Auckland, NZ.
Jarrad Martin at Black Sox camp - Source: Dave Lintott
Black Sox veteran Jarrad Martin knows what it takes to win a world softball title - he's helped win three.
He also knows what it's like to lose one and now hopes to learn how to win one back.
That depth of experience - both good and bad - will be the key contribution Martin can make to the current campaign, as the NZ men try to win back the crown they lost to Australia in 2009.
When the Sox line up at Rosedale Park in March, the Taranaki utility, who commutes to play his club softball in Wellington, will join fellow old-timer Thomas Makea at their fifth world tournament.
Two others - Brad Rona and Donny Hale - will attend their fourth and while their physical skills may be waning ever so slightly, their "been there, done that" mentality cannot be replaced.
Coach Eddie Kohlhase has hinted his senior membership may not be seen in every game, but they'll be setting the tone from the dugout and will probably be called on at key moments.
"You've got a lot of guys here who can run and throw and stuff," said Martin (39), looking around the room at last weekend's camp in Lower Hutt. "I can do that, but I might be used in different ways.
"In a tournament like this, there will be a couple of instances, where something that I can contribute to the team could be something big. That's what I'm looking at as part of my role - just making sure the team gets on that train and all the wheels are in sync and going forward together.
"I want to play every game and I'm going to do my darnedest to put my hand up, but if these other guys put their hand up and get the call first, then that's sport. It doesn't matter who we have out there - whatever nine, 10, 11 players are injected into the game - I just have to give them my support."
With pitching coach Chubb Tangaroa absent from the weekend's camp in the Hutt Valley and Martin still nursing an Achilles niggle back to health, he spent a bit of time conspiring with the hurlers, another role he's been called on to fill on occasion during his career.
The injury had raised some doubts about Martin's ability to contest the world series, but he insists he's trucking along well towards a full recovery.
"Personally, I'm feeling good. If you had asked me six months ago, I was probably neither here nor there, but it's getting stronger - it's probably the rest of the body that needs to catch up now."
And he's encouraged by what he sees around him.
"It's been good, for our first weekend together training," he says. "We're getting there - it's just a matter of spending more time with each other, getting used to living out of each other's pockets and making sure we all have that common vision of hoisting that trophy at the end."
The Black Sox build-up continues next week, when the pitchers and catchers - the "battery" - travel to Napier next weekend for a mini-camp with Tangaroa.
