Pedro Martinez Pitching for More Than Just Phillies in World Series Start

Red Sox fans have spent the past fortnight joyriding in the Wayback Machine. Wednesday, for instance, was the five-year anniversary of waking up to a new, wonderful reality, after the best night of sleep in 86 years.

The epic slaying of the Yankee Stadium ghosts, said to haunt the old edifice primarily in October, is where the great 2004 remembrance began. But a couple of those spirits apparently survived long enough to make the move across the street. And those “Holy Cow!” ghosts are reuniting Thursday night, in essence, with the father and the son.

Delicious anticipation greeted Monday’s announcement by Charlie Manuel that Pedro Martinez would make the Game 2 World Series start against the Yankees at the new Stadium. The history of Pedro vs. the Yankees is so rich, and still so vivid for Red Sox fans, it is as if Pedro is pitching for two teams.

“You know, any time I hear that, ‘Who's your daddy?’ it really reminds me that God is my daddy,” Martinez said Wednesday. “It gives me strength. It keeps me strong and healthy, and I believe I can do anything. I said it before, when you have 60,000 people chanting your name, waiting for you to throw the ball, you have to consider yourself someone special, someone that really has a purpose out there.”

When last upon the October stage in New York, Pedro was helping the Red Sox finish off the greatest comeback in postseason history. But though Martinez got the last laugh in the 10-3 Game 7 victory — hoisting the William Harridge Trophy in the cramped, champagne-drenched visitors' clubhouse — the ghosts that haunted him still managed to dance.

Even with the barrage of Johnny Damon homers and the brilliance of Derek Lowe, that Game 7 contained one minor throat-tightening moment: Pedro’s relief appearance. The Yankees scored twice in the seventh and were threatening for more when Pedro’s fastball kicked in, and he got out of the inning with an 8-3 lead. Then, Mark Bellhorn hit the foul pole, and all was forgotten.

But there certainly was a reason why Pedro had declared that September that the Yankees were his daddies. The year before, of course, was the infamous eighth inning in Game 7. And before that was the image of Pedro throwing Don Zimmer to the ground during a melee in Game 3 at Fenway — a moment that still haunts Pedro.

Pedro again proved mortal against the Yankees in the 2004 ALCS. He lost a largely forgotten — but painfully frustrating — Game 2, giving up a backbreaking two-run homer to John Olerud, of all people, while being serenaded by the “Daddy” chant.

And in the classic Game 5 marathon, Pedro left the game on the losing side, allowing a three-run triple to Derek Jeter to fall behind 4-2.

(Even Pedro’s brother, Ramon, endured a ghastly, ghostly experience for the Red Sox in the 1999 ALCS, pitching well enough to win Game 2 at the Stadium, only to see potential home run balls by Jason Varitek and Troy O’Leary hit the top of the outfield wall and stay in play — those runs never scoring in a one-run loss.)

But now, five years later, the slate is clean. Pedro’s final appearance in a Red Sox uniform — five years ago Monday — was among his finest, shutting out the Cardinals for seven innings to put the Red Sox on the brink.

It’s now been two Red Sox trophies since then, and for Pedro, two teams. His return to Fenway with the Mets in June of 2006 was a wonderfully cathartic moment after a somewhat rocky departure to Shea. And now, in the twilight of his career, Pedro has held off the mango trees long enough to return to the World Series stage.

Cue the ghosts, one more time.

“Coming in against the Yankees, this is the first time I'm going to play [them in] a World Series,” Martinez said. “I think my World Series was in 2004, and 2003 and the previous years when we played them in the playoffs and we couldn't beat them. But in 2004, after we beat them, I didn't feel like the other team stood a chance against us with all the respect they had, and they still carried from me. I don't think that St. Louis had any chance. After we beat the Yankees here, after being 0-3, St. Louis didn't have a chance, and that's the way we proved it to be.
 
”Coming against the Yankees in a World Series, Phillies uniform, it's just a special day. It's a special occasion for me.”