Dickey Martin

Dickey Martin (born 1919 in Jefferson County) is a major league baseball scout.

He played baseball at Jefferson County High School, leaving to become a batboy for Larry Gilbert's New Orleans, Pelicans. Gilbert got him signed in 1937 to play professionally for Opelousas, Louisiana in the Evangeline League, but he was soon released and returned to finish high school.

In 1941 Martin won a spot with Gainesville in the Florida State League, but had no success there. He returned to Birmingham and to the Birmingham Industrial League. He is remembered for recording an unassisted triple-play from center field against ACIPCO in 1939. He was helped by an in-play tree growing in the middle of Jordan Park and by a base-runner who left the base path in the confusion.

Martin did his first scouting when he signed Al Worthington for Gilbert's Nashville Volunteers. Other players he signed included the fleet-footed Albert Hall, pitcher Al Lary, hitters Ben McDonald and George Reed, and 7-time Golden Glove infielder Jim Davenport.

Martin spent 19 years as a pro scout for the New York/San Francisco Giants, then another 21 with the Atlanta Braves. After that he went to the Philadelphia Phillies where he trained their scouting staff.

He lives in Roebuck.

References

• "His Own Talents Weren't Enough, But Martin Still Made It to the Majors." (September 29, 1996) The Birmingham News