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New Nationals manager Dave Martinez traces roots to New York

WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. — The journey that brought baseball lifer Dave Martinez to Washington as the new rookie manager of the Nationals began on the corner of Lexington Avenue and 93rd Street in New York.

Martinez, the son of Puerto Rican parents, fell in love with the national pastime while growing up in the country’s biggest baseball town.

“My mom and dad were pretty hands-on. They were strict about me going out and running around the streets,” recalls Martinez. But as a young boy, Martinez found time to play baseball — as difficult as that was at times in a borough without a lot of grass.