When did you first become hooked?
Were you watching on TV in a smoke-filled bar or were you lucky enough to witness it firsthand at the Fens?
When was the first time you became hooked on Pedro Martinez?
With the familiarity of a trusty denim jacket that wore out too soon, Pedro Martinez makes his return to Boston this week. We welcome him like we welcome a rendezvous an ex-girlfriend. You know the one. The one who broke your heart but whose perfume still makes you week in the knees.
Back when Tom Brady was still in college and before Jonathan Papelbon was Boston’s flavor of the week, Pedro Martinez was making history before our eyes. We didn’t just see a Cy Young winner and (if there were any justice) an MVP winner. We saw the greatest pitcher of all time and one of the men who finally delivered us all to the promised land.
The memories are as varied as they are innumerable.
Maybe it was 98 mph high cheese that whipped past the batter like a Worcester winter wind or maybe it was a 69 mph changeup that floated as gently as mid-Autumn New England foliage.
The hitter was baffled and you were hooked.
Welcome back, maestro.
I’ll hang up a K sign for you.
MRF 12:30 am on June 29, 2006 | #
Very nice start, you were on a role with your Shaughnessyisms and you hooked me with the paragraph after your sentence: “The memories are as varied as they are innumerable.”
Although it may have been too eloquent for Shaughnessy, but then the piece ended. Too bad, you were just warming up.