Edgar Martinez immortalized as Mariners unveil statue outside T-Mobile Park
The tarp flew up, and the confetti rained down. Edgar Martinez had been immortalized forever.
Outside T-Mobile Park Wednesday, the Mariners unveiled a statue of Martinez on the very street named after him. The third statue showcased by the club sits only 100 feet from a statue of former-teammate Ken Griffey Jr.
Frozen in time is the swing that saved baseball in Seattle: Edgar’s “Double” that scored Griffey Jr. from first and clinched the 1995 American League Divisional Series.
Addressing the crowd that circled him, Martinez held back tears. He won two batting titles, and appeared in seven All-Star games. A career .312 hitter, he owns five Silver Slugger awards, and was inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2019, his final year of eligibility.
But he never expected this. The bronze statue honors the all-time Mariner great, and dubs Martinez “the greatest right-handed hitter of his era,” inscribed on the marble pedestal below.
“I wanted to be like Roberto Clemente,” Martinez said of his idol and fellow Puerto Rican. “That dream of mine, in some way, had become reality. But in that dream, I never thought about having a statue with my name on it.”
Martinez clobbered 312 home runs for the Mariners with a swing that’s “easy, and yet powerful,” said CEO John Stanton. He played his entire 18-year career with Seattle, and if you talk to any pitcher who faced Martinez, they’re going to tell you he was one of the toughest outs in the game.
If he had put on the uniform back on in 2016, it was possible that he’d still put up a fight. In Scott Servais’ first year as Seattle’s manager, Martinez served as the team’s hitting coach. During a road trip in Houston, Servais threw batting practice to the team before a game with the Astros.
With Martinez leaning against the cage, Servais told Edgar to get in the box, and he obliged.
On the third or fourth swing, Martinez launched one into the left-field seats. Once he found his groove, the 53-year-old hit another. And then another.
“I’m like, wow, (he’s) still got it,” Servais said Wednesday. “I will never forget that. He made it look easy, even at that time. Pretty cool to see.
“Same swing, same finish. Everything was the same.”
What stood out to Servais was Martinez’s dedication to the Pacific Northwest community. You could talk about the numbers or stats, but the impact he made on even the most casual baseball fan in Seattle cannot be understated. Mariners baseball may not exist today had Edgar not lined a walk-off double down the left field line in the Kingdome on the night of October 8, 1995, which capped off what may still be the most important win in franchise history.
“It’s always been about the team, oftentimes letting his play on the field do the majority of the talking,” Servais said. “He’s a self-made player. I think people can identify with that, and really appreciate that.”
Chicago artist Lou Cella sculpted the Martinez statue, his latest project for the Mariners after creating Dave Niehaus’ monument (2011) inside T-Mobile Park, as well as Griffey Jr.‘s monument (2017) outside the ballpark.
Teammates for over a decade, Griffey Jr. and Martinez were both enshrined in Cooperstown. Now, they’re neighbors on the corner of Edgar and Dave.
“It’s really cool,” Martinez said of his statue sitting only feet from Griffey Jr.’s. “We played together for over ten years… I wouldn’t have it any other way.”
Griffey Jr. told reporters Wednesday that Martinez has a sense of humor that many wouldn’t know, and his work ethic was unmatched; he began preparing at two o’clock for a seven o’clock game.
And his position of designated hitter was underestimated. Martinez reinvented the position, and defined it — so much so that Major League Baseball renamed the Designated Hitter Award to the Edgar Martinez Award upon his retirement in 2004.
“It’s one of the hardest things to do in baseball, to hit and sit,” Griffey Jr. said. “You only have four (chances) to make an impact on the game, maybe. It’s just a different mindset that he has. There’s probably no one else like him.”
This story was originally published August 12, 2021 at 5:00 AM.