Jim Martz worked in the "Golden Age" of baseball.
 
The game of baseball is not what it used to be, but professional scout Jim Martz still loves it today.
Martz, a Gomer native, is retired from baseball now, but spent decades scouting players who would go on to become major league players. A top player in high school, Martz got close to the big leagues but an injury sidelined his playing career. He was able to stay in baseball for 35 years, and along the way received two National League championship rings and two World Series rings. He was inducted into the Elida High School Hall of Fame in 2011 and honored by the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2013.
Martz was a pitcher in the Cubs’ minor league system but in 1970 became a full time scout. From his time as a player and then over and over again as a scout, he experienced how rare a thing it is to become a major league player. Even today, 620,000 high school and college players are eligible each year for the draft, and 1,200 are drafted. From those 1,200, 600 sign with a team (as Martz did), and of those 600, 50 will see time in a major league game.
Money and analytics have changed the game a great deal, Martz said.
“The game I knew and loved no longer exists, especially when it comes to scouting,” Martz said. “But I still believe that you need to have eyes on a player and boots on the ground if you’re going to have a successful organization.”
Thousands of miles traveled, and many looks at players across the country taught Martz to be on the lookout for talent in many forms. He told a story of meeting Ken Griffey Jr. and eventually helping sign him. Griffey had the attention span of a gnat, Martz said, and was literally playing with matches the day the two met. Griffey was recently inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame by unanimous vote.
After Griffey signed, the Topps baseball card company sent Martz a legal pad portfolio and a certificate, which he still has and showed off Monday. Griffey, even though he retired five years ago, will still be paid $3.5 million a year by the Reds until 2025. “My Gomer math tells me that’s about $50 million. I have this folder and this certificate. And Griffey is going to make $50 million,” Martz said, laughing. “No one ever said life was fair.”
In other Rotary business:
The club’s annual meeting is Monday, April 24. Club members received in their email the meeting agenda, as well as proposed resolutions that will be discussed and voted on by those members present.  Of the recent ballots sent to members, 63 of the 83 returned ballots indicated they favored following the 2015 MOU that makes much of the money raised unrestricted for Lima Rotary Foundation decision-making. That means that groups connected to several projects used to seeing earmarked funding will need to submit annual grant applications to the foundation board.
Rotarian Lisa Amstutz and members of the UNOH Rotaract Club gave an update about their group’s service work this spring, including donating to a children’s hospital, conducting a clothing drive, and helping with Child Abuse Prevention Month.
President-Elect Tracie Sanchez gave an update on the Abilities Field, saying sidewalks have been poured and blacktop for the diamond will be laid this week. The field will be ready for play by late June or July.