THE first time Pedro Martinez set foot in Dodger Stadium all those many years ago, he watched Tom Glavine pitch a shutout. Imagine going to your first concert and seeing the Rolling Stones, or watching golf live for the first time and seeing Jack Nicklaus win the Masters. That’s how Martinez felt watching Glavine that day.
It was 1991 and Martinez had started playing for the Dodgers’ Single-A team in Bakersfield, Calif. A road trip sent him through Los Angeles, and Pedro’s brother Ramon got him into his first big-league game.
“Glavine was the first pitcher I ever saw pitch,” Martinez said yesterday. “He was incredible that day. Incredible.”
Over the past 15 years, the two have crossed paths, competed in the National League, and now captain a Mets pitching staff preparing for the postseason. That’s why it was about so much more than baseball when Martinez learned earlier this week Glavine’s season and career hinged on a doctor’s report.
“My concern was for his life and his family and wondering how bad it could be,” Martinez said. “You don’t think about baseball at a time like that. You think about the man and his family.”
Martinez said this sitting at his locker inside an empty clubhouse hours before the Mets nearly blew a 10-2 lead en route to a 10-8 victory over the Cardinals at Shea. Martinez, of course, was of no help, wearing an awkward black boot supporting his right foot and injured calf.
He has been wearing the boot since being placed on the disabled list Aug. 16, a temporary setback, it seems, until you watch Steve Trachsel allow six runs in five innings like he did last night. That’s when you get concerned about October.
Martinez is eager to test his recovery and just as eager to stretch a pitching arm that has been idle for nearly 10 days. He’s scheduled to come off the DL next Wednesday, but it doesn’t sound as if there is any rush for him to return.
“I don’t really know what to expect,” he said.
At least he knows when he is healthy, Glavine figures to be healthy, too. Without Glavine and Martinez, the Mets won’t win the World Series this year, no matter how much offense they boast. Last night offered frightening evidence.
Nonetheless, Glavine’s prognosis is good and he could be pitching next week. But it was the word “clot” that scared Martinez the most. He had a cousin who died from a blood clot in 1998. He, too, was a pitcher, a 28-year-old prospect in the Seattle organization. But the death occurred during the offseason and there was no real connection made to baseball.
“Just like that, he was gone,” Martinez said.
That was a sobering experience, one that makes Martinez appreciate whatever time he has in uniform. He has seen careers end in an instant, doing the purest of baseball moves: pitching.
“I was in the minor leagues with the Dodgers and saw a left-hander’s arm blow up like it was a piece of wood,” Martinez said. “Stuff like that brings you right down to Earth in a hurry. It’s that way for pitchers and everybody in baseball. We all realize that what we do, it’s in God’s hands.
“One day you can be firing the ball 90 mph and the next instant somebody hits a line drive back at you and you don’t even know what happened.”
Right now, Martinez just wants to get healthy again, to where he doesn’t have to wear a boot, or worry about Glavine, either.
