The 17-year-old son of former Pittsburgh Pirate Al Martin was found in a friend’s Scottsdale, AZ, apartment Monday morning unable to wake up. Brandon Martin was rushed to a local hospital, where he was declared dead. There were no signs of trauma on Brandon, a senior at Scottsdale Chaparral High School. However, there have been no results released regarding cause of death.

Brandon Martin was a football player at Scottsdale Chaparral and hoped to continue playing football at the college or junior college level next fall after helping his team make the 4A-I title game last season. He had not been ill to his family’s knowledge. Family and friends describe Martin as “easygoing” and “full of spirit”.

His former football coach described the situation as such:

I hope that people understand that he was a good kid. We all make mistakes. He was a kid you wanted to be around and you wanted on the football team.

Brandon’s father, Al Martin, had a colorful career for four MLB teams (mostly the Pirates) and played in South Korea for a season. He once claimed to have played USC football, but no records existed to prove he even attended the university. He also married a woman in Las Vegas despite still having a wife; this was discovered during a domestic violence incident with the “second” wife in 2000.

Visitation was last night in Scottsdale and the funeral will be today.