My love of Dodgers catchers goes back 25 years, from reading everything I could about Roy Campanella, to following the hard-nosed Mike Scioscia in the 80's, the power-hitting Mike Piazza in the 90's, and the (supposed) feel-good story Paul LoDuca in the 00's. But current superstar catcher Russell Martin may beat them all out by the time he is done. While not having the power of my #1 boy Piazza, he plays defense and runs much better. And last night he added another feather in the cap of his young career. Martin went 4 for 4 with 2 walks, 2 RBIs and the game winning sacrifice fly in the 13th inning. 7 productive ABs in one game and it's still not the best thing he did. In the 9th inning, when Nomar went out with an injury AGAIN, and nobody left on the bench but backup catcher Gary Bennett, Joe Torre asked Martin to play third base, where he's played exactly one game(2003 in low minors) since high school. Russell willingly did so, and did it well. A superstar who had no problems playing an unfamiliar position for the good of the team. Keep it up, Russell, and thanks for keeping us cynics of the game believing just a little.
