Bye Bye Tino

Tino Martinez, who starred on the Yankees World Series championship teams from 1996 to 2001, has announced his retirement after 16 seasons. "I don't want to make this a big deal," Martinez said by phone to St. Petersburg Times writer Marc Topkin. "I'm done. I'm not going to play anymore. I'm 100 percent decided. I wanted to retire as a Yankee, to have that uniform on for the last time," he said. "It's a great way to go out."

Tino is expected to take a job with ESPN as an analyst, including doing work on Baseball Tonight. "This opportunity made it a lot easier," he said. "I'm really fired up about it. And I'm going to work hard at it to get better."



Tino was acquired, along with Jeff Nelson and Jim Mecir, for Sterling Hitchcock and Russ Davis following the 1995 season. After leaving as a free agent following the 2001 season, he returned for a final season in pinstripes in 2005. Among the highlights of his Yankee career are slugging 44 home runs and 141 RBI in 1997, finishing 2nd in the league's MVP voting, and winning the home run derby during that season's All-Star break. He belted a grand slam off of the Padres' Mark Langston to highlight a 7-run seventh inning as the Yankees came back from a 5-2 deficit and went on to sweep the series. In 2001, he belted a 2-out, 2-run homer off of B.K. Kim in the bottom of the 9th of Game 4 to send it to extra innings and eventual victory. His glovework was always gold glove caliber, though he wasn't able to capture one. The two time All-Star finishes his career with a .271 batting average, 339 home runs, 1271 runs batted in, and 4 World Series rings.


Good luck Tino, we'll miss you!

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