Pedro Martinez’s Red Sox Number Retirement Rekindles ‘Pedro Day’ Fervor

BOSTON — Certain sensations never completely evaporate. One struck chord is all it takes.

It’s been more than 10 years since Pedro Martinez made his final start in a Boston Red Sox uniform, yet Tuesday — a day when the Hall of Fame pitcher’s No. 45 was retired by the organization at Fenway Park — had a familiar feel to it. It wasn’t a full-blown case of déjà vu. But something clicked.

“It’s been a while where there was a Pedro Day specifically,” Martinez said after an on-field ceremony. “If I’m not mistaken, I didn’t feel that since the last time I pitched here. But (Tuesday), I felt the same — the same little movement, the kids walking, and the cars parked a little further down, and the kids are rushing into the stadium, and the people are happy and they’re excited and they want to be out there.

“That is the kind of atmosphere that I lived every time I pitched here. And (Tuesday) was the day that I felt it.”

Ah, yes. Pedro Day. What a phenomenon.

It probably seems silly to those not privy to the seven years Martinez spent with the Red Sox from 1998 through 2004, but the former pitcher’s starts represented far more than just a good opportunity for Boston to win a ballgame. There was a distinct buzz on days when he pitched.

It was festive. It was invigorating. It was unique.

Few athletes in the history of sports, let alone the Red Sox, have completely changed the landscape merely by doing their job. Of course, Martinez’s job was to make you look like an idiot in the batter’s box by deploying a lethal fastball-curveball-changeup mix. But you get the point.

There was a sense every time Martinez took the mound that something special was going to happen. And it translated into a regional fervor, for which Boston was the epicenter.

“Other occasions, yes, they were special. They all are,” Martinez said, reflecting on the fanaticism that engulfed Fenway Park in the late 1990s and early 2000s. “But (Tuesday), for the Pedro Day, was the same electricity that was built around every game that I pitched. And I love that. That’s what makes Boston unique.

“Now when I was standing by the podium over there (on the Fenway Park infield), I could hear someone (yell), ‘I love you Pedro!’ And that’s the only stadium where you can probably be able to hear that and feel that kind of passion and love that they deposit on you. It’s a unique feeling being here in Boston and dealing with this kind of fan base.”

Martinez’s number retirement ceremony offered just a glimpse into the world that once seemed so natural yet now seems so unattainable. After all, Martinez threw out the ceremonial first pitch but not Boston’s every pitch thereafter, and another potential last-place finish tends to kill the vibe.

But Pedro Day is a wonder of the past not because of declining interest, in Boston or elsewhere. It’s ancient history because so few can captivate an entire fan base quite like No. 45.

Fortunately, for one day at least, everything fell back into place.

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Thumbnail photo via Greg M. Cooper/USA TODAY Sports Images