Church outreach set Martinez on path of purpose

Six years after he began shining shoes as a way to support his family, Carlos Martinez was certain that he had found his calling.

He was 12 years old and one of three brothers sharing a cramped bedroom in a home in Puerto Plata, Dominican Republic, that appeared prone to toppling over with the next gust of wind. They lived with their grandma. Other family members came and went, further cramping the modest two-bedroom home nestled near the base of a hill.

Martinez was often found playing Vitilla — a modified game of baseball using bottlecaps and broomsticks — in his Dominican neighborhood, though in those preteen days he had no idea where the sport would take him. It was merely a form of recreation. As for a purpose? That would be found in the Catholic Church.

Martinez had been invited to a Church-sponsored retreat designed to help local children decide whether the path to priesthood was one they desired to walk. Martinez was particularly struck by the opportunity to do good. He saw the Church engaged in community outreach, delivering bags of rice, clothes and other food to those in need.

And though his family was so poor that he shared a pair of shoes with his brother, Martinez wanted to be a part of that mission.

“That’s when this whole giving back to the community started in my heart,” Martinez says now, with agent Brian Mejia serving as a translator. “I just liked being a part of that.”

Of course, plans don’t always stay on script. After four years of coursework and studies, Martinez ran into a roadblock when he registered for high school. He didn’t have a proper birth certificate — the same issue, incidentally, that would keep him from signing with the Red Sox a year later.

The cost to obtain the necessary paperwork was more than his family had, so Martinez was left with no choice but to drop out of the program. It was then that he started taking baseball even more seriously.

Sport would eventually carry him out of the Dominican Republic and onto the television screens of many. With a four-pitch mix and early career comparisons to Hall of Famer Pedro Martinez, Carlos Ernesto Martinez profiles as a future ace for the St. Louis Cardinals.

But while his path may have pivoted, Martinez has discovered that what he most wanted to do as a teenager in Puerto Plata is what he actually has the means to do now. For through baseball, Martinez, 25, found the platform to give back in ways he never imagined. And the impact has been extraordinary.

“I see him as a young adult that is really super gracious for what God has given him and the ability God has given him to help his family and help the community,” said Lt. Noe Marquez of the Fairmont City (Ill.) Police Department. “He really does put others first.”

Building the Foundation

In the same year he was emerging a as permanent fixture in the Cardinals’ rotation, Martinez established a charitable foundation that would help him achieve his longtime goal of assisting children in need. He named it Tsunami Waves, a nod to the nickname that is tattooed across his pitching arm.

The foundation’s opening event was in Fairmont City, an area nestled just east of St. Louis, across the Mississippi River. It covers less than seven square miles but features the highest percentage of Hispanics in the St. Louis metropolitan area.

Marisa Diaz, who left her position within the Cardinals’ community relations department to serve as the community program and special events director for Tsunami Waves, had organized a baseball clinic. Martinez woke up sick the morning of the event; Diaz urged him to come anyway.

“I have about 100 kids here thrilled to hang with you,” she pleaded.

Martinez would spend three hours with those kids that day.

“When I went out to Fairmont City, I never thought that in the United States, and particularly in St. Louis, that there was such a need in the Latin community,” Martinez recalled. “I went there and witnessed it myself and heard stories from kids about broken homes and families that couldn’t really provide the essentials. It filled my heart.”

“I knew from that moment on,” …

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