Most diehard sports fans are well-aware of Michael Jordan’s “flu game” in Game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals.
But most fans probably don’t know that another team battled a similar issue 12 years later.
The Phillies apparently battled all sorts of illnesses during their 2009 World Series run with the New York Yankees. According to Pedro Martinez, who pitched for Philadelphia at the time, the team was battling the ever-infamous swine flu.
“It wasn’t told, but most of us were sick,” Martinez said Sunday, per The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Matt Breen. “Some of the guys had swine flu and had to be kept away. I caught some of the virus. We would just never say it. When I got home, I realized that I was really sick.”
But with the championship on the line, the ex-Boston Red Sox star knew he had a job to do.
“I had a little bit of an asthma attack in the middle of the game and I was having a hard time breathing,” he said. “I was really sick. In any other situation, I wouldn’t be out there. But the team needed me.”
Martinez only would last four innings in Game 6 of the World Series thanks to his health concerns. And while the Phillies weren’t able to win the series, it certainly is one heck of a story to tell.
