This weekend, forget about the 2015 Boston Red Sox.
Forget this underachieving team. It’s not worth the time we spend grumbling over it, wincing at all its obvious flaws.
This weekend, celebrate the past. Forget the 2015 Red Sox and the fact they lose more baseball games than Charlie Brown. Shove aside the dreary present and toast Pedro Martinez, the best pitcher the team has ever had.
Pedro will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday. He’s one of those athletes who earned first-name only status. Hearing his name conjures images of pitching dominance. We don’t need to go over Pedro’s statistics, but we’ll touch on them anyway, just to shake our heads in awe and remember.
Pedro had 219 wins, 117 coming in his seven seasons in Boston. While most of the pitchers in the Major Leagues struggled to retire hitters jacked up on every sort of performance enhancer imaginable, Pedro cruised. An earned run average of 2.07 in 1999. In 2000, his ERA was 1.74, so small it could not be seen with the naked eye.
Red Sox fans need to thank the Los Angeles Dodgers, who didn’t know what they had, and the Montreal Expos, who knew but couldn’t pay the freight and had to trade Pedro to Boston after he won the National League Cy Young Award in 1997.
When Pedro pitched, it was an event, especially at Fenway Park. A Pedro outing was bigger than a baseball game. Dominican Republic flags waving in every corner of the ballpark. Fans on their feet for every strikeout. We were on our feet a lot.
Pedro was cocky and confident. Pedro was honest. He was quotable. Wake up the Bambino, he said, and I’ll drill him.
Pedro had fun. Remember the time he wore a Yoda mask in the dugout? Remember the time his teammates taped Pedro to a dugout post? He understood that baseball is a game, and meant to be enjoyed, but he also understood that when he took the mound, it was all business.
Pedro pitched what was arguably the best game of his career on Sept. 10, 1999, against the New York Yankees in the Bronx. That day was my 27th birthday, and I watched the game in a Chinese restaurant in Gorham, N.H. I drank Mai Tais with my friends and marveled at Pedro’s brilliance.
Pedro gave up a solo home run to Chili Davis, taking away the suspense that would come with a possible no hitter. Otherwise, Pedro was unhittable. He retired the last 22 hitters he faced. He struck out 17, including eight of the last nine Yankees. A few years before he said to call the Yankees his daddy, Pedro had them in the palm of his hand.
Just over a month later, with a sore shoulder, Pedro threw six innings of no-hit relief to win Game 5 of the American League Divisional Series against Cleveland. He had nothing that night, but Pedro’s nothing was still better than most ace’s anything.
His final game with the Red Sox was Game 3 of the 2004 World Series, and while he showed signs of slowing down that season, it was vintage Pedro. Seven innings, three hits, two walks, six strikeouts, no runs.
Pedro always spoke his mind, and that means his induction speech on Sunday afternoon should be magnificent. I imagine everybody, with the exception of Joe Kerrigan, Pedro’s pitching coach in Montreal and Boston, will enjoy it. To get the true measure of Pedro’s disdain for Kerrigan, read his recently published memoir.
Pedro’s Hall of Fame induction is a reminder of an exciting Red Sox past. There’s still two months left in the 2015 season. There’s plenty of time to be miserable.
This weekend, be happy. Celebrate Pedro.
Travis Lazarczyk — 861-9242
Twitter: @TLazarczykMTM
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