Jerry Martin was an outfielder of the 1970s and 1980s who,
unfortunately for him, is probably best remembered for being convicted of
cocaine possession, along with two teammates, in 1983.
Jerry was born May 11, 1949, in Columbia, South Carolina;
his father Barney, who was also born in Columbia, was a pitcher who got into
one major league game, with the Reds in 1953. Barney missed the 1949 season but
I don’t know why. Jerry’s younger brother Mike pitched for several years in the
minors but never made it to the majors.
Jerry attended Furman University in South Carolina, where he
was a basketball star. After finishing college in 1971 he signed with the
Philadelphia Phillies and was sent to their Rookie Class team, the Pulaski
Phillies of the Appalachian League. He played 40 games, all in the outfield (in
his 1500+ game pro career, he played five games at first base and otherwise was
exclusively an outfielder) and hit well. In 1972 he was moved up a notch to
Spartanburg of the Class A Western Carolinas League, where he hit .316 with 12
homers and 112 RBI, with a .468 slugging percentage and 21 stolen bases in 22
attempts; he also had 15 assists from the outfield, and he was named the
league’s Most Valuable Player.
In 1973 the Phillies moved Jerry up to Reading of the Class
AA Eastern League, where he hit .300 and slugged .483, hitting 17 home runs. In
1974 he completed his tour of the Phillies’ minor league system with the AAA
Toledo Mud Hens, hitting .290 but with only eight homers. Still, after the
International League season ended he was called up to Philadelphia; he got into
13 games, mainly as a pinch hitter and defensive sub, getting three hits in 14
at-bats.
Jerry started 1975 back in Toledo but got called up again in
late May to be the Phillies’ everyday center fielder during an injury to Garry
Maddox. He didn’t hit especially well but seems to have been regarded as an
adequate fill-in. On July 10 the Phillies played an exhibition game against the
Mud Hens, and Jerry hit a home run against his brother Mike, who apparently was
called up from Class A just to pitch in the game; immediately afterwards Jerry
was sent back to Toledo. He finished the International League season with the
Mud Hens, and in 342 at-bats he hit .260, walking enough for a .354 on-base
percentage. He hit 14 homers and stole 24 bases in 29 attempts. He then
finished the season back in Philadelphia, ending up with 113 major-league
at-bats for the year, hitting .212/.288/.345.
During the off-season there were reports of a great deal of
interest in Jerry from other teams, but in 1976 he was back with the Phillies,
and he spent the whole season with them. He played in 130 games but rarely
started, being used as a pinch hitter, pinch runner, or defensive sub, batting
an average of once per game played. In 1977 he got more chances to start,
especially against left-handed pitchers, playing in 116 games and batting 238
times, and hit pretty well, .260/.328/.447. During the following off-season
there were again rumors of a trade—and Jerry was outspoken about wanting to go
somewhere he could play regularly—but again it didn’t happen.
In 1978 Jerry again played quite a bit against lefties and
also got into the lineup a little more versus righthanders, giving him 298
plate appearances in 128 games, and he hit a solid .271/.339/.451. He played in
two games in the NLCS, hitting a home run and a double as the Phillies came up
just short of the World Series for the third straight year. He had missed some
time in September due to a knee injury, and after the season he underwent
surgery.
In February 1979 Jerry finally got his wish and was traded,
to the Cubs in an eight-player deal. The Cubs wanted to make him their everyday
center fielder, and that’s what happened—he had 579 plate appearance in 150
games, and hit .272/.321/.453, with 34 doubles, 19 homers, and 73 RBI. He also
finished second among National League center fielders with 12 assists. But his
honeymoon with the Cubs ended over the off-season, when GM Bob Kennedy refused
to give him a five-year contract, and Jerry demanded to be traded. He didn’t
get his wish, and spent another season as the Cubs’ center fielder, hitting
just .227/.281/.419, but equaling 1979’s 73 RBI and setting a career high with
23 homers.
In December 1980 Jerry got his trade, going to the Giants in
a four-player deal. In February he and the team agreed on a five-year deal,
minutes before their arbitration hearing was scheduled to begin. But the Giants
had a lot of outfielders, and Jerry began the season on the bench. He ended up
playing in 72 of the team’s 111 games in the strike-shortened season, starting
60, mostly in center. His batting average and on-base marks were up a bit from
1980, but his power was down as he hit just four homers. He was unhappy with
not playing every day, and unhappy with playing in Candlestick Park, so on
December 11 (two weeks after moving with his wife, Scarlett, and two sons, to
50 acres near Columbia) he was happy to learn he’d been traded to the Royals
for two pitchers.
With Amos Otis in center field, the Royals moved Jerry to
right in 1982, and he played there regularly. He had a great start and a great
finish (as the Royals came up just short of a division title) with some slumps
in between, and wound up hitting .266/.316/.399, with 15 home runs and 65 RBI
in 147 games.
Jerry opened 1983 still as the Royals’ right fielder, and
was off to another hot start until, on May 1, he was put on the disabled list
with tendinitis in his left wrist. Eventually he had surgery, and on August 7
it was reported that he had started to work out with the team. But on August 9
it was reported that Jerry, along with teammates Willie Aikens, Vida Blue, U.L.
Washington and Willie Wilson, was being questioned by the FBI as part of a
cocaine investigation. While he never did get back onto the active roster,
there was no real news on the investigation until October 10, when Aikens and
Wilson pled guilty to misdemeanor charges of attempting to obtain cocaine. Jerry
pled guilty to the same offense on October 14, in exchange for an agreement “to
press no additional charges concerning other possible involvement in
narcotics.” In his statement in court he said that he had attempted to obtain
one gram of cocaine on June 18. The same day, the Royals announced that they
had informed Jerry that his contract would not be renewed for 1984. In a
statement released to the Columbia State,
his hometown newspaper, he said:
I would like to apologize to my family, friends and fans. I’m embarrassed by this, and I realize the problems created.
I’m hopeful people will judge me by my entire life and not one stupid mistake. I hope I will be forgiven for being stupid once and I can go forward from here.
On November 17 Jerry was sentenced to one year in prison and
a $2500 fine, with all but three months of the prison term suspended, followed
by two years of probation. He and Wilson began their sentences at the Federal
Correctional Institution at Fort Worth on December 5, while Aikens was allowed
to wait until January in order to complete a rehab program. On December 15
baseball Commissioner Bowie Kuhn announced a one-year suspension for the three
Royals and Dodger pitcher Steve Howe. Jerry was 34 years old and it was widely
speculated that this might end his major league career.
On February 5, 1984, Jerry’s agent, David Landfield, said
that the New York Mets had expressed interest in Jerry, that Jerry was
particularly interested in the Mets because of his friendship with manager
Davey Johnson, and also that Jerry was going to be released before the original
March 5 date because of good behavior so he was likely to be available to
report to spring training on time. On February 23 he (along with Willie Wilson)
was in fact set free, and he then reported to spring training with the Mets and
began working out while waiting for the hearing on a grievance filed by himself
and Wilson challenging their suspensions. On March 16 he signed a Mets
contract, and on April 3 an arbitrator ruled the two players could return to
action on May 15.
Jerry started a few games in the outfield but was used
mostly as a pinch-hitter and defensive sub. On July 8 the Mets optioned him to
Class AAA Tidewater to get a chance to play regularly and hopefully find his
hitting stroke; at this point he was hitting .081 in 37 at-bats. He played in
six games for the Tides and went 6-for-24 with two doubles and a home run. Upon
his return to the Mets he got to start a bit more often than he had previously,
and he hit a bit better, but still he ended up hitting .154/.206/.264 in 91
at-bats in 51 games. At the end of the season he was released.
Jerry tried to find a team to go to spring training with in
1985, but was unsuccessful. He worked at various jobs, and got divorced. In
1989 and 1990 he played in the Senior Professional Baseball Association, and in
1990 got hired by the Phillies as a coach for their Martinsville farm team in
the Appalachian League. He was a minor league hitting instructor for the
Phillies for the next eight years, then spent five years as a coach for their
farm teams in Wilkes-Barre and Scranton. From 2004 through 2009 he was the
Phillies’ roving minor league outfield coordinator, then he spent 2011 and 2012
as a coach for the Detroit Tigers’ Class AA affiliate, the Erie SeaWolves of
the Eastern League, before retiring from baseball.
Very good story. Jerry Martin was a good person to me. I wish him the best.
ReplyDeleteThanks! And that's good to hear.
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