ARLINGTON -- Rangers right-hander Chris Martin wanted to pitch and play baseball again, but he didn't have the registration fee required to try out with the independent Grand Prairie AirHogs.
"I almost left the tryout," Martin recalled on Friday at a media conference introducing him as the newest member of the club's bullpen.
"There were a hundred guys there. It was fifty bucks for the tryout and I didn't have fifty bucks in my pocket to pay for it."
Fortunately, Martin knew Luke Prihoda, who was one of the AirHogs pitchers. Prihoda had suggested the tryout, knowing how good Martin was before he blew out his shoulder and spent three years working in warehouses, moving refrigerators and driving trucks.