Nationals manager Davey Martinez says World Series win "cured" his heart a month after surgery
Last month, Nationals manager Davey Martinez had heart surgery after feeling tightness in his chest during a game. On Wednesday night in Houston, after the Nats won their first World Series in franchise history, he told his team the victory was the best medicine.
In September, Martinez admitted that he was "so scared" by the heart procedure, which caused him to miss a series against the St. Louis Cardinals.
On Tuesday night, when Martinez was having an animated conversation with umpires that led to his ejection in Game 6, he heard a fan screaming at him from above the dugout.
"Davey, your heart. Remember your heart," the manager recalled with a laugh before Game 7.
Martinez said one of his doctors checked on him in the training room after he got ejected and asked him if he was OK. "I just asked him, 'Do I look OK?' Yeah," Martinez said. "So yeah, they were all worried."
During the champagne-drenched World Series celebration in the Nationals locker room, Martinez was asked by CBS affiliate WUSA-TV what the title meant to him. The 55-year-old manager had to hold back tears.
"These guys right here... I'm gonna bust out in tears, thank you," Martinez said, choking up with emotion. "What they accomplished this year hasn't been accomplished in a very, very long time. I'm proud of them."
