Editor's note: To kick off Edgar Week, we dove into the archives for this seminal story on his upbringing. Larry Stone traveled to Edgar's hometown of Dorado, Puerto Rico, for this piece, at first published April 1, 2001.
DORADO, Puerto Rico — to know Edgar Martinez, advised Kevin Robles, you have to understand Maguayo.
to know Maguayo, a humble regional in Martinez's native land of Dorado, it soon turns into clear that you have to be aware of Felipe's location.
Oh, the authentic identify of the sprawling, open-air establishment is The Naranja's Bar, named after the orange tree that grows in front. Most people on the town, however, call it Felipe's, in honor of the owner who lives within the modest condominium that sits behind. It appears to serve the function of tavern, restaurant, neighborhood middle, meeting area, mother-and-pop grocery and gossip clearing condo.
Robles, a Mariner minor-leaguer who grew up in Dorado, knows the vicinity with no trouble as "the little keep." whenever Edgar returns domestic to Puerto Rico, as he does faithfully each winter, he makes a beeline for Felipe's — to shoot pool, knock down a chilly Medalla beer, hand around in the cramped bar that a little bit resembles an historic picket dugout and simply reconnect along with his americans.
"this is Edgar's clubhouse," says Papo Concepcion, a close pal. "It's the first location he goes."
throughout the street from Felipe's, in a makeshift timber-body barbecue pit, Juan Santana Vazquez cooks up pinchos, a kind of fowl or beef shishkebob that fills the air with a redolent scent, wafting throughout to Felipe's. Salsa song blares from a growth container.
Edgar at all times buys 4 pinchos, the locals say. Vazquez, the pincho man, has a few photographs of Edgar mounted above the barbecue, together with a yellowed newspaper article headlined, "Edgar: Artista del bateo." Artist of the bat.
A block away is the baseball field where Edgar first honed his artistry, swinging at bottle caps or tape-wrapped foam balls with a broomstick. The park in which it sits has been renamed Centro Comunal Carmelo Martinez after the former principal-leaguer, Edgar's cousin and soul mate.
A pickup truck drives through with bullhorn blaring — promoting bananas, potatoes and onions out of the flatbed. company is slow on a customarily sun-drenched day, but it will pick up as work lets out for the day.
As Robles had expected, the americans of Maguayo brighten perceptibly when Edgar's identify is introduced up. they could't wait to tell how proud they're of "our" Edgar — for his baseball exploits, which are monitored right here with well-nigh religious fervor, however most of concerned about his personality. The note that comes up most frequently is "humilde" — humble.
"anytime he comes home he shares with all his friends and simply becomes considered one of us," observed Wilson Torres. "he's the equal standard guy."
The lower back wall within the bar is a collage of photographs which are a shrine to Puerto Rican athletes in commonplace, and Edgar in selected. there is Edgar posing in his Chattanooga minor-league uniform, circa 1986. there is Edgar even more youthful, sporting an afro and a mustache. There, established and framed, is The Seattle times article from 1993 on Edgar and Carmelo. there's Edgar with the Mariners, Edgar within the All-star online game, Edgar in all his incarnations and tiers of tonsorial evolution.
a person runs into his home and springs back with a grainy photo of a Maguayo adolescence team, pointing to a youthful Edgar. a lady brings out a huge image of the 1995 Puerto Rican dream group that won the Caribbean World collection and proudly rattles off the hallowed names. Rodriguez. Gonzalez. Delgado. Alomar. Sierra. Baerga.
on the correct conclusion of the middle row is Edgar, who has turn into a sort of grand ancient man of Puerto Rican baseball in the mean time of its greatest delight, with superstars sprinkled all over the most important leagues and the baseball world's spotlight as host of tonight's primary-league opener in San Juan between Carlos Delgado's Toronto Blue Jays and Ivan Rodriguez's Texas Rangers.
"we are so proud that Edgar stayed in Seattle this year, after Griffey and Rodriguez left," referred to his cousin, Carlos Rivera. "The pink Sox had Ted Williams, the Yankees had Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio, and the Seattle Mariners have Edgar."
however as plenty as Edgar has invested emotionally in Seattle — settling down along with his American spouse, Holli, and son, Alex, and beginning an embroidery company — a large a part of his heart will at all times be in Dorado, or extra certainly, in Maguayo.
Seventeen miles to the west of San Juan, tough down highway 22, Maguayo is considered one of 5 neighborhoods that include Dorado, which has a cumulative 30,000 people and an atypical mixture of historical-world appeal and cheesy American influences.
"it's a relaxed town, like Edgar," Carlos Baerga pointed out in spring practicing, before the Mariners cut him. "it's a city for him."
Maguayo, surrounded by rolling bluish hills and dense eco-friendly pastureland, is another world from the nearby Dorado seaside Hyatt and country club — some of the toniest lodges in Puerto Rico, a former plantation as soon as owned by means of Lawrence Rockefeller.
it is domestic of the famous Dorado beach East direction, designed by using Robert Trent Jones and boasting a gap Jack Nicklaus has rated one of the 10 foremost on earth.
Chi Chi Rodriguez's lavish mansion overlooks the course and the seashore behind, however there are not any mansions within the inland barrio of Maguayo, specifically no longer on Calle 13, a slim road of ramshackle houses the place Edgar and Carmelo grew up.
Edgar's childhood domestic — the place he turned into raised by his loved grandparents, the late Mario Salgado and Manuela Rivera — is his now. Edgar purchased it just about a decade in the past to relieve his grandparents of debt of their twilight years. He revamped it and increased it for them and lives there all the way through his visits domestic, but it is infrequently the shrine to opulence that so many athletes construct after they hit their first large payday. The home is handsomely tiled, tidy and skillfully appointed — however modest, hardly ever out of area in a local of restricted potential.
one in all Edgar's few indulgences is the brand new jeep that sits in the storage and the neatly-equipped weight room where he hones his body after each season, an increasingly vital activity as he pushes towards forty.
during the baseball season, the domestic sits vacant but now not idle. within the yard, where Edgar and Carmelo romped as infants, is a batting cage. Even when he's now not round, Edgar lets Robles or Ramon Martinez, an infielder for the San Francisco Giants, or Javier Cardona, a catcher in the Detroit device, or some other aspiring ballplayer use the cage and the pitching laptop. Rivera often pitches to his 17-12 months-historical twin sons, Jean Carlos and Carlos Jose, who many consider undergo a magnificent resemblance to Alex Rodriguez and who dream of a professional career.
The youngsters lookup to Edgar with the equal hero-like worship with which Edgar seemed up to Roberto Clemente, who along with Orlando Cepeda is the shopper saint of Puerto Rican baseball.
"(Edgar) is our idea to preserve entering into life," said Jean Carlos Rivera. "All my pals comply with his profession and assemble his baseball playing cards. in spite of the fact that we don't make it (in baseball), we might like to observe his illustration."
Edgar nonetheless remembers the grief that pervaded his household when Clemente died on New yr's Eve in 1972, in a plane crash while delivering relief substances to earthquake victims in Nicaragua. Edgar changed into three days short of his tenth birthday.
The outdated 12 months, Edgar had turn into enamored of baseball, looking at Clemente's excellent showing for the Pittsburgh Pirates within the 1971 World collection. It changed into the transcendent second that cemented Clemente's icon popularity all the way through Latin the us, however certainly in his place of origin.
"watching these games with my aunt, she changed into so into it, and that i got into it," Edgar recalled. "After that, i was hooked on baseball. there have been different avid gamers I actually appreciated — Tony Perez, Jose Cruz — but Clemente changed into always the person."
That year, Edgar's grandfather purchased him his first uniform, striped, along with his identify sewn on the returned. like any his pals, Edgar desired to wear 21 in honor of the first-rate Clemente. Now each boy in Dorado who performs formative years ball fights for No. eleven.
• • •
to know Edgar, you need to additionally know his grandparents, who took him in when he was an baby and remained his vital have an impact on unless their dying — Mario in 1993, Manuela just a few years later. Their soul lives with him now within the features that Mariner lovers have come to cherish; Edgar's quiet electricity and apparently ego-free personality allow him to thrive whereas all the time being the second-brightest big name on the team — behind Randy Johnson, in the back of Ken Griffey Jr., behind Alex Rodriguez.
"They were those that taught him the values of lifestyles and the way to deal with americans," Carmelo Martinez, now a minor-league teacher for the Chicago Cubs, stated prior this spring in Mesa, Ariz. "We were all terrible, and it turned into challenging, but it surely became handy on account of the love we bought."
Mario operated a native transport company, shuttling americans across the regional. He become everyday for his handiwork, always fixing or building within the yard. When Mario would have the ground dug up for some venture or a different, Edgar would sneak into the yard and clear the rocks by hitting them with a broomstick, lots to the chagrin of the neighbors.
Born in ny city, the place his parents had moved to forge a new lifestyles, Edgar moved in with his grandparents in Dorado as an infant, together with his two siblings, when his parents split up.
When Edgar was 11, his fogeys reconciled and summoned the little ones lower back to long island to reside with them. His younger brother, Elliott, and his older sister, Sonia, went. confronted with a wrenching quandary, Edgar stayed in Maguayo.
"i used to be in a very tough circumstance," Edgar recalled. "Boy, making that decision at that age. I wasn't bound what i was doing, actually, but I went with my emotions. I felt my grandparents crucial me. I remember all the work they obligatory to do. I just felt extraordinary staying with them. I felt it become the right determination."
And a tumultuous one. "He locked himself in his room and wouldn't come out, didn't are looking to go away," recalled Edgar's uncle, Jose Juan Rivera. "The luggage became already made. The bags left. He stayed."
Edgar's relationship together with his folks remains friendly yet superficial — each year visits with his father when the Mariners circulate via long island and wintry weather get-togethers with his mother, who lives 40 miles west of Dorado in Arecibo.
"It labored out to be an excellent alternative, but there's the other facet," Edgar spoke of quietly. "dwelling with out your household has a bad aspect. It does have an effect on you for years to come back. I did leave out being with my sister and brother. That became challenging."
Edgar reconnected along with his brother when Elliott moved to Puerto Rico just a few years later, after the folks split once again, to help care for their grandparents after Edgar signed professionally. Elliott now lives within the Seattle area, whereas Sonia is on the East Coast.
at the park and in their grandparents' backyard, Edgar and Carmelo performed ball, continuously. Rocks, tennis balls, bottle caps — it didn't depend.
"When it would rain, Edgar would go outside and swing at the rain drops," observed Carlos Rivera. "He would do it for hours."
"He has all the time been intense about hitting, even when he turned into a bit youngster," Carmelo recalled.
Carmelo, whom Edgar still calls his hero and function mannequin, signed with the Chicago Cubs. but Edgar, three years more youthful, had trouble attracting the interest of scouts, who appreciated his glove however felt he changed into too susceptible a hitter for a third baseman.
After a few failed tryouts, Edgar enrolled at American institution in San Juan to look at enterprise administration. He obtained a day job supervising a furniture keep and a night job in a regularly occurring electric powered manufacturing facility and resigned himself to a life without baseball. He was 20, smartly past the age most Latin players sign knowledgeable contracts.
"i used to be thinking, smartly, I have to go and prepare myself for a superb job," he stated. "At that element, I kind of lost hope of signing."
however then he heard a couple of Mariner tryout in local Bayemon and decided to supply it one other shot. He basically neglected the tryout when a pal who changed into speculated to inform him the time forgot to call, however he acquired tipped off within the nick of time and confirmed up on the box at eight a.m., useless tired after working throughout the night within the factory.
even though Edgar recalls being "so tired I couldn't swing the bat," Mariner scout Marty Martinez saw the abilities in Edgar that others overlooked and provided him a $4,000 bonus. one other prospect from that tryout, Luis Vega, got $5,000, and Edgar idea he should still get the same volume.
"I didn't need to sign," he talked about. "It wasn't motivating, the money, to me. I already had a job. i used to be thinking, 'I can make that much.' i was enjoying semipro ball two, three times a week, and that i obtained paid for that, plus i was going to college. i used to be considering, `I'll spend my bonus funds and be with out a job next yr.' "
but at Carmelo's urging, Edgar determined to provide baseball a are trying. He had a different hurdle to move: his grandfather didn't want him to signal, pondering the funds was too low. Edgar implored his uncle, Jose Juan Rivera, to convince Mario to let him go.
"I told him, Roberto Clemente signed for $400, and seem the place he went. Edgar may signal for $4,000," Rivera recalled.
Mario relented, and Edgar wound up with the Mariners' rookie group in Bellingham to start the seasoned event that would at last see him win two batting titles and the hearts of Mariner enthusiasts.
unless their demise, his grandparents watched Edgar from afar on the satellite dish Edgar had given them. When Mario lost his vision, he would hearken to Mariner games on the radio. In 1992, when Edgar signed his first massive contract — a three-12 months, $14 million deal — he was requested what he would do with the funds. He answered immediately, "purchase coronary heart medicina" for his grandmother.
"Edgar became always very excited by every thing, and he become dedicated to his grandparents," Carmelo mentioned. "He only jokes round when he's with me. I get him going. When he goes domestic, he knows what's going to happen. people are going to return to him with all types of problems, and they understand he's going to help. He loves that. He loves helping americans."
Sitting on a bench in Edgar's yard in Maguayo, his spouse and children and friends describe the essence of the Mariner famous person.
Carlos Rivera tells fondly of his cousin's absent-mindedness, epitomized by the point Edgar realized that one of his savings certificates turned into lacking. A search ensued, and the certificate became found in a briefcase within the backyard shed, the place it had been for five years.
"The best issue he doesn't forget is the way to bat," says Rivera.
"And when he strikes out, he doesn't forget that either," chimes in Concepcion.
They chortle about Edgar's terror of spiders. They tell of the fiesta he and Carmelo sponsor each Thanksgiving, when just about all of Maguayo turns out to play softball and volleyball, barbecue hamburgers and watch fireworks.
They talk, with reverence, about his corridor of fame options. "Clemente, Cepeda. subsequent Edgar," says Rivera.
They tell of the four Little Leagues in Dorado he has sponsored, the small good deeds he does for the americans of Maguayo.
"a lot come and ask, but a lot comes from himself, and no one is aware of," says Diana Colon, mom of Kevin Robles, who serves as interpreter through virtue of 30 years in manhattan.
Diana tells how Edgar has quietly subsidized Robles, financing his education at a junior college in Illinois and tutoring the 23-12 months-historical catcher within the nuances of knowledgeable ball.
They display the picture Edgar has on the wall of his domestic, which points the eight Puerto Rican players within the 1997 All-superstar video game, displayed above a young Puerto Rican boy asleep dreaming.
"it really is the dream of every boy right here," Rivera says.
Rivera is asked if Edgar has modified at all when you consider that the times he took swings at raindrops and turned into devoted to "ma buela" and "ma puela," as he referred to as his grandma and grandpa when he lived on Calle 13.
The quick response: "El Mismo." The same.
Larry Stone: 206-464-3146 or lstone@seattletimes.com; on Twitter: @StoneLarry. Larry Stone calls upon greater than 30 years as a sportswriter to offer insight, wisdom, opinion, evaluation - and confidently some humor - concerning the large world of sports. topics encompass the thrill of victory, the ache of defeat, and, particularly, the individuals liable for either influence, as neatly because the broad chasm between.
No comments:
Post a Comment