The byline read Nov. 2, 2004.
The construction of the article itself was forgettable. I tripped over my analogies, bungled my quotes and did everything but hit the reader in the face with a shovel to get my point across.
It was my first article ever published, an opinion piece in the Easterner, the student newspaper of Eastern Washington University. I was a sophomore, unsure of myself and what I wanted to do with my life. I gave sports writing a shot and submitted my first column.
And while I cringe while looking at that first attempt at becoming a newspaperman, the subject matter itself, now six years later, still rings relevant.
The headline read “Edgar Martinez belongs in the Hall of Fame.” With Wednesday’s news that Martinez was not selected to the hall (not surprisingly, at least to me), I decided to dig up my old article to find out if the facts I presented six years ago still held merit.
Martinez picked up 36.2 percent of the votes in his first year on the ballot, well short of the 75 percent needed for induction. But 36.2 percent is a good place to start for Martinez – who battles questions about the legitimacy of his numbers based on his position as a designated hitter.
But, last time I checked, the DH is in baseball’s rule book. So I’m not sure where the argument comes in there – how can you penalize a player for playing a position that is officially a part of the game?
The DH argument aside, well, I just don’t see an argument on why he shouldn’t be in there. A quick and dirty look at his numbers: .312 batting average, 2,247 hits, 309 home runs, 1,261 RBIs, 514 doubles, .365 on-base percentage, and a whopping .515 slugging percentage.
Martinez was a great hitter and just because he didn’t play the field doesn’t diminish the fact that he will go down as one of the best hitters to play the game. The numbers don’t lie.
To wrap things up, I’ll let 19-year-old Joel Willits chime in with the final paragraphs of his first-ever article.
“To put Edgar’s career in perspective, one must compare his numbers to other great players. Only six players in Major League Baseball history have had a lifetime .300 or better batting average, an on-base percentage of .400 or better, a slugging percentage of .500 or more, 2,000 hits, 300 homeruns, 500 doubles and 1,000 RBI’s.
Five of these players are Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, Stan Musial, Rogers Hornsby and Lou Gehrig, all Hall-of-Famers, and arguably some of the best players of all time.
“The sixth is Edgar.”
