As far as his decision to join the Yankees he said this:The two-time all-star catcher from Chelsea, Que., attending Baseball Canada's annual awards banquet Saturday, attributed his consecutive off-years with the Los Angeles Dodgers to poor preparation.
That's all changed now, and he says "this year I'm looking to be better" than ever.
"Probably some frustrations, probably not training as hard as I should have in some ways," Martin said in explaining his 2009 and '10 seasons. "That's always been my strength, is training my butt off, doing all those things in the best way possible. And I think I had some distractions that maybe led me not to have that same drive that I've had in the past. Really, that's all it is, I trained hard, but before nobody trained as hard as I did.
"This year I feel like I'm back. Just mentally, I feel better."
Asked about the distractions, he said, "there are some things that you keep for yourself, and those distractions are personal."
You gotta wonder how Jorge Posada is feeling about losing his job is being taken by a guy who admits he took the last two years off because of "distractions". Also, New York is the city of distractions so Martin will need to learn how to handle that stuff pretty damn quickly if he's going to survive here."The Yankees were a little bit more aggressive and a little less concerned with the injuries I had," said Martin. "I was told by my agent that (the Blue Jays) were willing to match the Yankees' offer but in my mind it was where do I have a chance to win the World Series the most next year.
"My opinion was I had the best chance with the Yankees."
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"The Yankees were just like, 'Hey, we want you to catch as much as possible, we want you to be our guy,'" said Martin. "That helped my decision as well."
Another thing he may want to learn is that sometimes it's better not to tell the truth to the press. Remember Russell, unlike sports fans in La-La Land, New Yorkers read, retain that information, and then will hold it against you.