Remembering His Good Buddy Pedro Martinez

Hey, Pedro - remember when I called you a diva when I was running you out of town, then continued to talk shit about you later on?

We're good now, right?

Your pal, Shank

FORT MYERS, Fla. — He is Red Sox royalty, a Hall of Fame talent who already had won a Cy Young Award when he first came to the Red Sox from the small market of Montreal in 1998.

The buzz these days is that it takes a year for a star pitcher to acclimate to Boston — Josh Beckett, Rick Porcello, and David Price all come to mind — but it didn’t take long for Pedro Martinez. He was great at Fenway, right from the start.

Then Pedro says...

He signed autographs for 45 minutes after the session, then took a few minutes to talk about what it’s like for an ace pitcher (this means you, Chris Sale) to introduce himself to the Boston baseball market.

“I think it’s having to restart your mind,’’ said Pedro, cradling a baseball in his right hand. “For a guy like Price, he pitched in Tampa, where it is quiet and not a lot of attention. It was the same for me in Montreal. It took me almost a year to finally settle in and finally understand what to expect and what I wanted to do.

You were saying, Shank?

Rewriting History - LXXV

Dear Pedro:

Remember that time I wrote a meritorious column about you? We're good now, right?

Your pal,

Shank

A @45PedroMartinez profile by Spink winner @Dan_Shaughnessy can be found in our '15 Yearbook https://t.co/IiWHJO63hF pic.twitter.com/DAaEoHmVLU

— Baseball Hall (@BaseballHall) December 10, 2015

Bean Misfire

Something to understand about The CHB: He is not predisposed to athletes with brown skin.

If a Hispanic pitcher offers up a high, hard one, he's an "irresponsible baby."

If it's a white pitcher delivering the goods, however, as Mets hurler Noah Sydergaard did last night in World Series Game 3 against the Royals, it's the "ultimate New York moment" that "changed everything."

Beyond acting as baseball's color guard (get it?), The CHB as usual overstates the importance of a single moment in the game of baseball, especially when it comes to pitching inside.

He has written often about the game where Alex Rodriguez was made to eat the better part of Jason Varitek's mitt, calling it the "day the passive Red Sox finally fought back." Right. The Sox were so fired up, they went 7-6 over the next 13 games. And the Yankees were so taken aback, they only won 10 of their next 14 contests.

But don't let the facts get in the way of a good cliche.

"The World Series is back in New York and the Mets are back in the Series," The CHB gushes.

(Except that tonight they lost to go down 3-1, so ...)

Hall of Shame

The CHB's column on Pedro Martinez's induction today to the Baseball Hall of Fame is sterile in its mindless recitation of Pedro's stats and moronic for calling him, yet again, a diva. Classy.

If there were a Boston Racist Hall of Fame, The CHB would get my vote.

The One Where Shank Pretends To Like Pedro Martinez

Pedro Martinez has written a book about his baseball career. Shank got an advanced copy and devotes today's column to the book he wishes he could have co-wrote with him.

Pedro.

The book.

At last.

He wrote it with the Herald's Mike Silverman. The official publication date is Tuesday. He's got a signing at the Barnes & Noble at the Prudential on Thursday. And you might be able to hunt him down to sign your copy if you make the trek to Cooperstown in July. It will be worth it.

Unless you are old enough and lucky enough to have seen Sandy Koufax in the first half of the 1960s, Pedro's performance with the Red Sox in 1999 and 2000 is probably the best pitching you have ever seen. For those of us who got to cover him every day, he will always be one of the most fascinating, interesting, charming, and downright fun characters who ever walked across the ancient clubhouse at Fenway Park.

At least this column isn't an obvious, transparent attempt on Shank's part to rewrite history.

The One Where Shank Pretends To Like Pedro

Now that Pedro Martinez has been elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame, Shank's practically doing cartwheels:

He is in the Hall of Fame now, and there will be folks from Montreal, New York, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia claiming they saw some amazing stuff from Pedro Martinez.

But he is ours. We had Pedro for the wonderful, dominant, Koufaxian middle of his career. Years from now, when folks sit in rocking chairs, drinking gin and tonics on the porch of Cooperstown’s Otesaga Hotel, they will talk of Pedro Martinez and his Boston days. Pedro goes down in history as a Red Sox.

Cy Young and Roger Clemens are the bookend winningest pitchers in Red Sox history, each registering 192 victories for the Carmine Hose (come on, will ya? - ed.), but all of you who were there forever will remember Pedro as the greatest pitcher in Red Sox history.

Just remember, it wasn't all hugs and kisses when Pedro was pitching for the Red Sox.