If you were at SunTrust Park this week and noticed a familiar face hanging around the dugout or on the field before games, it was probably legendary pitcher Dennis Martinez, aka “El Presidente.”
Martinez, whose 245 wins are the most ever by a Latino pitcher, has been doing what one top Braves official described as consulting work, hanging out and talking to pitchers, particularly the team’s Latin-American pitchers.
He goes way back with Braves president of baseball operations John Hart.
Martinez, a 63-year-old Nicaraguan native, looks as slender and fit as he did when he pitched for the Braves at age 44 in 1998, the final season of a 23-year major league career in which the four-time All-Star pitched for five teams including 11 seasons with the Orioles and eight with the Expos.
He won at least 14 games 10 times including the strike-shortened 1981 season, when he tied for the major league lead with 14 wins in a 105-game season for Baltimore.
In 1979, Martinez pitched 292 2/3 innings and 18 complete games, leading the American League in both categories for the Orioles.
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