Mike Schwartz Named Semifinalist For First Annual Tino Martinez Award
OMAHA, Neb. - University of Tampa baseball player Mike Schwartz is among the candidates for the first annual Tino Martinez Division II Baseball Player of the Year Award. Ping!Baseball has narrowed down the list to 35 players.
Candidates include players from all eight regions of the country and several players who have propelled their teams into the NCAA Regionals which were announced on Sunday night.
The list will be narrowed down once again next week when the five finalists for the award are revealed on Monday, May 17.
The winner of the award will be named at the conclusion of the 2010 NCAA Division II Baseball Championship, held May 22-29 at the USA Baseball National Training Complex in Cary, North Carolina.
Schwartz, a senior designated hitter from Montville, N.J., is leading the No. 2 Spartans with a .421 batting average. His 11 home runs represent a team high as he currently stands third among all UT players with 48 RBI. He set a Tampa single-season record with 63 walks as his .597 on base percentage is second in the nation.
ABOUT TINO MARTINEZ
Despite being drafted in the third round by the Boston Red Sox in 1985, Martinez opted instead to attend The University of Tampa. While playing for his hometown Spartans Martinez was a three-time All-American, an Academic All-American and still holds a number of UT records including career home runs (54), career batting average (.399), career slugging percentage (.736), single season batting average (.452) and single season slugging percentage (.957). Current LSU head coach Paul Mainieri has been quoted as stating Martinez was, "the best player I've ever coached against".
In 1988 Martinez was a finalist for the Golden Spikes Award, which is awarded annually to the best amateur baseball player in the country, was the MVP of the Baseball World Cup even though the USA did not win the tourney and helped lead Team USA to victory in the Olympics when he hit two home runs and drove in four runs to lead the Red, White and Blue to a 5-3 victory against Japan .
As a professional Martinez was a two-time MLB All Star and four-time World Series Champion with the New York Yankees. In 1997 we won both the Silver Slugger Award and the All Star Game Home Run Derby and finished second in the AL MVP voting. During his sixteen years (1990-2005) playing at the highest level he had 1925 hits with 339 home runs, over 900 runs scored, 1271 RBI and had at least 100 RBI in six seasons.