Mike Martin, the long-time Florida State Seminoles baseball head coach, passed away on Thursday, February 1, 2024, at 79. He battled Lewy body dementia for three years.
Today we mourn with the Martin family the passing of a wonderful husband, father, grandfather and baseball coach.
Rest in Peace, 11 pic.twitter.com/5cWLT3hcAj
— FSU Baseball (@FSUBaseball) February 1, 2024
Martin, whose birthday would've been in 11 days on February 12, coached the Seminoles from 1980 to 2019. From 1975 to 1979, he was an assistant at the school.
Before becoming a baseball coach, Martin coached basketball from 1970 to 1974 at Tallahassee Community College and Godby High School in Florida.
In his career as the head coach for the Seminoles, he went 2,029-736-4. He was 142-83 in tournaments. His 2,029 wins are the most all-time, more than 50, ahead of Augie Garrido, who had 1,975. In 2019, his final year of coaching, Martin coached in his 40th NCAA Tournament. He had 40 winning seasons in his career and appeared in 17 College World Series.
Martin was inducted into the Florida Sports Hall of Fame in 2005, the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 2007, the North Carolina Sports Hall of Fame in 2018, and, following his retirement, the Florida State Athletics Hall of Fame. Also, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association named the Coach of the Year award after him.
In all, 20 players under Martin were selected in the first round of the MLB Draft, and 60 players made it to the big leagues. Some of his former players include Mike Fuentes, Mike Loynd, J.D. Drew, Buster Posey, and more. He won 11 Metro Tournament championships, eight ACC Tournament championships, and four Metro Regular Season Championships, he was a two-time Baseball America Coach of the Year, six-time Metro Conference Coach of the Year, and a seven-time ACC Coach of the Year. The Seminoles were runner-ups in the College World Series in 1986 and 1999 under Martin.
He's survived by his wife Carol of 59 years, two children, and four grandchildren. In his final season as head coach in 2019, the Seminoles went 42-23, including 17-13 in the conference.
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