FOX Sports<\/a>\u2019 Ken Rosenthal, Martinez called out players for not picking up balls they hit in the batting cage. Picking up balls in the cage is standard practice according to the 45-year-old Martinez.<\/p>\nAfter seeing players repeatedly refuse to pick up balls Martinez confronted them. While the former first basemen admits to vulgarity he says he did not grab second baseman Derek Dietrich by the neck as reports have suggested.<\/p>\n
Martinez said he decided to speak out after talking with friends. \u201cI started thinking about it, thinking I\u2019ve got to say something, not just let it go away. I\u2019ve had a great reputation in this game for years. I walked away from the game with integrity. But now, to have a couple of kids try to ruin my name, I felt I had to say something and fight back.\u201d<\/p>\n
Disputes with the Marlins players \u2014 Dietrich, 24; infielder Chris Valaika, 27; and outfielder Justin Ruggiano, 31 \u2014 all occurred in the same fashion.<\/p>\n
The issue with Dietrich occurred shortly after he was placed on the Marlins active roster. Martinez relays the following story.<\/p>\n
\u201cI go, \u2018Derek, help us pick the balls up,\u2019\u201d Martinez recalled. \u201cHe goes, \u2018Why, I didn\u2019t hit \u2018em.\u2019 I said, \u2018I don\u2019t give a s— if you didn\u2019t hit \u2018em, help us pick the balls up.\u2019 He walked toward me, not angrily, and said, \u2018Hey, I didn\u2019t hit the balls, why should I pick \u2018em up?\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cI grabbed his jersey and said, \u2018Because you\u2019re f——- part of this team, pick the f—— balls up right now. Pick the f—— balls up. I\u2019m tired of your s—.\u2019 I probably pushed him backwards. That was it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martinez contends that Tim Smith, a batting-practice pitcher with the Marlins, witnessed his altercation with Dietrich and confirmed that Martinez did not grab the 24-year-old by the neck. It was not an issue until the Marlins optioned Dietrich to the minors on July 22.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Miami Marlins hitting coach Tino Martinez resigned on Sunday amid reports that he had abused players physically and verbally. According to FOX Sports\u2019 Ken Rosenthal, Martinez called out players for not picking up balls they hit in the batting cage. Picking up balls in the cage is standard practice according to the 45-year-old Martinez. After […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[499],"tags":[423],"coauthors":[6],"class_list":{"0":"post-4080","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-tino-martinez"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4080"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/tireball.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=4080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"MLB:](\"http:\/\/tireball.com\/mlb\/files\/2013\/07\/tinomartinez.jpg\")
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