Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Pedro “Petey” Martinez

When the Hall of Fame voting for the 2015 class comes up, Pedro Jaime Martinez will assuredly be voted in his first year of eligibility (which should be a 100% slam dunk ballot but undoubtedly there will be some douche who doesn’t vote for him thinking he’s not worthy of being a 1st time ballot inductee due to his tossing of then 72 year old Don “out of control rhino”  Zimmer to the ground during that bru-ha-ha with the Yankees in Game 3 of the 2003 ALCS playoffs…which by the way was spectacular).

In this 1993 Pinnacle card "Rookie Prospect" edition, Pedro Martinez had just made his major league debut during the 1992 season at the tender age of 20 with 1 start and 1 relief appearance going 0-1, 2.25ERA, 8.0IP/2ER/1BB/8K’s.

Of course we all know what happened afterwards, when “Petey” pitched the next 17 seasons accumulating 3 Cy Youngs (also finishing in the top 4 in four other years); 2004 World Series Champ with the Boston Redsox; career record of 219 Wins & 100 Losses, 2.93ERA, 46 complete games, 17 shutouts, 3154K’s in 2827IP, 1.05WHIP, a career 10K’s per 9 innings (yowza!) and a career WAR of 75.9, which ranks him 23rd all time amongst pitchers.

In summation, Pedro Martinez was a fucking awesome pitcher!  He was 1 of the very few pitchers that I would specifically want to watch the game just to see him pitch.  He was only 5’11” and 170 pounds and not one of those behemoth, freak of nature kind of baseball players.  There was something special about watching a baseball player that looked like your typical scrawny teenage kid that would go up there and totally dominate like he did. Especially during the “steroid era” where every other batter looked like Lou Ferrigno with a batting helmet (Hulk smash baseball).


My favourite part of this card is the back photo of Pedro. I’m pretty sure it’s his high school graduation photo “Ok Pedro, turn your body slightly to the right and look straight at me and 1-2-3 click”.  He definitely has the mandatory teenage boy upper-lip peach fuzz working for him.  

@GrubersMullet

4 comments:

  1. First, Welcome back to the blogosphere! Second, Score Pinnacle.... brings back images of piles and piles of semi-premium cards in my basement.

    Keep rockin'!

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  2. Thanks CoolHead. It's been waaaaay too long between posts.

    I have a few more of the Pinnacle cards. Some pretty interesting ones that i'll have to post.

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  3. I was incredibly impressed by Pedro's interviews in Ken Burns' 10th Inning... he's funny, intelligent and even self-deprecating... looked a little older than on that card though...

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  4. He is. I remember seeing a few of his sit down interviews during his playing days and always found him an intelligent well spoken player. And very funny. His HoF speech should be fun to listen to.

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