Florida State baseball community rallies around Mike Martin Sr. after dementia announcement
Now that Carol Martin has gone public about her husband’s ongoing battle with a form of dementia, the Florida State baseball community is rallying around the head coach who for decades was synonymous with the program.
Mike Martin Sr., the winningest coach in college baseball history, has been suffering from Lewy body dementia since the summer of 2021, his wife told the Tallahassee Democrat this week.
According to medical literature, Lewy body dementia is the second most common type of dementia after Alzheimer’s, and Carol Martin said it has been “heartbreaking” to watch her husband fall deeper and deeper into the disease.
“It’s so heartbreaking for me to see my companion of 58 years progressing down that path,” she told the Democrat. “It’s a 24/7 proposition. He’s not with us.
“He’s in his own little world.”
The world around the Martins still remember the impact he made on their lives. Former players from every decade have taken to social media to share memories and thoughts and prayers for Martin and his family.
Current Florida State head coach Link Jarrett, who played for four years under Martin in the 1990s, wrote a testimonial to what the patriarch of Florida State Baseball meant to him over the decades.
“Mike Martin has helped shape me into a man and encouraged my journey into coaching, and it’s an honor to now serve as head coach of Florida State on the field that bears his name,” Jarrett wrote. “I had the pleasure to welcome back Coach and Carol multiple times during my first season, including in March for Buster Posey’s jersey retirement. I enjoyed getting to spend time with the two of them, and seeing him meet and interact with our players.
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“While we’ve known of 11’s diagnosis, he and Carol continue to display their strength and bravery by going public with what had been his private battle with dementia over the last couple of years. Our thoughts and prayers continue to be with 11, Carol, the entire Martin family and everyone he has impacted at FSU.
“He is the greatest to ever coach college baseball and is a model of character and integrity.”
The annual Northwest Florida FCA Bobby Bowden Memorial Golf Tournament, which will take place on Oct. 30 at Golden Eagle Country Club, is set to honor Martin later this month.
Mike Martin Sr. was the head coach at Florida State from 1980 to 2019, he won over 2,000 career games and advanced to the College World Series 17 times — including in his last season in 2019.
Baseball, of course, has been a part of Martin’s life forever. The North Carolina native played at Florida State, then came back as an assistant coach and later served as head coach. And Carol Martin told the Democrat that her husband still talks baseball today, sometimes even thinking he is coaching a game.
“We laugh at some of the things that transpire – though it is a tragedy,” she said. “You try to laugh to lift your spirits. In his mind at these times, he’s OK and still doing what he loves.
“We are hoping in his mind he’s happy and at peace.”
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