LOS ANGELES -- "Drop" is not a word a catcher would want his name associated with.
Or, one would think.
The catcher "dropped" the ball after a home-plate collision ... he "dropped" strike three allowing the runner from third to score the winning run ... or he was "dropped" in the batting order.
Russell Martin is not your average catcher. And we don't mean the fact he is a two-time all-star.
The East York-born, Montreal-raised catcher is a backer of the One Drop foundation and will donate $600,000 US over the next 10 years to the group, whose mission it is to fight poverty by supporting access to clean water.
Martin heard about the foundation striving to make quality water accessible to all in sufficient quantity after hearing the goals of founder Guy Laliberte, a Montrealer who also founded the Cirque du Soleil.
DONATION
When the donation was announced in June, Martin was flanked by his girlfriend Marikym Hervieux.
Hervieux's sister, Valerie, is married to former Dodgers pitcher Eric Gagne, who continued his comeback pitching for the Quebec City Capitales of the independent Can-Am League this summer.
It's not a small amount as Martin, who earned $3.9 million this season, is not on a multi-year contract and eligible for salary arbitration at the end of this year. And he is not a free agent until after the 2012 season.
A child dies somewhere around the world from lack of drinking water every eight seconds, according to One Drop. Martin has committed to making a difference and will visit one of the on-going projects either in Nicaragua or Honduras this off season.
He hopes he doesn't have to plan the trip until after a World Series win.
Game 3 of the best-of-seven National League Championship Series goes tonight at Citizen's Bank Park in Philadelphia. Dodgers right-hander Hiroki Kuroda faces lefty Cliff Lee.
This season, Martin batted .250 with a .680 OPS. He had seven homers (down from a high of 19 in 2007) and 53 RBIs (down from 87 in 2007), starting 137 games behind the plate, one game at third and DHing three games.
Martin was "dropped" in the Dodgers order to the No. 8 spot. A year ago, in the NLCS he was hitting cleanup behind Manny Ramirez. Yet, this past week, he was a presence during the first two games at Dodger Stadium.
He hit a ground-rule double to left and scored in the three-run fifth against Cole Hamels and had a run-scoring single off Ryan Madson in the eighth inning of Game 1, cutting the Phillies lead to 8-5.
And he was in the middle of the winning rally the day the Dodgers won Game 2 when they hit the ball hard only twice -- a deep drive to centre by Ramirez which was caught, and Jim Thome's pinch-hit single in the eighth.
Down 1-0 in the bottom of the eighth, Casey Blake reached on a single off the glove of Pedro Feliz, who was guarding the line. Ronnie Belliard pushed a bunt past pitcher Chan Ho Park for another hit.
ASSUMING
Martin squared to bunt three straight pitches as Park went to 3-0, then a called strike with Martin heading to first assuming ball four.
On a 3-2 pitch, Martin bounced to Feliz, who threw to second for the force, but Chase Utley's relay nearly hit Martin on the nose as the run scored. Four batters later, Andre Ethier walked to force Martin home with the winning run.
"If you're down a run or tie the game, you always feel like you have an opportunity," Martin said. "We had base runners on. We had confidence in our lineup."
BOB.ELLIOTT@SUNMEDIA.CA
