Pedro Martinez squares off against Sam Jones in the first round of Boston’s Biggest Sports Legend tournament.
Baseball fans in New England were treated to one of the most dominant stretches of pitching in the history of baseball when Pedro Martinez came to Boston in 1998. In his first six seasons with the Red Sox, Martinez went 101-28 with a sterling 2.26 ERA and 1,456 strikeouts. The following season, Pedro went 16-9 as the Red Sox marched toward the postseason, where he pitched seven shutout innings in Game 3 of the World Series, helping break an 86-year-old curse. But even those numbers can’t accurately reflect what Pedro did for baseball in Boston. Pedro’s arrival heralded the arrival of a superstar in Boston. Pedro’s starts became an event, anticipated more than a Patriots game on a Sunday. Fans filled the bleachers, waving Dominican flags and counting K’s, and rarely did Pedro disappoint. In many of his starts, fans bemoaned double plays, because they simply took away a strikeout opportunity for one of the era’s most dominant aces.
It takes a lot of great plays and incredible moments to earn the name “Mr. Clutch,” but that’s just who Sam Jones was. One of the many stars in green during the 1950s and 1960s, Jones was the straw stirring the drink and helped lead the C’s to 10 titles in the 12 years he played in Boston. The five-time All-Star scored 15,411 career points (averaging 17.7 points per game) and led the C’s in scoring three times. He also was reliable from the charity stripe, shooting .803 from the free-throw line. In 1969, the 36-year-old called it quits as the proud owner of 11 Celtics records. The Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inducted Jones in 1984. His Hall of Fame coach Red Auerbach once explained that Jones would “do anything you ask him. He’s always in shape and ready to play, and nobody works any harder at basketball than he does.” A true champion.
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