Earlier this season, V let Dave D know his feelings:
“He said, ‘Dave, do you have a minute I could talk to you?” Detroit Tigers general manager Dave Dombrowski recalled today.
So they went to the back of the clubhouse, into a private locker room and Martinez, representing himself at the moment – “I’ve never done anything like this before,” he said – made his first pitch to the Tigers to keep him around for a few more years.
“Maybe I’m not supposed to do this because my agents may not like this,” he told Dombrowski. “But I want you to know how much I want to be a Detroit Tiger. I don’t want to go anywhere after this contract. This is like my home. It’s like my family and my family feels the same way and I want to be a Detroit Tiger.”
“I’m real excited to come back here to Detroit,” he said. “It’s an honor for me to wear this uniform for the rest of my career and play in front of these great fans.”
[At the press conference] He was flanked to his left by Dombrowski and to his right by team owner Mike Ilitch, who said he put his arm around Martinez after the Tigers’ division-clinching win over the Twins in September and told him he’d take care of him.
“I’m so honored to have a guy like Mr. I that wants to win so bad, as bad as we want to win,” Martinez said.
“I’m just really excited for this great opportunity to get my dreams complete,” he said. “Which is winning a World Series.”
via Victor Martinez stays with Detroit Tigers: ‘This is like my home’.