Former Baltimore Orioles outfielder Chito Martinez, the first and only Major League Baseball player to ever come from the country of Belize, has died at the age of 59, the team announced on its X account Tuesday (April 22).
"We mourn the passing of former Orioles outfielder Chito Martinez, the only native of Belize to play in the majors," the Orioles wrote.
Martinez was reported to have suffered a heart attack in Lake Cormorant, Mississippi, according to Crescent City Sports, though an official cause of death hasn't yet been determined. A GoFundMe page, which was launched to help the Belizean baseball player's family with finances after he underwent a "series of hospitalizations" in recent weeks, confirmed that he died on Sunday (April 20).
“As a ballplayer myself growing up, I never had his talent but I always looked up to him,” his brother, Robbie, told Crescent City Sports. “They called Chito ‘Mex’ and called me ‘Little Mex.’ He introduced me to baseball. I worshipped those guys in 1983 and 1984 at Brother Martin. Even more, he taught me about life, about how to be a dad, about golf, above and beyond baseball.”
Martinez immigrated from Belize to New Orleans with his family when he was 2 years old and was a standout for Brother Martin High School before being drafted by the Kansas City Royals in the sixth-round of the 1984 MLB Draft. The outfielder spent six years in the Royals' farm system before signing with the Orioles in the winter of 1990 and hitting an International League best 20 home runs before being called up to the majors in 1991.
Martinez spent parts of three seasons with the Orioles from 1991 to 1993, hitting for a .259 average with 18 home runs and a .514 slugging percentage in 216 at-bats, as well as becoming the first Baltimore player to ever hit in each of his first six MLB games.