PEDRO Martinez recites his impressive checklist. A Cooperstown career. Check.
Three Cy Young awards.
Check. A pivotal role on the Red Sox championship team that ended The Curse. Check.
Financial blessings that will take care of several generations of his family. Check.
Not bad for the Dominican kid once so poor he lacked the 50 cents necessary for roundtrip bus fare. Not bad for a pitcher traded for Delino DeShields because the Dodgers thought he was too frail to be a full-time starter. Not bad for a pitcher whose shoulder injury in 2001 felt like the “uh-oh” moment in a legendary career.
“I thank God for every single game, every pitch, every outing,” Martinez said. “It’s a gift every single day.” Martinez says this is another uh-oh moment in his career.
The checklist this year has been different and disturbing – injuries have struck his toe, calf and hip. He has been to the disabled list twice in 2006 and has not started in more than three weeks. The mileage is showing on a guy with a build more associated with a maitre d’ than one of the greatest pitchers ever.
Yet Martinez says he is without doubt that he not only will be back to pitch, but pitch well in October.
“I always think positive,” he said yesterday before the start of a Braves-Mets doubleheader.
“If I don’t think that way, how will positive things happen? I’ve always been a winner and I expect to be a winner.” Bet against Martinez at your own risk. You should know that Martinez rebounded from the uh-oh moment in 2001 to finish second, third and fourth in the AL Cy Young voting in the subsequent years. He is 74-30 since then.
“I still feel like I can get anybody out,” Martinez said.
This mindset is important.
When you talk to Martinez, his pride, confidence, competitiveness and intelligence are all overt. Same as on the mound. In his prime, Martinez possessed three devastating pitches, yet what made him the greatest pitcher I have seen was marrying those personality traits to that extraordinary repertoire.
He operated without doubt and with regal belief in his stuff. He attacked the best hitters, the biggest moments, and he did the attacking with a pitching IQ that elevated what he did to art.
Those qualities are even more valuable now when Martinez is deploying lesser stuff. There are times his fastball dips into the mid- to low-80s, and all that separates Martinez from QuadrupleA are those elements of the game not found on a spreadsheet.
“I’m not as effective as when I was 28 or 29,” said the 34-year-old righty. “But I am certainly still at a level where not too many others are way above me.” But what happens if that changes? Martinez is used to being elite. What if he cannot muster that in October or next year or the year after? Can he tolerate that? Can he go on if the results are ordinary or worse?
It is when facing these moments that Martinez’s personality is most stark as a conversation becomes, to him, a challenge. Just the introduction of doubt brings out the pride, confidence, competitiveness and intelligence.
He momentarily entertains the idea that he “will not torture” himself to pitch. or “believe me, when I feel I cannot get ordinary hitters out” he will know it is time to leave.
But mainly Martinez talks with dignity and feistiness about who he has been and who he expects to be through the life of a contract that expires after the 2008 season. He reminds you of his great checklist and says he continues not because there is more to accomplish as much as that he loves the act of standing 60 feet, 6 inches away from a hitter.
“I still have faith that I can help this team for the next few years,” Martinez said.
The more you listen to Martinez, the more you realize doubt is his fuel, the item from the list that he returns to check over and over. October is coming.
There is doubt. Bet against Pedro at your own risk.
