The Greatest Moment in Dublin Hurricanes history; number eight: Andy Martin's sensational, silver slugger 2004 season

The Dublin Hurricanes are one of Ireland's oldest, sexiest and most successfull baseball clubs. They have won every award going in Irish baseball, they are the only Irish club side to have traveled several times to European Club competitions and their players have scooped many of the individual awards available to players in the Irish baseball league. In short, it has been a good twelve year run. The team’s core has largely remained the same, which makes the accomplishments and memories all the sweeter to those involved.

Cutting straight to the chase, over the next few days we will be revealing the Top Ten Dublin Hurricanes Baseball Club moments of all time (all time being 1997 – 2008). Hopefully you will join us for the ride, and while we look back at the memories, you the reader will get a good sense of what it means to play baseball for an Irish baseball club.

Straight to the list. Number eight.

The Greatest Moment in Dublin Hurricanes history; Andy Martin's sensational, silver slugger 2004 season

The eighth best moment in Hurricanes history comprises an entire season. The 2004 season to be exact, for that was the year that the Hurricanes Andy Martin did this to Irish league pitching;

Name Team PA AB R H RBI 1B 2B 3B HR BB HBP SO SB CS BA SLG OBP
Martin, Andy Hur 64 50 36 26 19 17 8 1 0 12 -2 - 2 17 0 .520 .720 .625

In 64 plate appearances he struck out twice, whilst batting an unbelievable .520 with 36 runs scored and 19 RBIs. Simply sensational.

Naturally, as a Yankee fan, Martin knew only too well to expect questions about steroids in respect to his ridiculous numbers. In response he had this to say;
''I wasn't knowingly taking anything, but I don't know what's in the Ballybrack water. Pregame snack was always 2 Nutri-grain bars (1 apple bar, 1 strawberry bar). Always Volvic mineral water to hydrate during games. Also, I wore my lucky fraternity t-shirt as an undershirt that year.''


When pressed about his sexy statistics, Martin ventured that his superb year was merely an extension of the Hurricane trend that your first season after getting married was always a good one, noting that Steve Divito had enjoyed a tremendous year in his first year of wedded bliss, and noting also the amazing Eric ‘Vegas’ Valkys ‘comeback’ year in 2008.

Martin remembers the 2004 season fondly;

‘’The ball did actually seem very big and I always seemed to be very confident that year for some reason when I went to the plate. There was a lot of encouragement from the team. I remember Carlos in my ear a lot that season about it. GP always gets me fired up with different Yankee/Red Sox references and if memory serves I believe that was the first season of "The Steve & Andy Show" as you liked to call it. What was it, like the two old men on the Muppets?’’




Martin came to the Hurricanes as a free agent pickup, he was a diamond stand out at Amesbury High School and his smooth skills translated well to the Irish game straight off the bat. He has continuously delivered big hits and clutch defensive plays and has been an integral part of the Hurricanes Championship seasons.

2004 was the one of the few years Baseball Ireland ran a successful fantasy league, and to win that season you had to have Martin in your squad. His amazing statistics from 2004 may in time go down as the single greatest season long batting display in Baseball Ireland history.

Well, particularly since the league doesn't bother keeping stats any more.

The Greatest Moment in Dublin Hurricanes history

8. Andy Martin's sensational, silver slugger 2004 season
9. The legend of Spencer Grace
10. Gordon Ireland's final at bat as a Hurricane

Baseball Ireland links

.

Comments

Post a Comment