Pedro Martinez hopes to get the second ring of his HOF career. (SI Photo)
Tonight should be a special night for Pedro Martinez - win, lose, or draw. Pedro has long been the number one villain of NYY fans, and it's a role he's relished for over a decade now. I give Pedro a lot of the credit for really turning around the fortunes of the Red Sox as a franchise as a whole, and this is credit he rarely receives. Ever since the Red Sox traded for him in 1997 they have erased stigmas and sterotypes that used to surround the franchise like a rotten stench. He's the player who finally gave the Sox a cockiness and confidence that got them over the World Series hump, and made players want to actually play in Boston once again. I've written it a bunch, but Pedro is one of my all-time favorite players, and in my opinion - he's the best pitcher ever to play for the Sox.
Having Pedro pitch a World Series game during the twilight of his career in Yankee Stadium seems just about right. He's been such a polarizing figure in that town, it's almost as if there's been a magnetic force continuously drawing him and his career to the city that doesn't sleeps. Add on top of this the motivation of why he's still playing the game of baseball, and it all seems downright storybook, but as we know already - Pedro's always had a flair for the dramatic. The below is from a Sports Illustrated article written by Tom Verducci and it speaks volumes:
Martinez's father, Pablo Jaime, developed brain cancer in 2008 during the last of Martinez's four years with the Mets, a tenure marked by injuries and unfulfilled expectations: Pedro won 32 games while earning $53 million. A frail Pablo told his son during one visit in July 2008, that he wanted him to continue playing baseball. Pedro flew back to rejoin the Mets. Three days later, his father was dead. "Those were his last words to me," Martinez says. "Today it's all for him and his wishes."
Sounds like some pretty good motivation to me, however - as we all know, once the game starts all the things on the peripheral don't really matter anymore. Still, it's a touching story, and one I take to heart for reasons that are too close for comfort or solace. In the end it's just a baseball game tonight, albeit a World Series baseball game, but whenever Pedro's on the mound, it always seems like it's so much more then a game - it's an event you have to watch, and we're all damn lucky to have him in the spotlight one last time, win, lose, or draw
Oddly enough... I'm going to say something positive here. In watching tonights game, and quite honestly even when he was pitching for the Mets... I just didnt have the "hate" for Pedro any more. He's done alot of shi**y things in his past... throwing Zimmer to the ground, regardless of who came at who was disgraceful. The guy was over 70 years old. Not cool. Head hunting and sending multiple yankees to the hospital back in the days when about 10x as many Yankees got hit than Sox players did(thanks Joe Torre) was also lame.
But this is a new time. The Sox are far in the rear viw for him... and tonight he was just a member of a team that I dont hate, but in fact like. If the Phillies were not playing the Yankees i'd root for them. They are an easy team to like.
I'll say this though. Some of this payroll stuff is a little exaggerated with the hate and venom. The talent on these two teams is VERY even. The difference is that players hold out for massive amounts of $ when the Yankees are bidders. That hikes up the payroll an easy 50 million right there.
I guess every sport needs a Juggernaut. Anyway the point was Pedro. I def agree he was the best pither to ever play for the Sox. And while I'd say Manny+Fertility drugs and HGH and Big Syringe did more to get you over the hump then Pedro did... he was def a big reason.
Had to throw in a little rib at the end. Cheers... heres to game 3. Happy watching.
Posted by: Erik | October 30, 2009 at 05:33 AM