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The Orioles signed Dennis Martinez on December 10, 1973 as an amateur free agent out of Nicaragua. He made his big league debut in ’76 at age 22 and was a mainstay in the rotation the following season.

Martinez’ best year for the Birds came in 1979 when he led the league in innings, starts, and complete games. By year’s end the 15-game winner had a 3.7 WAR for the American League champions.

In the World Series he got the start in Game 4. After a 1-2-3 first, Martinez gave up a homer to Willie Stargell to lead off the second. Dennis recorded only one more out before being lifted by skipper Earl Weaver.

Though he allowed four runs on six hits while retiring just four batters, Baltimore’s offense bailed him out. The Orioles trimmed the lead to 4-3 in the third and exploded for six runs in the eighth to come away with a 9-6 victory.

Shown here is a ticket to that game. Notice Martinez’s signature and inscription, “G4 starter. We win”.

Martinez played another six full seasons with the Orioles. In 1976 he pitched four games for Baltimore, posting a 4.59 ERA before a June trade sent him to Montreal.

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On June 16, 1996 the the Orioles sent Dennis Martinez and catcher John Stefero to Montreal for utility man Rene Gonzalez. With the Expos Martinez found his stride.

In eight seasons north of the border he made four All Star teams and pitched a perfect game. On September 28, 1993 Martinez won his 100th game for the Expos. With that he joined six others with triple-digit win totals in each league.

Before Martinez, Cy Young, Al Orth, Jim Bunning, Fergie Jenkins, Gaylord Perry, and Nolan Ryan did it.

Shown here is the autograph of Cy Young, the first man to win at least 100 games for both the National and American Leagues.

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Dennis Martinez had quite a baseball career. The first Nicaraguan to play in the bigs, Martinez held the record for most wins by a Latin American pitcher until Bartolo Colon broke it in 2018.

Martinez is one of only 17 pitchers in MLB history with at least ten Opening Day bids. His 245 victories are the most for any pitcher without a 20-win season.

In the collection is this questionnaire filled out entirely by Dennis Martinez who has signed the top and the bottom of the sheet. Interestingly, when asked who his favorite player was growing up, Martinez responds, “Jim Palmer“, with whom the Nicaraguan would pitch with for nine years with the Orioles.

Martinez also identifies George Brett as the batter that gave him the most trouble. The Hall of Fame third baseman went 23-for-74 (.359) with 5 homers and 16 RBI off of him. Martinez also rates his first big league skipper as one of his favorites saying, “Earl Weaver, he got all out of me.”

The man who threw MLB’s 13th perfect game has the most career victories of any pitcher without a 20-win season. Milt Pappas, Jerry Reuss, Frank Tanana, Charlie Hough, Chuck Finley, Kenny Rogers, and Tim Wakefield are the only other pitchers with at least 200 career victories without reaching the 20-win plateau. Of these, Pappas, Reuss and Rogers pitched no-hitters, with Rogers’ being a perfect game, three years to the day of Martínez’s.

Martinez had many highlights over the course of his 23-year big league career. Interestingly he holds the distinction of throwing the last pitch that Hall of Fame outfielder Kirby Puckett ever saw, a wild pitch that broke Puckett’s jaw. In 2016, Martinez was inducted into the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame.