GANNETT CONTENTONE
Mike Lopresti: Gannett sports columnist
Originally published: October 29, 2009
Martinez magic isn't enough against Yankees
By MIKE LOPRESTI, Gannett
NEW YORK - He walks to the mound, the old Boston magician. Also the old Dodger, the old Expo, the old Met. Most of all, the old Yankees' foil.
He didn't have a job four months ago, working in his mother's garden in the Dominican Republic, and now Game 2 of the World Series has landed in his lap
"We can't really choose our destiny." - Pedro Martinez.
He stands behind the mound, holding his red Philadelphia cap over his heart, saying a silent prayer. Eight seconds. Then he is ready to face the team with whom he will forever be linked as an opponent. He was yin to their yang, blue to their gray, plain to their pinstripes.
You wonder his state of mind the past couple of days.
"He kind of gives you that serious look like he's off into space, but he's working on his game plan." - Jimmy Rollins.
The inevitable Yankee Stadium chant begins. "Whoooosse your daddy?" All those years, all those Red Sox-Yankees games, all those epithets from the cheap seats.
"Sometimes they might be giving you the middle finger, just like they will be cursing you and telling you what color underwear you're wearing. But at the end of the day, they're just great fans that want to see the team win. I don't have any problem with that." - Pedro Martinez.
Martinez, vs. the Yankees in the World Series. Him with a career drawing second wind at the age of 38, them with the urgency to show Game 1 was a fluke, before the Phillies really start smelling blood.
The moment almost seems too ironic, too produced. But Martinez is a gamer, and that is good enough for his manager.
"Bottom line, I just want to tell you something. We just like to play baseball." - Charlie Manuel.
Derek Jeter approaches the plate, bat in hand. How many times have we seen this matchup before? Martinez does not make a radar gun sing an aria the way he once did.
"I just know I'm a pitcher out there, and I'm out there to beat you with whatever I have." - Pedro Martinez.
So it begins.
Three and one-half hours later it was over, the Yankees 3-1 winners, the World Series tied 1-1 and now on Amtrak to Philadelphia.
He gave the Phillies everything they had a right to expect, everything anyone could ask. The Yankees got ahead of him with a couple of solo homers - one a bomb, one a chip shot - but how they had to work for two runs. Two leadoff singles in the seventh ended his night, and the Yankees added another run once he left. He knows how they are. Give them an inch and they'll take your whole pitching arm.
Martinez was wily, he was shrewd, he was a pain in the Bronx.
The third strike that Alex Rodriguez looked at in the second inning dawdled across the plate at 71 miles an hour. Jeter was never ready for the third strike he watched in the third inning, because Martinez quick-pitched him.
Rodriguez' sixth inning at-bat was a seminar on how to get rid of a Yankee. Three straight 89-mile-an-hour fastballs, then a changeup 10 miles an hour slower. Martinez had his eighth and last strikeout. A-Rod sat back down. He has struck out six times in this Series, by the way. In case the Yankees hadn't noticed.
This was Retro Pedro, but it had no happy ending. Mark Teixeira hit a changeup 414 feet in the fourth to tie the game at 1-1. Teixeira was 12 years old when Martinez made his first major league appearance.
When Hideki Matsui dropped a line drive just inside the right field foul pole in the sixth - the part of the ballpark you could reach from home with a paper airplane - the Yankees had their first lead of the World Series. Martinez stood and gazed at the replay a long time.
In the end, A.J. Burnett was even better. Thing is, they might have to do it all over again here next week.
"I will do whatever it takes to beat you. But I'm a human being after I take my clothes off." - Pedro Martinez.
Yankee Stadium booed as he left in the seventh inning. Pedro Martinez smiled back.
Contact Mike Lopresti at mlopresti@gannett.com
Print this article | E-mail this article to a friend
READ MORE OF MIKE'S COLUMNS
Martinez magic isn't enough against Yankees
This World Series is painful to watch in Cleveland
Agassi's admission of drug use is lesson for us all
Phillies' Lee dominates Yankees in Game 1 win
Yankee Stadium takes the stage
At NBA tip-off, some teams sport new look
For Ohio State's Pryor, lessons learned from Lebron
Angels rally to extend ALCS
Phillies exorcise losing ways
L.A. Angels' season may end before team can create proper memorial
ABOUT MIKE
Quote: "Of course, I have to say who won. But I'd better say more. If not, I'm useless. They don't need me. I have to give readers something extra than what they've seen on TV. Or why read?"
Favorite sport: college basketball.
Career: Sportswriter, (Richmond, Ind.) Palladium-Item, 1970-1981; Gannett News Service and Gannett ContentOne, since 1982.
First GNS assignment: Super Bowl XVI.
Born: Richmond, Ind.
Ball State University graduate.
Married since 1976.
In the press box
World Series: 27
Final Four: 28
Super Bowl: 26
NBA Finals: 25
Masters: 25
Olympics: 14
Advertisement