My Dear Friends of Dodgertown West

My Dear Friends of DTW,

It is with great regret that I am announcing my retirement from this great thing we call DTW.

I was informed today that my cancer has spread to my bones and that at best I have 2 months left and will soon be having hospice care.

The fantastic people I have met and the friendships I have formed have brought me great comfort the last six seasons and I hold them dear to my heart.

Some may think that sharing my illness so openly with you all might have been wrong, but who else would you share it with but with your family and I have consider everyone at DTW as family.

I cannot say in words what playing baseball with you all has meant to me and I realize I might have gotten under some's skin by the way I exhibited my love of the game, I would also like to think I was a good teammate who would do the things that might help whatever team I was playing on (lay down the bunt, move the runner over, taking the walk, doing the Dennis Rule, later to become a rule change) always pushing the envelope :-) and making some plays that even I could not believe I made (right Gary :-), complimenting both teammates and opponents on good plays and hits and most of all playing clean but still getting my uniform dirty.

There is so much more I wish I could say but that would take days to write and I am sure you don't want to read a novel on how much DTW has meant to me since I joined in 2003.

I am OK with my fate and am coming to terms with it, but if you hear an annoying voice coming from the stands at Veteran's Memorial Park in the future it might be me cheering you on.

Peace and happiness to all,

Dennis Martin
Dodgertown West
#2

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