Word: pedro
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...Pedro Martinez, 28, the Red Sox have--with due respect to Arizona's Randy Johnson--the best pitcher in baseball. After winning 23 games and losing only four in 1999, then performing postseason heroics against Cleveland and New York, Martinez has won nine games this year and lost two--with an average of 12 strikeouts for every nine innings he pitches. What's most impressive about Martinez is his earned-run average: the number of runs that opposing teams score against him, without help from errors, for every nine innings that he pitches. In this ERA of a lively baseball...
...been around for 17 seasons, a couple of them as the finest pitcher of his day, says flatly, "That little man's the best I've ever seen. In my era, you've got Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux--but as far as I'm concerned, Pedro's the best...
...baseball types who don't believe in miracles say the answer can be found in Martinez's extraordinary fingers--long and slender like those of a pianist. They allow him to grip the ball longer and spin it fiercely, making it sing and dance. From the same arm motion, Pedro can deliver four very different pitches. He has a straight fast ball that approaches 100 m.p.h., a cut fast ball that moves in on left-handed hitters, a curve that suddenly dives for the plate and the game's best change-up, which often has a red-faced hitter completing...
Montreal Expos general manager Jim Beattie, who had Martinez for four seasons but couldn't pay him as much as Boston, says, "Pedro is also the smartest pitcher in the game. Hitters never know what to expect because he has such control of all his pitches, and he'll throw any of them in any situation." Martinez studies batters from the mound, staring in at them deadeyed. If he sees fear, he comes high and inside. Behind in the count, when most pitchers would throw a fast ball, he'll risk a breaking pitch. Martinez in the clubhouse...
Everything seems possible for Boston this year with Pedro--even breaking the Curse of the Bambino, which has supposedly blocked the Red Sox from winning the Series ever since they sold Babe Ruth to the Yankees in 1919. The Sox and the Yankees play four games this week at Fenway Park. Pedro starts things off Monday. On Monday morning, dawn will break over New England, and the Red Sox Nation will wake up smiling. Pedro goes tonight...