Top 30 Dave Martinez Quotes

When things go bad, the best thing to do is keep working and keep coaching.

Everyone keeps telling me how young I am, but if the right opportunity comes up, I’m ready to manage.

Early in my career when I was with Montreal, we had a lot of good outfielders like Otis Nixon, myself, Marquis Grissom and Larry Walker. We all did the platooning thing, although each one of us could have played every day. We got everybody in the lineup, and everybody got to play.

Umpires are supposed to be non-confrontational – they’re supposed to uphold the peace on the baseball field.

I’m never going to criticize any umpires or anything, because they’re a big part of the game.

It wasn’t until Joe Maddon called me in 2006 when I thought about pursuing a coaching career.

Building relationships. Communicating. Trust. Those are three things I’ve kind of instilled myself with.

I’ve seen teammates who wanted to choke each other.

I’ve had many managers, and learned a lot from them, the good ones always stayed even-keeled, never rode the waves.

I’ve been around baseball for a really long time. I didn’t know I could want to be here any more than I do, have any more love or passion for this. But being away, even for just a week, that was the worst. I didn’t know what was going on. I never want to do that again.

The one thing I’ve known and I’ve learned from the best managers, it’s to stay positive.

I don’t care what a guy can’t do. Tell me what a guy can do and let’s make the best of that. If we can do that, all the perceived things he can’t do seem to go away.

I’ve done everything I could as a bench coach. I’m ready to manage.

When you feel like you’re going to have a low-scoring game, why not have one of your better hitters have a chance? All of a sudden you’re in the ninth inning and you have one of your best hitters on deck that doesn’t get up. I always think about that.

I always was the quiet type, never said that much.

It would be tremendous… I’d love to be part of winning a championship in Chicago.

Let them know that we care, even when they have a bad game and not a good game, let them know that we always care about them. You’ll get the most out of every player.

When you go up there in the batter’s box, you’re engaged to hit. It’s the same thing with baserunning.

Honestly, I’d rather not talk about my health.

I’m about as honest as I can get.

I can play with pain. It doesn’t bother me.

I can remember having meetings with my coaches when things were going bad. I told them, ‘Hey, we’ve got to be positive. This is the time we need to step up. You’ve got to make sure they know everything is going to be okay. Keep teaching. Once they see you are down, you lose them and that can’t happen.’

I realized that I still had a lot to offer the game. My knowledge could maybe help younger guys. I enjoyed being around the clubhouse, on the field.

The object is to win as many games possible.

I love conversations, about anything.

We have to stick together. That is what makes good teams.

You know, for me, you don’t chase wins.

Through process and preparation and going through all of the interviews, I’ve learned a lot about myself and my skills.

The one thing I always hear from the players is they say, ‘You never change… no matter what happens, you have conversations with us, you are always positive.’ They appreciate that.

Every year that I have under my belt, I’m a lot more confident and a lot more prepared for the challenges of being a manager.