Topic: Russell Martin

Russell Nathan Jeanson Coltrane Martin, Jr (born February 15, 1983) is a Canadian Major League Baseball catcher for the New York Yankees.

Martin became the everyday catcher for the Los Angeles Dodgers immediately upon his Major League debut, and continued in that role for nearly 5 years. His offensive and defensive performance earned wide accolades during his first three years, but they diminished significantly in 2009 and 2010 and Martin spent the last two months of 2010 on the disabled list. After the Dodgers declined to raise his salary, he signed with the Yankees for less than the Dodgers had offered him and succeeded Jorge Posada as the Yankees' everyday catcher.

Martin was born in East York, Ontario (now part of the city of Toronto). He grew up in Chelsea, Quebec and lived in Paris, France from the age of 8-10. Martin has an African Canadian father, Russell Martin Sr., and a white, French Canadian mother, singer and actress, Suzanne Jeanson. His parents separated when he was only two years old. His father used to play saxophone in Montreal subway stations to help pay for his baseball training. Along with playing baseball in the Montreal neighborhood of Notre-Dame-de-Grâce, Martin played hockey for N.D.G Minor Hockey, where glimpses of his future all-star athleticism could be seen. He graduated from Polyvalente Édouard-Montpetit High School, which was the same high school attended by former teammate Éric Gagné. After graduating from high school, Martin took a junior college scholarship at Chipola College in Marianna, Florida.