They really didn’t waste any time. In two games they’ve managed to run the dizzying gamut of baseball emotions, from the giddy excitement of finally seeing Santana, to “oh fuck, fuck fuck, Pedro’s injured again, fuck.” The dominance and exuberance of youth, giving away to the frailty and uncertainty of age. The entire spectrum of baseball, covered in two games. Everything that happens from now on will seem redundant.
The commercials on am sports radio have to be considered as a candidate for the lowest form of expression ever produced.
Perhaps the best thing about Santana was the sense, not entirely logical, that we were finally done with relying on the murky depths of the rotation, who would now only appear in the number five spot. With Pedro injured, two out of five starts have to come from some mix of Pelfery, El Duque, Jorge Sosa, Nelson Figureoa, the last of whom, Willy Randolph apparently said would probably replace Pedro on the roster.
It was almost inevitable that Pedro would spend some time on the DL at some point, but the hope was that it would have come at some latter point in the season, after he had demonstrated an ability to stay with the team.
Indeed, in terms of actual baseball the injury to Pedro has the potential to be relatively minor. Pedro was probably expected to do fairly little, with the most serious expectations, after Santana, falling on Oliver Perez and John Maine. At the same time, the idea of the five Cy Youngs between Pedro and Santana, the new ace and the old ace at the top of the rotation counted for something, if only to the fans. In truth, Pedro has not had a very major effect on either of the last two seasons, and, while most of the anticipation was geared towards Santana, there was also a fair amount of excitement at the prospect of finally seeing what the Mets had in Martinez.
And perhaps the best thing about watching Santana was knowing that he would be followed by Pedro, and the expectation that the Mets dominance on the mound would continue into the next game.
…actually sports talk itself might be worse than the commercials. They just blamed Spike Lee for the state of the Knicks.
Showing posts with label Pedro. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pedro. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Mets 2008 Preview: Starting Pitchers
Today I’ll be previewing starting pitchers because, after the infielders, I am most sure about the composition of the rotation.
Johan Santana
Chinese Zodiac: Sheep
Career ERA: 3.22
The arrival of the second best athlete traded from a Minnesota team in the last ten months catapulted the Mets from a shaky team with questions at several positions, into favorites to compete, not only in the NL East, but also for the world championship. I spent a lot of time thinking about this and decided that you probably are better off being a basketball team with Kevin Garnett than a baseball team with Santana. The logic being that in MLB there are perhaps two or three pitchers (Beckett, C.C. Sabathia) that give you more or less what you get from Santana, where as the NBA has one other player, Tim Duncan, who gives Garnett’s combination of lock-down interior defense and solid scoring near the basket; and Duncan has been proving for years that if you surround one of these guys with the right combination of jump shooters and flopping foreign role players, you can compete for the championship until you run out of fingers for rings. Still, in much the way that a KG or a Tim Duncan can improve their team on offense and defense by controlling the paint and taking pressure of their teammates, the presence of a true ace allows for a better rested bullpen, and takes pressure off both the back of the rotation and the lineup. Fortunately, aside from the loss of KG and Johan, everything else about living in Minnesota is completely awesome.
Pedro Martinez
Chinese Zodiac: Pig
Career ERA: 2.80
How will Pedro’s surgically repaired shoulder hold up? How will he adjust to being the number two pitcher on the team? How many jack-ass articles will be written in The Post about Pedro being too greedy and egotistical to come back to the Mets in ’09? Where will Pedro pitch in ’09? And how will he cope with the feelings of remorse brought on by PETA’s letter of protest? Honestly, the outlook on all of these things is good, and the reports from camp are that Pedro is almost enjoying his secondary status. And, in much the way that Santana’s dominance takes pressure of the rest of the Mets on the field, Pedro’s eccentricity and charisma should take pressure off of them in the media. PEDRO FACT: Pedro drives a black Austin-Martin with his number “45” engraved on the hubcaps.
Oliver Perez
Chinese Zodiac: Rooster
Career ERA: 4.43
Sam’s Mets Blog favorite Oliver Perez continues on his quest for some kind of consistency in ‘08. Why can’t he just be good all the time, dammit? The neat thing about Perez is that he still holds out the possibility of transforming into an ace, although the chances of this happening seem more remote every year. I suspect the same oscillation between brilliant starts and disasters. In other news, Ollie won his salary arbitration with the club, which got him a raise of something like $ 4 million. I would really like to know how he spent the night after the arbitration hearing; I hope it involved drinking tequila with Rick Peterson.
John Maine
Chinese Zodiac: Rooster
Career ERA: 4.19
At some point during spring training, one of the Mets Notes, on Mets.com, was a bunch of bullshit about John Maine going on line for the first time in his life. My assumption is that a reporter saw Maine on a computer and Maine claimed he had never used one before as a joke-- either that, or it was a joke on the part of the reporter. With other ballplayers I might be more inclined to believe this, but Maine is presented as almost an intellectual by baseball standards, doing crossword puzzles and Soduku and occasionally speaking in full sentences. Apparently Maine and Perez have been playing pranks on each other in spring training, and I wonder if this is just fun and games or the seeds of real animosity between the two pitchers vying for #3 status.
TBD
The Old Duque (Rooster, or possibly Snake) vs. Big Pelf (Pig)debate took a turn for the terrible as both of them got lit up by the Cardinals on Sunday. Omar Minaya has apparently mentioned Nelson Figueroa (Tiger)and John Niese (Tiger) as possible alternatives. Although, El Duque and Pelfery will split another start before the season begins, I would have to think that any alternative is looking very good. As Dorothy Parker said, “When given a choice of bottom of the rotation starters, I always take the one I haven’t tried before.” Personally, I’m pulling for N-Fig.
Johan Santana
Chinese Zodiac: Sheep
Career ERA: 3.22
The arrival of the second best athlete traded from a Minnesota team in the last ten months catapulted the Mets from a shaky team with questions at several positions, into favorites to compete, not only in the NL East, but also for the world championship. I spent a lot of time thinking about this and decided that you probably are better off being a basketball team with Kevin Garnett than a baseball team with Santana. The logic being that in MLB there are perhaps two or three pitchers (Beckett, C.C. Sabathia) that give you more or less what you get from Santana, where as the NBA has one other player, Tim Duncan, who gives Garnett’s combination of lock-down interior defense and solid scoring near the basket; and Duncan has been proving for years that if you surround one of these guys with the right combination of jump shooters and flopping foreign role players, you can compete for the championship until you run out of fingers for rings. Still, in much the way that a KG or a Tim Duncan can improve their team on offense and defense by controlling the paint and taking pressure of their teammates, the presence of a true ace allows for a better rested bullpen, and takes pressure off both the back of the rotation and the lineup. Fortunately, aside from the loss of KG and Johan, everything else about living in Minnesota is completely awesome.
Pedro Martinez
Chinese Zodiac: Pig
Career ERA: 2.80
How will Pedro’s surgically repaired shoulder hold up? How will he adjust to being the number two pitcher on the team? How many jack-ass articles will be written in The Post about Pedro being too greedy and egotistical to come back to the Mets in ’09? Where will Pedro pitch in ’09? And how will he cope with the feelings of remorse brought on by PETA’s letter of protest? Honestly, the outlook on all of these things is good, and the reports from camp are that Pedro is almost enjoying his secondary status. And, in much the way that Santana’s dominance takes pressure of the rest of the Mets on the field, Pedro’s eccentricity and charisma should take pressure off of them in the media. PEDRO FACT: Pedro drives a black Austin-Martin with his number “45” engraved on the hubcaps.
Oliver Perez
Chinese Zodiac: Rooster
Career ERA: 4.43
Sam’s Mets Blog favorite Oliver Perez continues on his quest for some kind of consistency in ‘08. Why can’t he just be good all the time, dammit? The neat thing about Perez is that he still holds out the possibility of transforming into an ace, although the chances of this happening seem more remote every year. I suspect the same oscillation between brilliant starts and disasters. In other news, Ollie won his salary arbitration with the club, which got him a raise of something like $ 4 million. I would really like to know how he spent the night after the arbitration hearing; I hope it involved drinking tequila with Rick Peterson.
John Maine
Chinese Zodiac: Rooster
Career ERA: 4.19
At some point during spring training, one of the Mets Notes, on Mets.com, was a bunch of bullshit about John Maine going on line for the first time in his life. My assumption is that a reporter saw Maine on a computer and Maine claimed he had never used one before as a joke-- either that, or it was a joke on the part of the reporter. With other ballplayers I might be more inclined to believe this, but Maine is presented as almost an intellectual by baseball standards, doing crossword puzzles and Soduku and occasionally speaking in full sentences. Apparently Maine and Perez have been playing pranks on each other in spring training, and I wonder if this is just fun and games or the seeds of real animosity between the two pitchers vying for #3 status.
TBD
The Old Duque (Rooster, or possibly Snake) vs. Big Pelf (Pig)debate took a turn for the terrible as both of them got lit up by the Cardinals on Sunday. Omar Minaya has apparently mentioned Nelson Figueroa (Tiger)and John Niese (Tiger) as possible alternatives. Although, El Duque and Pelfery will split another start before the season begins, I would have to think that any alternative is looking very good. As Dorothy Parker said, “When given a choice of bottom of the rotation starters, I always take the one I haven’t tried before.” Personally, I’m pulling for N-Fig.
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Met's Martinez honored at Dominican Sporting Event
I feel deeply irresponsible for not having responded more promptly to the Pedro Martinez/cockfighting incident. In that I have an excuse, it is because I find the matter utterly trivial, and was unable to resolve the debate about what form my sarcastic response should take. The principle objections to cockfighting, that it is 1) brutal and 2) unkind to chickens, are inarguable, in and of themselves. However, in that we live in a society where people frequently eat chicken McNuggets and frequently watch pro-wrestling or hockey (not to mention financing and implicitly supporting murderous wars, but whatever) without being subject to any form of public condemnation or censure, all objections to cockfighting are pretty much hypocritical and preposterous.
I’d actually like to take the opportunity to put in a plug for Roger Corman’s Cockfighter (1974), starring Warren Oates. Oates plays a man who has vowed not to talk, until he wins the Kentucky Cockfighter of the Year Award, which is actually given out, oh, not necessarily annually, but only when there is a deserving recipient. The brilliant thing about it is that, story-wise, it perfectly mirrors your classic inane sports movie about an introverted athlete who needs to make peace with himself or his love ones, en-route to the success that he craves. Only its about cockfighting. It’s also amusingly permeated with skevy ‘70s sexual mores. Any movie where someone loses their girlfriend to Harry Dean Stanton over a cockfight gets tons of points.
******
The Clemens Hearing:
Nigel: I haven’t seen anyone in such unabashed self-righteous denial since Nixon.
Sam: yeah, well at least Nixon didn’t try to pin it on his wife.
*******
I recently subscribed to Baseball Prospectus, and found an article about the top performers in the Winter Leagues. The top rated pitcher was Nelson Figueroa, who, while he hasn’t distinguished himself in the majors lately, won championships in Taiwan and Mexico this winter. He is an older player, who works mainly with off-speed stuff: if he fits in, in the majors, it would seem to be as a durable, back of the rotation guy, or a long-man in relief. Apparently he is a non-roster invitee at the Mets camp, although I haven’t been able to find any mention of this on the Mets website.
******
Further Pedro Speculation:
Part of me thinks that Pedro put the video on YouTube himself, since he was tiered of everyone paying attention to Santana. Either that or he was attempting some sort of reconciliation with Anna Benson.
I’d actually like to take the opportunity to put in a plug for Roger Corman’s Cockfighter (1974), starring Warren Oates. Oates plays a man who has vowed not to talk, until he wins the Kentucky Cockfighter of the Year Award, which is actually given out, oh, not necessarily annually, but only when there is a deserving recipient. The brilliant thing about it is that, story-wise, it perfectly mirrors your classic inane sports movie about an introverted athlete who needs to make peace with himself or his love ones, en-route to the success that he craves. Only its about cockfighting. It’s also amusingly permeated with skevy ‘70s sexual mores. Any movie where someone loses their girlfriend to Harry Dean Stanton over a cockfight gets tons of points.
******
The Clemens Hearing:
Nigel: I haven’t seen anyone in such unabashed self-righteous denial since Nixon.
Sam: yeah, well at least Nixon didn’t try to pin it on his wife.
*******
I recently subscribed to Baseball Prospectus, and found an article about the top performers in the Winter Leagues. The top rated pitcher was Nelson Figueroa, who, while he hasn’t distinguished himself in the majors lately, won championships in Taiwan and Mexico this winter. He is an older player, who works mainly with off-speed stuff: if he fits in, in the majors, it would seem to be as a durable, back of the rotation guy, or a long-man in relief. Apparently he is a non-roster invitee at the Mets camp, although I haven’t been able to find any mention of this on the Mets website.
******
Further Pedro Speculation:
Part of me thinks that Pedro put the video on YouTube himself, since he was tiered of everyone paying attention to Santana. Either that or he was attempting some sort of reconciliation with Anna Benson.
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
Unreasonable Speculation:
So, if the Mets make the post-season, and if everyone is healthy, the Mets will face a minor dilemma: they will have five starting pitchers when they will only use a four man rotation. So, of the five, Martinez, Glavine, El Duque Maine and Perez, one of them needs to be moved to the bullpen—any Met-ologist will point out that this was done to Sid Fernandez on the 1986 Championship Team. It is unthinkable, for reasons of ego and star power, that Glavine or Martinez would pitch in relief. In the most recent Mets Mailbag, someone asks if El Duque’s nearly legendary relief outing for the White Sox in the 2005 ALDS would make him a leading candidate for the bullpen assignment; the mailbag’s emphatic answer was no, which was kind of too bad since the first draft of this post was mainly about how the Mets should not let the 2005 ALDS tempt them into using El Duque in relief.(the White Sox put him in the ‘pen because he had an awful end of the season and they thought they had better options for starters, which is not the case of 2007 Mets) This narrows the field down to Maine and Perez.
For a lay person the question of weather Maine or Perez should work in relief is fascinating, since there is no real information of any sort to go on. In terms of success rate, they are very evenly matched: Maine’s performances tend to stick closer to some sort of mean, whereas Perez’ vary more sharply and he is more prone to both excellence and miserable failure. They have similar, brief, histories in the post season: both were very adequate in the games that they pitched for the Mets last year.
Eeven less concrete than their numbers, is the fan’s perception of a difference between the two in temperament, particularly in what is perceived as their mental/emotional state when they end up in trouble. Maine, apparently, is prone to lapses of concentration; he occasionally misplaces his pitches and gets ‘hurt by the longball.’ Perez, on the other hand, is liable to ‘get rattled’ when things don’t go his way: when balls get misplayed in the outfield or when he disagrees with the umpire about balls and strikes. Once one of these minor setbacks occurs, Perez is prone to losing his composure, and his command, and issuing walks until his composure returns or he gets taken out of the game. The generalization is that Maine hurts himself by not reacting enough to the game, the opposite of Perez, who makes trouble for himself by being too emotionally involved.
Of course, the Mets Mailbag precedes its response with the customary hedge, saying that it is far too early too discuss these things and that no one knows who will be healthy and what the situation will be if and when the time comes to make these decisions, but then says this: “I wouldn't use Perez in relief. He's too erratic for the role,” and goes on to speculate that Maine might be a serviceable short reliever, based largely on his dominance early in games—this is in fact a very good point, and Maine’s first trips through the lineup have been extremely dominant all season, and there is some kind of logic to thinking that he could repeat this dominance in relief outings.
In my expert opinion, though, the South Paw from South of the Border might have a little bit of a better psychological make-up for a relief pitcher. It is frequently said of Perez that he “wants the ball” in big games, that he wants to be out on the mound when the season is on the line. He is an adrenaline pitcher, and a component of his wildness is a taste for danger; there is something about him that reminds one of Billy Wagner, who is capable of protecting a lead of exactly 1.5 runs. The theory about Perez, that his emotional involvement in the game leads him to fall apart, works both ways: it has been known to lead him to excellence as well. The Met’s best bet might very well be to run him out in relief and hope for the best.
UPDATE: Mets fans are dopes.
For a lay person the question of weather Maine or Perez should work in relief is fascinating, since there is no real information of any sort to go on. In terms of success rate, they are very evenly matched: Maine’s performances tend to stick closer to some sort of mean, whereas Perez’ vary more sharply and he is more prone to both excellence and miserable failure. They have similar, brief, histories in the post season: both were very adequate in the games that they pitched for the Mets last year.
Eeven less concrete than their numbers, is the fan’s perception of a difference between the two in temperament, particularly in what is perceived as their mental/emotional state when they end up in trouble. Maine, apparently, is prone to lapses of concentration; he occasionally misplaces his pitches and gets ‘hurt by the longball.’ Perez, on the other hand, is liable to ‘get rattled’ when things don’t go his way: when balls get misplayed in the outfield or when he disagrees with the umpire about balls and strikes. Once one of these minor setbacks occurs, Perez is prone to losing his composure, and his command, and issuing walks until his composure returns or he gets taken out of the game. The generalization is that Maine hurts himself by not reacting enough to the game, the opposite of Perez, who makes trouble for himself by being too emotionally involved.
Of course, the Mets Mailbag precedes its response with the customary hedge, saying that it is far too early too discuss these things and that no one knows who will be healthy and what the situation will be if and when the time comes to make these decisions, but then says this: “I wouldn't use Perez in relief. He's too erratic for the role,” and goes on to speculate that Maine might be a serviceable short reliever, based largely on his dominance early in games—this is in fact a very good point, and Maine’s first trips through the lineup have been extremely dominant all season, and there is some kind of logic to thinking that he could repeat this dominance in relief outings.
In my expert opinion, though, the South Paw from South of the Border might have a little bit of a better psychological make-up for a relief pitcher. It is frequently said of Perez that he “wants the ball” in big games, that he wants to be out on the mound when the season is on the line. He is an adrenaline pitcher, and a component of his wildness is a taste for danger; there is something about him that reminds one of Billy Wagner, who is capable of protecting a lead of exactly 1.5 runs. The theory about Perez, that his emotional involvement in the game leads him to fall apart, works both ways: it has been known to lead him to excellence as well. The Met’s best bet might very well be to run him out in relief and hope for the best.
UPDATE: Mets fans are dopes.
Monday, September 3, 2007
Pedro Returns
Somehow, I managed not to be distracted by the team’s sweep of the Braves, and kept myself focused on the one event of true importance looming in the Met-a-verse: the imminent return of the Pedro. Monday will mark the end of instability in the Mets rotation; it will be the end of overusing the bull-pen; also, it will be the end of any shortcomings of younger players due to a lack of proven, veteran leadership-- for on Monday, Pedro Martinez will re-join the Mets. More than the incidental sweep of the once rival Braves, the second coming of Pedro should silence any doubts about the team raised by the disastrous series in Philadelphia. When examining the Mets chances in the NL East, relative to the Philies, there is only one truly important question: which team has Pedro Martinez?... sorry Philly.
Times like this allow you to appreciate what a truly valuable player El Duque is: a more durable pitcher would have probably been available to make his start, causing a minor logjam in the rotation; fortunately, El Duque was ready to save the already overtaxed decision-making-ability of the management, and helpfully developed a minor injury.
As for how the actual second coming of Pedro goes, if the results of this first start are somewhat inconclusive, well, you heard it here first. Look to see ‘flashes of the old Pedro’ mixed in with periods of being completely hittable. In fact, I would not be surprised if this flashes/hittable dichotomy remains a feature of all of Martinez’ future starts—leaving Met fans anxious come the post-season, should the team make it, but with the tantalizing possibility represented in these flashes still dangled in front of them. As for today, I think that Willie Randolph’s best bet is to go with his defensive outfield, and count on Met’s pitchers ability to induce batters to fly out to a diving Endy Chavez.
Times like this allow you to appreciate what a truly valuable player El Duque is: a more durable pitcher would have probably been available to make his start, causing a minor logjam in the rotation; fortunately, El Duque was ready to save the already overtaxed decision-making-ability of the management, and helpfully developed a minor injury.
As for how the actual second coming of Pedro goes, if the results of this first start are somewhat inconclusive, well, you heard it here first. Look to see ‘flashes of the old Pedro’ mixed in with periods of being completely hittable. In fact, I would not be surprised if this flashes/hittable dichotomy remains a feature of all of Martinez’ future starts—leaving Met fans anxious come the post-season, should the team make it, but with the tantalizing possibility represented in these flashes still dangled in front of them. As for today, I think that Willie Randolph’s best bet is to go with his defensive outfield, and count on Met’s pitchers ability to induce batters to fly out to a diving Endy Chavez.
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Predictions
The New York Post just published a supplement about the 2007 season which was filled with stuff like this: “The summer is spent with anticipation and setbacks mixing for Pedro Martinez… he is never close to himself and is never much of a factor,” and “Will have a bigger year than expected: Billy Wagner… look for Wagner’s second season in New York to be superior to his first.” Anyway, that inspired me to make some predictions of my own:
1) Pedro Martinez will come back and be FREAKING AWSOME
That thing that they say happens where you have surgery, do rehab, and the constant working out makes you a better pitcher, that’s going to happen with Pedro. He will make the opposing batters look like chumps. Also, Oliver Perez will flat out rock.
2) ALL the relievers will return from injury/suspension and kick ass
Mota, Sanchez, even that guy Padilla who I’m not really sure where he came from, are all going to come up big time when they rejoin the club. Joe Smith will emerge as being insanely dominant, and after a brief stint in the minors, Burgos will find some control and destroy opposing hitters, completely destroy them.
3) The Mets will suffer their biggest setback of the season when Jose Reyes misses ten games in mid-August after ascending in a ray of light to a UFO hovering over Shea during an inside-the-park home run. He will return ten days latter with a strange trophy made out of an element that is not on the periodic table. Close observers on the team will notice that after this his feet never really touch the ground; instead he always hovers a quarter of an inch above it.
1) Pedro Martinez will come back and be FREAKING AWSOME
That thing that they say happens where you have surgery, do rehab, and the constant working out makes you a better pitcher, that’s going to happen with Pedro. He will make the opposing batters look like chumps. Also, Oliver Perez will flat out rock.
2) ALL the relievers will return from injury/suspension and kick ass
Mota, Sanchez, even that guy Padilla who I’m not really sure where he came from, are all going to come up big time when they rejoin the club. Joe Smith will emerge as being insanely dominant, and after a brief stint in the minors, Burgos will find some control and destroy opposing hitters, completely destroy them.
3) The Mets will suffer their biggest setback of the season when Jose Reyes misses ten games in mid-August after ascending in a ray of light to a UFO hovering over Shea during an inside-the-park home run. He will return ten days latter with a strange trophy made out of an element that is not on the periodic table. Close observers on the team will notice that after this his feet never really touch the ground; instead he always hovers a quarter of an inch above it.
Friday, March 9, 2007
Pedro Thoughts
Pedro Martinez has was one of my favorite ball players, even in his late Red Sox days, and by favorite I mean I knew who he was and vaguely like him, which was something that I could say of barely any Mets at a time when I did not follow baseball if I could avoid it; and this was only made difficult in the post season by an obsessed room-mate.
What I liked about Pedro then was the depressed intensity that he exuded on the mound; his Eeyor-like face, and the bitter concentration that he seemed to pour into every pitch. As someone who was essentially a non-fan, the drama of his persona, coupled with the mixtures of despair, passion, and desire that could be clearly read into his expressions and body language was one of the few avenues that I found open into the game. Perhaps more than any of the other Red Sox, Pedro Martinez really looked like a man playing under a curse.
I only liked him more as a Met in 2005, and while it was partially because he was playing for my favorite team, it was also because his persona seemed to switch from perhaps the most conspicuously sad ball player in the game, to someone who was frequently exuberantly happy. It seemed very much that the experience of winning the World Series, or perhaps more importantly, beating the Yankees, had given him a capacity for personal irony and an ability to take things lightly that he had lacked- he could not have been like that before, and retained the dark sense of drama that seemed to define him as a Red Sock.
The clearest illustration of this came not on the mound, but at the plate. In the ’04 World Series, I made a point of watching the game that he pitched in the Cardinal’s park, because I wanted to see him bat and he did not let me down: he was visibly confused and angry at having to be on the receiving end- he didn’t swing at all, and his disappointment when one at bat ended with him drawing a walk was far greater than when he was called out on strikes. As a Met and a National leaguer, however, he seemed to enjoy his time at the plate- he talked exuberantly with reporters when he recorded his first hit and joked about his desire to hit a home run. One of my favorite memories of the ’06 season came late in one of the extra innings marathons that the team played early in the season, when Pedro and Glavine stood in the dugout waving bats, asking to be brought in to pinch hit.
Of course, this is one of a fairly small number of good Pedro memories that I have from the ’06 season; injuries quickly limited his playing time, and when he did play he was frequently fairly ineffective, getting mercilessly beaten a couple of times. On other teams, and certainly on any other Mets team in recent memory, the injury, re-injury, and injury related mediocrity of a player of Pedro’s caliber, price-tag, and expectations would have dominated the coverage of the team- but, weather it was the frequently phenomenal offensive performances, the tribulations of various starters that they brought in to try and fill his spot, or the Duaner Sanchez saga, there was too much else going on with the 2006 Mets for the Pedro story to really command anyone’s full attention. Furthermore, the team’s colossal lead in the standings, and their continued winning regardless of what Martinez did, removed all sense of urgency from Pedro-related speculation.
On some level, I feel that the indifference that has been forming in the minds of Pedro’s fans and, presumably to some extent, teammates will be as significant a factor in his eventual return as any of the physical aspects of the rehabilitation. With some ball players, the A-rods and Carlos Beltrans, the experience of leaving the team for nearly a year and finding that, in his absence, the infielders could still throw to first and a plague of locusts had failed to descend on the stadium, would be amazingly positive. Pedro, however, seems to have incorporated being the center of attention into both his personality and his game (or more accurately both because with a player like Pedro drawing a line between the two is probably impossible); in fact, he reminds me a lot of the Chicago Bull’s Ben Wallace, one of my other favorite athletes. Like Pedro, Wallace is a ‘special’ player, whose incredible physical talents are almost overshadowed by their passion and competitiveness. When Big Ben was on the Pistons, he was the face of the franchise and his gritty defensive play was the team’s calling card; last year when they brought in coach Flip Saunders, the style of play became more offensive and the attention shifted slightly away from Wallace. At one point, Wallace responded to this by showing up in ridiculously loud eye goggles, which he said that he needed for a clearly fictional eye injury, and only wore for about twelve minutes before getting tired of them. Still, everyone looked at him, and he drew a couple of puff pieces in the local papers, and all was right with the world. Also, he signed with the rival Bulls for slightly more money in the off season.
I thought that a similar set of feelings, the desire to regain the attention of the crowd and a sense of confusion about what to do in its absence, was visible in Pedro when the Mets clinched the NL East. Pedro was one of the first people out of the dugout when they rushed the field; I think he used his connections to be the first person given one of the “NL East Champions” shirts, which he proudly displayed; he sprayed more than his share of champagne. Still he always seemed to be standing a little bit apart from his teammates, and all the reporters were more interested in talking with David Wright and Jose Reyes.
When Pedro returns, his emotional and mental state will be a significant factor in what he is able to do for the team, along with the physical aspects of his rehabilitation. I actually have my reasons for thinking that things will work for the best, but this post has gone on quite long enough as it is.
What I liked about Pedro then was the depressed intensity that he exuded on the mound; his Eeyor-like face, and the bitter concentration that he seemed to pour into every pitch. As someone who was essentially a non-fan, the drama of his persona, coupled with the mixtures of despair, passion, and desire that could be clearly read into his expressions and body language was one of the few avenues that I found open into the game. Perhaps more than any of the other Red Sox, Pedro Martinez really looked like a man playing under a curse.
I only liked him more as a Met in 2005, and while it was partially because he was playing for my favorite team, it was also because his persona seemed to switch from perhaps the most conspicuously sad ball player in the game, to someone who was frequently exuberantly happy. It seemed very much that the experience of winning the World Series, or perhaps more importantly, beating the Yankees, had given him a capacity for personal irony and an ability to take things lightly that he had lacked- he could not have been like that before, and retained the dark sense of drama that seemed to define him as a Red Sock.
The clearest illustration of this came not on the mound, but at the plate. In the ’04 World Series, I made a point of watching the game that he pitched in the Cardinal’s park, because I wanted to see him bat and he did not let me down: he was visibly confused and angry at having to be on the receiving end- he didn’t swing at all, and his disappointment when one at bat ended with him drawing a walk was far greater than when he was called out on strikes. As a Met and a National leaguer, however, he seemed to enjoy his time at the plate- he talked exuberantly with reporters when he recorded his first hit and joked about his desire to hit a home run. One of my favorite memories of the ’06 season came late in one of the extra innings marathons that the team played early in the season, when Pedro and Glavine stood in the dugout waving bats, asking to be brought in to pinch hit.
Of course, this is one of a fairly small number of good Pedro memories that I have from the ’06 season; injuries quickly limited his playing time, and when he did play he was frequently fairly ineffective, getting mercilessly beaten a couple of times. On other teams, and certainly on any other Mets team in recent memory, the injury, re-injury, and injury related mediocrity of a player of Pedro’s caliber, price-tag, and expectations would have dominated the coverage of the team- but, weather it was the frequently phenomenal offensive performances, the tribulations of various starters that they brought in to try and fill his spot, or the Duaner Sanchez saga, there was too much else going on with the 2006 Mets for the Pedro story to really command anyone’s full attention. Furthermore, the team’s colossal lead in the standings, and their continued winning regardless of what Martinez did, removed all sense of urgency from Pedro-related speculation.
On some level, I feel that the indifference that has been forming in the minds of Pedro’s fans and, presumably to some extent, teammates will be as significant a factor in his eventual return as any of the physical aspects of the rehabilitation. With some ball players, the A-rods and Carlos Beltrans, the experience of leaving the team for nearly a year and finding that, in his absence, the infielders could still throw to first and a plague of locusts had failed to descend on the stadium, would be amazingly positive. Pedro, however, seems to have incorporated being the center of attention into both his personality and his game (or more accurately both because with a player like Pedro drawing a line between the two is probably impossible); in fact, he reminds me a lot of the Chicago Bull’s Ben Wallace, one of my other favorite athletes. Like Pedro, Wallace is a ‘special’ player, whose incredible physical talents are almost overshadowed by their passion and competitiveness. When Big Ben was on the Pistons, he was the face of the franchise and his gritty defensive play was the team’s calling card; last year when they brought in coach Flip Saunders, the style of play became more offensive and the attention shifted slightly away from Wallace. At one point, Wallace responded to this by showing up in ridiculously loud eye goggles, which he said that he needed for a clearly fictional eye injury, and only wore for about twelve minutes before getting tired of them. Still, everyone looked at him, and he drew a couple of puff pieces in the local papers, and all was right with the world. Also, he signed with the rival Bulls for slightly more money in the off season.
I thought that a similar set of feelings, the desire to regain the attention of the crowd and a sense of confusion about what to do in its absence, was visible in Pedro when the Mets clinched the NL East. Pedro was one of the first people out of the dugout when they rushed the field; I think he used his connections to be the first person given one of the “NL East Champions” shirts, which he proudly displayed; he sprayed more than his share of champagne. Still he always seemed to be standing a little bit apart from his teammates, and all the reporters were more interested in talking with David Wright and Jose Reyes.
When Pedro returns, his emotional and mental state will be a significant factor in what he is able to do for the team, along with the physical aspects of his rehabilitation. I actually have my reasons for thinking that things will work for the best, but this post has gone on quite long enough as it is.
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