Soon there will be another display honoring another veteran at the Dallas Jones Roanoke Valley Veterans Centers at Becker Village Mall.
Hyatt with a Look magazine in which Martin is in the photo.
This one will come through the work of Jimmy Hyatt, one of the center's volunteers, and his curiosity in learning all he can about his third cousin, Stuart Martin, a Merchant Marine in World War II and a Major League Baseball player.
Martin, who was from Severn and would later play and manage for the minor league Roanoke Rapids Jays, played with the St. Louis Cardinals, after being called up from the Piedmont League in 1936.
“The funny thing was he never talked much about baseball,” Hyatt said Friday. “He would come over to my grandmother's house.”
His family always said Martin, who went by Stu, played baseball. “They never said he played Major League Baseball.”
It wasn't until about 15 years ago that Hyatt began to realize who his cousin was, a 1936 All-Star fielder. “No one ever mentioned he was an All-Star. That really struck my fancy and I started doing more research.”
While Martin made the 1936 All-Star team in his rookie year, he never played in the game, Hyatt said, probably something to do with the still bitter rivalry that exists between the Cubs and the Cardinals. “The year he made the All-Star team the manager was the Cubs manager. It might have been done out of spite. The second baseman starting was with the Cubs.”
That year the All-Star roster featured names like Gehrig and DiMaggio and Martin's teammate, Dizzy Dean.
Martin's teammates in St. Louis his rookie year included members of the famed 1934 Gashouse Gang which took the World Series championship from the Detroit Tigers.
In 1940 Martin was traded to the Pirates and then in 1943 was sent to the Cubs. Martin's hitting numbers had declined since coming to the major league, Hyatt said. “Fielding was what he was known for.”
Martin tied the Major League record for assists at 11 during a doubleheader with the New York Giants.
Martin
As America fought in World War II, Martin joined the Merchant Marines in 1943. In the early part of the war, being in the Merchant Marine was a dangerous affair, Hyatt said, with threats of U-Boat attacks in the Atlantic. By 1943, the U.S. had gotten control of the U-Boat attacks. Martin served until the end of the war.
In 1946 he played in the Pacific Coast League, playing for the Los Angeles Angels. After a season in California he came back to North Carolina and played and managed for the Jays, a farm club of the then Washington Senators from 1948 to 1952.
In 1986 Martin was inducted into the Guilford College of Hall of Fame where he played two years before being called up by the Cardinals organization.
In a Greensboro News & Record column by Wilt Browning, coach Bob Jamieson said, “First time I saw him, he was wearing knickers and looked like he was a little boy among a bunch of men.”
The coach, however, said, “Have you seen him field? Balls don't get past him.”
For Hyatt, the research is something that will continue and has made him proud. “It's really interesting to have a relative that shared the fields with these greats.”
When Martin, who died in 1997 at 84, returned to Severn, Hyatt said his cousin, who also sold insurance, was never boastful, probably a testament to his Quaker faith. “He never walked around and said, 'Don't you recognize me?'"
