Martin Lieberman was among the tens of thousands who lined Boylston and Cambridge street to watch the Red Sox rolling rally today. Among the people he spotted: Relief pitcher Joe Kelly and 2004 star Pedro Martinez. Read more.
Pedro Martinez
The Baseball Writers Association of America today voted Pedro Martinez into the Hall of Fame in the first year he was eligible.
The New York Times introduces us to Lobsang Sangay with a profile that starts with him reminiscing about game 7 of the 2003 ALCS - and the lessons he took away from Grady Little's decision to leave Martinez in the game:
Behind his desk, a magnificent life-size, silk-draped photograph of the Dalai Lama hangs from the wall, and outside his window, the Himalayas rise like a great wall into the mist.
Mr. Sangay, 46, recalled the agitation as he watched Boston’s lead slip away, perhaps the most calamitous in a history of heartbreaks for those who persisted in believing in the Red Sox. The suffering would all be washed away by the next season, but in 2003 no one knew that. “Normally, I am quite a patient guy," Mr. Sangay said. "But he brought him back after 118 pitches."
Beth says Martinez's shellacking almost went too far. After that dropped ball by Lastings Milledge, she thought:
... I wished right then that it was over. I wished the Mets manager would pull him. I wanted there to be mercy. But there wasn't. ... This was defeat. I root for the laundry as much as anyone, but you might as well have drawn a moustache on the Mona Lisa right in front of me. I want the Sox to win at absolutely all times, but I never wanted to see that. ...
Soxaholix takes note of Boston Sports Media Watch's Dan Shaughnessy write-alike contest by trying to figure out an entry:
...And his thesis will be along the lines of "Oh, you poor unwashed, unsophisticated, Boston fan fools. You drove Pedro away with your mean Puritanical spirits and the terrible things you said about him. I tried to warn you."
No, not better than Shaughnessy. Exactly like Shaughnessy. At Boston Sports Media Watch, Bruce Allen is running a Shaughnessy write-alike contest:
... Next week, the New York Mets come into town, and of course with them will be Pedro Martinez. We know Shaughnessy will write a column about the return of Pedro. You probably have a good idea what it is going to read like.
So write it.