Pedro Martinez is a hero to many, but even the Boston Red Sox great has a select few pitchers whom he grew up admiring.
The three-time Cy Young and eight-time All-Star was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame — along with Randy Johnson, John Smoltz and Craig Biggio — with 91.1 percent of the vote in his first year on the ballot. Shortly after the announcement was made Tuesday afternoon, the Boston legend joined his former teammate, Kevin Millar, on MLB Network to talk about the honor.
Millar, who began by congratulating “his favorite teammate ever,” asked Martinez about the one guy he looked up to the most when he was growing up. But Martinez couldn’t limit his answer to one.
“I had various people that I enjoyed watching,” he said. “I remember at that time Mario Soto was the pitcher in the Dominican. Juaquin Andujar was another one.
“I also had such a passion for Nolan Ryan. Bret Saberhagen was another one. You know, ’85, in the World Series, I was eyeballing Bret Saberhagen. I had a lot of heroes. Everybody that played baseball seemed to be my hero. But those were people that stood out in front of anybody else.”
Check out Martinez’s full interview with Millar in the video below.
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