Veteran hitter Victor Martinez of Detroit recently announced that Saturday's Royals-Tigers contest at Comerica Park (GameTracker) would be the final of his major-league career.
Said career has spanned parts of 16 seasons. Along the way, V-Mart has hit 246 home runs; been an All-Star five times; finished in the top 10 of the MVP balloting on two occasions; authored an OPS+ of 118; and collected 2,152 hits. Oh, make that 2,153 hits ...
That turned out to be the final at-bat of Martinez's career ...
Martinez was feted by the team in a pregame ceremony -- he's been a Tiger since the start of the 2011 season -- but the highlight no doubt was his notching one more base hit and then getting the hero's send-off.
V-Mart for many years was a darn good hitter, and by all accounts he was a tremendous teammate all the while. The affection he's earned over the years was quite apparent in Detroit on Saturday.