Tommie Martz went from Broadway to Triple-A with the New York Yankees

Tommie Martz was roommates in his first year of pro ball in 1960 in the Pittsburgh system with Steve Blass, who would be the winning pitcher in Game 7 as the Pirates beat the Baltimore Orioles in the World Series 11 years later.

In 1962, the Broadway High graduate was part of the minor league team in Kinston, N.C., that won the Carolina League title with infielder Gene Michael, a future manager of the New York Yankees.

And Martz, who grew up in the Tenth Legion area of Rockingham County, recalls getting hits against future Hall of Fame pitchers Tom Seaver and Whitey Ford in the late 1960s while at the Triple-A level with the Yankees.

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While he rubbed shoulders with some of the game’s greatest, Martz – now 83 and living near Timberville – came close to being a big leaguer in his own right. He was a Triple-A outfielder in the Yankees’ system in the late 1960s when the likes of future Hall of Famer Mickey Mantle and fellow All-Stars Tom Tresh and Roy White were either regular or part-time outfielders in the Big Apple.

Martz, with a lifetime average of .302 in eight minor league seasons over 827 games, says being blocked by those stars was not the one factor that prevented him from making it to The Show. “I don’t think that was the problem,” said Martz, a teammate with White in the minors.

What he did say was a play during the 1968 season while with Triple-A Syracuse in the Yankee system was more damaging.

“I blew out my left knee,” he said. “It was a play at the plate, and I was trying to score on a base hit. As I approached home plate, the catcher started up the third base line to take the throw. We collided about the time I was about to start my slide. I touched home plate; I was safe, but boy but I was in pain.”

The timing is never good for an injury – and that was true for Martz.

He played in pain a few games to end the season. The expansion draft was held that fall, and while Martz wasn’t picked, he said he was slated to head to spring training in 1969 with the expansion Kansas City club after they had picked up his contract in 1968. But after consulting a doctor at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore, Martz opted against surgery and retired to his home in Virginia.

“I had a torn ligament, and my wife and I were expecting our first child,” said Martz, whose daughter, Sharon, was born in November 1968. She is a long-time employee of the Rockingham County school system.

Fortunately for local baseball fans who didn’t see him play in the minors, Martz was well enough eventually to play and coach with New Market in the Valley Baseball League for a few years. Then he began to play in the Rockingham County Baseball League, where he made the All-Star team several times, was the league MVP with Twin County in New Market and in 2019 was named to the RCBL Hall of Fame. He also coached Twin County and played for the Harrisonburg AC’s in the RCBL.

“It was a huge honor to be recognized. I had been out of baseball 29 years when that happened,” Martz said.

“I played with Tommy one year for the Twin County Rebels in the RCBL who played at New Market,” wrote Hunter Hollar, who was drafted out of Broadway High by the Orioles and pitched at the University of Virginia. “He had an aura that I recall because he had made it to AAA ball, just missing the show. I did not know him well. He was, however, a consummate hitter who just bashed line drive after line drive. That is what I recall rather than big power displays resulting in home runs. He was, I think, rather quiet and anything but a showboat.”

“He also coached in the Valley League, American Legion, and Broadway Little League during his baseball career,” says the RCBL website of Martz. “People who knew Tommie knew that when he was batting, he was going to hit the ball. He always had the ability to get on base, which is what made him a prospect for so long in the minors. Tommie also had a passion for teaching the game to the next generation, taking four or five coaching jobs throughout his career.”

Martz grew up playing baseball in the Tenth Legion community near Broadway.

“I was a pretty good Little League player, not to be bragging,” he said. “In eighth grade I tried out for the JV team (at Broadway), but didn’t make the team. We had a team in Tenth Legion, and as a freshman, I kind of dominated that league. I went out for varsity (at Broadway) as a sophomore, and in those days, I played infield. The coach and I didn’t agree on something, so I quit and played for Tenth Legion. I went out for varsity as a junior and the coach, Homer Shaffer (who passed in 2012), put me in the outfield. That is how I ended up in the outfield.”

After starring as aa senior and graduating from Broadway High in 1959, Martz was signed by Pirates scout Joe Bowen, who later became the scouting director for the Cincinnati Reds. Bowen passed away in 1983.

Martz, a lefty hitter, began his pro career in Hobbs, N.M., in 1960. Late in the season he was promoted to the Dubuque Packers, a member of the Midwest League in Iowa. Around the same time, right-handed pitcher Blass, from a small town in Connecticut, was promoted from Kingsport, Tenn.

“Steve was my roommate at home. We roomed together at a private home in Dubuque. We were only there for a month,” Martz said. “We both got to Dubuque around the same time.”

The Packers ended the year with a record of 66-56 under manager James Adlam, who had played in the minors for the Yankees and St. Louis Cardinals. Martz hit .387 with 49 steals for Hobbs in 1961.

Martz and Blass were reunited in 1962 in Kinston on a team that included infielder Gene Michael, who would manage the Yankees in the 1981 World Series. Blass became an All-Star starting pitcher for the Pirates and won two games in the 1971 Fall Classic against Baltimore, including a complete game 2-1 win in Game 7.

Martz was picked up by the Yankees from the Pirates before the 1963 season. He played for Greensboro in 1965, as did future Yankee outfielder Bobby Murcer. By 1966 Martz had reached Triple-A Toledo, and he recalls getting a hit against future Hall of Famer Seaver, who played that year for Triple-A Jacksonville in the Mets’ system.

Martz was teammates, and roommates on the road, in Toledo with fellow outfielder Wayne Comer, a Page County High graduate who would be part of the 1968 Detroit Tigers team that won the World Series.

Martz was also a contemporary with Staunton native Jerry May, who also played in the Pirates’ system in the 1960s but was never teammates with Martz.

In 1967, Martz hit .317 with Double-A Binghamton and was with Triple-A Syracuse when they hosted the Yankees in an exhibition game.

“I got a hit against Ford,” Martz recalls. A Syracuse newspaper story from 2016 reports that Ford pitched three scoreless innings as the Yankees won 5-0. Mantle started at first base and hit twice before being taken out of the exhibition game.

He told reporters that day, despite nagging injuries, he hoped to play as long as he could. But Mantle retired after the 1968 season.

So did Martz, who worked at Howell Metal in New Market after his playing career.

He has three children, and each one went to Broadway High. A son, Steven, played baseball at Allegany College in Maryland and Fairmont State in West Virginia.

Martz is believed to be the only player from Harrisonburg/Rockingham County to reach at least the Triple-A level primarily as an outfielder.

Turner Ashby grad Alan Knicely played 25 games in the outfield in the majors. But he came through the Houston system mostly as a catcher (and pitcher), and caught 108 games in the big leagues for the Astros, Reds, and Cardinals. Knicley played first base in one game for the Philadelphia Phillies. He played in 166 games in the outfield in the minors, but none at the Triple-A level.

Notes

• Martz is the only Broadway grad to play pro ball, per thebaseballcube.com website. The MLB draft began in 1965, and the only Broadway High player to be picked is Hollar, who was taken by the Orioles in 1967 in the 50th round. He has been very active in the community, serving as the chair of the finance board of Muhlenberg Lutheran Church and chair of the foundation board at Virginia Mennonite Retirement Center, both in Harrisonburg, in addition to his banking career. Hollar notes he worked out for the Orioles at old Memorial Stadium in Baltimore and was able to meet the late Hall of Fame third baseman Brooks Robinson. Instead of signing with the Orioles and playing rookie ball at Bluefield, he attended Virginia and pitched there.
• The eight natives of Harrisonburg to play in the majors include four pitchers: Nelson Chittum, Travis Harper (JMU), Daryl Irvine (Spotswood, Ferrum) and Brenan Hanifee (TA), now with the Tigers. The four position players born in the city were infielder Doug Neff, infielder Brian Bocock (TA), Knicely and Cal Raleigh, the current Seattle All-Star catcher. Elkton native Garland Shifflett pitched for the Washington Senators in 1957 and the Minnesota Twins seven years later.
• Two Harrisonburg natives who played at TA reached the Triple-A level as pitchers: VMI and Virginia Tech pitcher Ian Ostlund (Cardinals, Tigers) and Jimmy Hamilton (Orioles, Cleveland Guardians), who played at Ferrum. Harrisonburg High grad Chris Hart, who played baseball at Auburn, reached the Double-A level as an outfielder with Oakland, as did TA and Coastal Carolina product Daniel Bowman, an outfielder, with Arizona. Harrisonburg High grad Jeff Leatherman, a standout at Auburn, also played in the Pirates system. He is the son of former Bridgewater College basketball coach and baseball author Bill Leatherman.
• One of the few Waynesboro High grads to play pro baseball is pitcher Hal Walck, who was drafted out of ODU by the Chicago Cubs in 1983. Walck played for Geneva in the New York-Penn League that year and with Quad Cities in the Single-A Midwest League to end his career in 1984. Davey Martinez, fired earlier this month as manager by the Washington Nationals, played on both of those teams and began his minor league career in 1983. Walck also played for Harrisonburg American Legion Post 27; he appeared in 24 pro games, with five starts, and had an ERA of 5.50.

David Driver is a Harrisonburg native who played baseball at Turner Ashby, Harrisonburg Legion Post 27, EMU and for Clover Hill in the RCBL. He is the co-author of “From Tidewater to the Shenandoah: Snapshots from Virginia’s Rich Baseball Legacy,” which is available on the websites of Amazon and Barnes and Noble and at daytondavid.com.