V-Mart Grinding It Out

While I previously talked about getting the job done in the gym to be able to perform at a high level throughout a baseball season, sometimes you just can’t avoid the injury bug. One of my favorite players, Victor Martinez of the Detroit Tigers got a chance to play in the playoffs this past October. He even hit homerun, and on the swing, injured his side. He struggled to round the bases as he was clearly in some pain. Yet with the Tigers already down Delmon Young and Magglio Ordonez, and facing a very good team in the Rangers, they couldn’t afford to lose V-Mart. They ended up losing, but this quote is awesome, “The only way that I don’t play tomorrow is if I wake up and I’m dead. That’s going to be the only way that I don’t play tomorrow.” Victor Martinez said that when being asked if he was playing in game 4 the following day. That’s the type of warrior spirit I like to see. I know some injuries you simply can’t play through, but everyone should adopt this attitude. Martinez played through pain to help his team try and win, a very honorable thing to do. They may have lost the series, but that’s beside the point and not due to a lack of effort from Martinez that’s for sure. It really makes me lose respect for people who sit out a lot with minor injuries, I understand you don’t want to make it worse, but sometimes you just have to man up. I realize this was the playoffs and players are more likely to go all out in October, but I’d like to see more guys fighting to get back in the lineup. There are a lot of players who do, but not enough. I really just wanted to write an article about my boy V-Mart, but I felt this is a worthy topic. Just felt I’d let you all know that people need to stop being babies because it really grinds my gears. (Family Guy Reference)