Senior catcher Casey Martinez has been around great athletes all his life. At his fifth birthday in Toronto, Kansas City Royals legend George Brett and Boston Celtics basketball star Danny Ainge were on hand to help celebrate.

The players were friends of Casey’s dad, Buck Martinez, who played baseball with Ainge on the Blue Jays before the longtime Celtic began professional basketball. Brett was a teammate of Buck’s for five years in Kansas City.

Buck, a 17-year catcher in the Major Leagues, whose last year was in 1986, is currently an Administrative Assistant to Sac State baseball. He joined the team when Casey arrived in 1997. On top of his Hornets duties, Buck has been a color announcer for the Blue Jays for 13 years as well as a baseball analyst for ESPN’s Baseball Tonight show this year.

“This year, he took on an additional assignment,” Hornets coach John Smith said, referring to Martinez’s role on Baseball Tonight. “The last two years, he was around more.”

The elder Martinez graduated from Elk Grove High School in 1966 and played baseball at Sacramento City College in 1969 before entering the professional ranks with the Royals. He also attended Sac State in the same year.

The younger Martinez is in his third year with the Hornets after playing one year at Virginia Tech.

This year, Martinez is batting .263 with three home runs and 13 RBI. At the beginning of the season, Smith was using Martinez as a designated hitter due to his productive hitting.

“He got off to a hot start,” Smith said. “He hit the ball really well the first six weeks.”

In his freshman year at Virginia Tech, Martinez hit well but was not given much of a chance to play.

“I didn’t feel like I got an opportunity,” Martinez said of his time as a Hokie. “I hit like .450 in 25 at bats.”

With family in the Sacramento area, Martinez decided to continue his baseball career at Sac State.

“Because of Casey, I had the opportunity to come back and help,” said Martinez, who will leave the team after this year, Casey’s last at Sac State.

The decision to follow his dad into the world of baseball was not a tough one for Martinez, as it was all around him since a young age.

“I spent one spring as a bat boy in 1986,” Casey said, about his role with the Blue Jays in Buck’s final season. “It really peaked my interest in baseball.”

Casey actually watched his friends play baseball before he played, because his parents — Buck and mother Arlene — wanted it to be Casey’s decision.

“We let him decide what he wanted to do,” Buck said. “He loved football but always knew that baseball was the game he loves.”

In high school, in Holmdel, New Jersey, Casey played football all four years, along with baseball. And though he received some offers to play football after high school, there was only one sport on Casey’s mind.

“I can’t imagine not being involved in baseball,” he said. “So many aspects of the game are so perfect.”

Martinez does not plan on ending his baseball career after playing his final game at Sac State later this month.

“I’m going to do what I can to play baseball somewhere.”

Buck knows that it will not be easy for Casey to advance to the next level in baseball, but he believes that his son’s drive to succeed will allow him to flourish in that atmosphere.

“He’s going to have to work harder than he has ever had to before,” Martinez said. “Professional baseball and college baseball are like night and day.”

Down the road, Casey would like to get into the baseball front office, and hopes to eventually become a general manager.

But for now, he would just like to keep playing baseball. While playing at Sac State, Casey has earned the respect of his teammates.

“He’s a leader,” junior Ryan Brown said about Martinez, who is one of the team captains, “a great ball player.”

After his college career wraps up this month, Casey hopes it isn’t the end of his baseball days. Yet he also knows how difficult it is to reach the professional level.

“He knows that I was very fortunate to play in the majors for 17 years,” Buck said. “But that is his dream.”

Casey sees his dad’s long career as a catcher as a big advantage, but he does not pattern himself after him, or any other catcher. He does, however, go to Dad as a main source on catching issues.

“I get feedback from my dad because he’s played the position,” Casey said. “I’ve talked to him about calling games. I can bounce things off him.”

Casey believes that he plays better when his dad is with the Hornets, which is only during the beginning of the season.

“It is easier. Usually when he’s around, I play better,” Martinez said. “He knows what I can do and I don’t have to prove anything to him.”

Buck said his positive approach when discussing the game with his son has paid off.

“So many coaches talk down to the players. You can’t expect them to do well,” Buck said. “(New York Yankee manager) Joe Torre encourages his players everyday. These are the best players in the world, and they need encouragement. This is also true in life.”

For Casey’s entire life, spending time with his dad in the summer has not been easy, due to his dad’s baseball obligations.

“It was very tough on Arlene and Casey,” Buck said about all the traveling when Casey was young. “I used to worry about how it all would affect Casey. It has to.”

The result was that Casey wanted to do the same thing. Because Casey is a catcher, comparisons between the father and son would be easy to make. But, Buck doesn’t believe that this is an issue.

“I don’t think that Casey has any pressure; he is his own man,” Martinez said. “He loves to play baseball, and has been around great players.”

Elliott says Casey is treated like the other players on the Hornets.

“It’s weird when we sit here and can watch his dad on TV,” Elliott said. “But we don’t look at him as Buck’s son. He’s Casey.”

Brown echoed the comments of Elliott.

“He’s just one of the guys,” Brown said.

Casey said he has overcome the higher expectations that come with being the son of an ex-major leaguer.

“I’m a totally different person. I’m me,” Casey said. ” I’m sure during the course of my lifetime, I’ll do some things that he didn’t do.”

One of those things will take place soon, when Casey becomes the first member of his family to graduate from college.

“He is graduating in four years, honor roll every year,” Buck said, “with transferring and Division I baseball.”