Nats skipper recalls youth camp that fueled his life in baseball

NEW YORK -- Nationals manager Dave Martinez has been dealing with Major League players since he was 12 years old. His first exposure to those ballplayers came during the winter of 1976, when he went to the Doyle Baseball School, which was then located in Winter Haven, Fla.

The owners of the camp were a trio of brothers -- former Major Leaguers Denny and Brian Doyle and Brian’s twin brother, Blake. Denny is best known for playing second base for the Red Sox in the 1975 World Series, while Brian became a postseason hero three years later with the Yankees. Blake never made it to the big leagues, but played professional baseball in the Orioles and Reds organizations.

The Doyle brothers were impressed by what they saw from Martinez on the baseball field and told his father, Earnest, that Dave had the “it” factor and would love for him to continue his baseball education with them. Earnest loved the idea. Besides, he wanted Dave to stay in Florida and live with his uncle, Carlos Martinez. Dave was born in New York and spent more than a decade in the Big Apple, but Earnest didn’t like the direction his son was headed while living in the Tri-state area.

“There were other things for me at that age. He didn’t want me to get caught up, and he loved the game of baseball,” Dave said about his father. “When I went to the Doyle camp, he said, ‘That’s it, you are going. He sent me off to Florida, and my uncle was tough on me. My uncle didn’t let me do much because he didn’t want to let my dad down. So I grew up fast.”

So, from age 12 until he was taken in the third round by the Cubs in the 1983 MLB January Draft-Secondary Phase, Martinez learned his craft from the Doyle family. While doing so, Martinez became a counselor in the camp and often pulled oranges off trees for the kids to eat.

“The Doyle brothers, the whole family, they helped me out tremendously. They were a huge part of my life. I appreciate that,” Martinez said. “The reason I’ve had so much success is because of them. They were like my uncles, my parents in baseball.”

What was the biggest thing he learned from the Doyle brothers? Discipline. It was about working hard, preparing before games and making him realize that baseball wasn’t always easy.

“They taught me how to balance myself and stay even keel and just go out there and play the game hard,” Martinez said. “They would always tell me, ‘You never know who is watching’ and it was true. I was playing because I loved it. I had fun. I didn’t know scouts were watching me play when I was that young. … I was drafted at an early age. Even after I was drafted, I would go back to the Doyle camp and get ready for Spring Training.”

With help from the Doyle brothers, Martinez did quite well in the big leagues, hitting .276 while playing 16 years with nine different teams, including the Cubs, Rays and Giants. After his playing career ended, Martinez became a long-time bench coach with the Rays and Cubs before becoming a manager and guiding the Nationals to the World Series title in 2019.

Martinez was closest to Denny Doyle, who passed away in 2022. While he hasn’t been in contact with Brian Doyle, Martinez said he keeps in touch with Blake Doyle.

“I talked to Blake about [winning the World Series] and he said, ‘Hey, you deserve everything you get. You worked your butt off.’ It was awesome.”