LITTLE ROCK — Tailoring a basketball term to fit a baseball player, Lonoke coach Chris Foor said plenty about Casey Martin with a couple of single syllable words.
Instead of a gym rat, Razorbacks third baseman Martin is a “dirt rat,” said Foor, who witnessed the young man’s uncompromising work ethic and devotion to the game during one year as Martin’s high school coach.
For example, at-bats vs. the pitching machine when most young men swing away at every pitch. Not Martin. He would say to Foor, “Let’s go with our 0-2 approach,” and work on protecting the plate or remind the coach he didn’t see a curve ball in the previous game and ask that the pitching machine be adjusted to chunk breaking balls on the outside corner.