Pedro Martinez Faces his Daddies Tonight for the Phillies
While pitching for the Red Sox a few years ago, Pedro Martinez famously said that the Yankees were his "daddy."
Tonight, he takes the mound in game two of the World Series, hoping to put the Phillies up 2-0. New York fans certainly aren't going to make fun of him for comments that are several years old now, are they?
Well, Pedro already went on the offensive, but his target was not loud-mouthed Yankees fans, it was the NY media, for portraying him negatively over the years:
"I think in every aspect, the way you guys have used me and abused me since I've been coming to Dodger Stadium (sic), just because I wore actually a red uniform just like this one while playing for Boston, it's been like — I remember quotes in the paper, 'Here comes the man that New York loves to hate.' Man? None of you have probably ever eaten steak with me or rice and beans with me to understand what the man is about. You might say the player, the competitor, but the man? You guys have abused my name. You guys have said so many things, have written so many things.
"There was one time I remember when I was a free agent, there was talk that I might meet with Steinbrenner. One of your colleagues had me in the papers with horns and a tail, red horns and a tail. That's a sign of the devil. I'm a Christian man. I don't like those things. I take those things very serious."
Pedro's right, obviously, and the whole transcript is well-worth a read. He's a very interesting and reflective athlete in a sea of boring ones, not to mention he's one of the most dominant pitchers ever, and because New York papers have been more interested in hyping a silly feud, we know very little about him.
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