Pedro Martinez’s phone has been ringing during the last two weeks.
Several major league teams — the three-time Cy Young Award winner won’t say which ones — called with offers to pitch. He was flattered by the invitations but turned them all down.
“Very tempting,” he said yesterday during an interview with the Associated Press, “but I have already committed to my kids for the rest of the year and going on vacations, and made plans already with the family.”
Martinez signed in July 2009 with Philadelphia, his fifth team in a big league career that began in 1992. He went 5-1 with a 3.63 ERA in nine starts down the stretch and reached the World Series for the second time.
But the 38-year-old right-hander has spent most of this summer in the Dominican Republic.
“It feels real good to be able to be at home and get to hug mom every time you want, see her every time you want,” he said. “To be able to go to the baseball field and see your kids playing is really something.”
Still, it’s been trying in some ways. He called this summer a test for him, adjusting to “a different life.”
“I do miss competing, being out there — the atmosphere, I do miss it,” he said. “Some other things I don’t miss: the media and the pressure of just being asked to do, and being asked questions every day.”
Martinez said he was pleased Alex Rodriguez hit his 600th home run. Especially, he said, because the Yankees star is Dominican-American. Unlike some, he doesn’t have any qualms about A-Rod one day making the Hall of Fame. He thinks many of the sluggers under the cloud of actual or alleged steroid use, such as Rodriguez, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, belong in the Hall.
“I think whoever did what they did still deserves, just like Pete Rose. He belongs,” Martinez said. “It doesn’t matter what he did. He paid his dues already. He should be in the Hall of Fame.”
It’s harder for Martinez to evaluate his own chances. He compiled a 219-100 record and a 2.93 ERA in 18 seasons, won five ERA titles and three strikeout crowns.
“I haven’t really stopped to see what kind of numbers I have, but I think I have a chance, a legit chance,” he said. “Some of the things I’ve done are really special.”
