky-Goldstar from 1983 to 1995 (Korean: ''Leokki Geumseong''; ), is a South Korean multinational conglomerate founded by Koo In-hwoi and managed by successive generations of his family. It is ...

in 2004.

Controversies

Martin claimed to have played football at

University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in C ...

. In 2001, he compared a collision with Seattle teammate

Carlos Guillén Carlos Alfonso Guillén (born September 30, 1975) is a Venezuelan former professional baseball infielder. Guillén was signed by the Houston Astros as a non-draft amateur free agent in 1992. He was traded to the Seattle Mariners with pitcher F ...

to the time he tried to tackle

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

running back

Leroy Hoard Leroy J. Hoard (born May 15, 1968) is a former American football player. Hoard played professional football as a running back in the National Football League (NFL) for 10 seasons for the Cleveland Browns from 1990 to 1995 and the Minnesota Viking ...

in 1986, when he was playing strong safety at

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most po ...

. In actuality, USC and Michigan did not meet that year, and Martin was an outfielder in the

Atlanta Braves The Atlanta Braves are an American professional baseball team based in the Atlanta metropolitan area. The Braves compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League East, East division. The Braves ...

' system at the time. Furthermore, USC has no record that Martin ever attended the university. Martin also apparently falsely claimed to have been selected for the 1994 Major League Baseball All-Star Game but to have been unable to play due to injury, an inaccuracy which was published in the 2003 Tampa Bay Devil Rays media guide. In 2000, Martin was involved in a domestic abuse incident with a woman named Shawn Haggerty. She told police that she was married to Martin, who was already married to another woman. Martin ultimately pleaded guilty to a domestic violence charge. After signing with the

, he falsely told the ''

Seattle Times ''The Seattle Times'' is a daily newspaper serving Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 1891 and has been owned by the Blethen family since 1896. ''The Seattle Times'' has the largest circulation of any newspaper in Washington st ...

'' that he had been exonerated from the charges.

References

External links

Baseball-Almanac.com
– statistics page
Career statistics and player information
from

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martin, Al Major League Baseball left fielders Tampa Bay Devil Rays players Pittsburgh Pirates players Seattle Mariners players San Diego Padres players LG Twins players Gulf Coast Braves players Idaho Falls Braves players Sumter Braves players Burlington Braves players Durham Bulls players Greenville Braves players Richmond Braves players Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players Carolina Mudcats players KBO League outfielders American expatriate baseball players in South Korea Baseball players from California African-American baseball players Sportspeople from Los Angeles County, California 1967 births Living people 21st-century African-American people 20th-century African-American sportspeople

Early life

Professional career

Controversies

See also

References

External links