AL CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES: RED SOX v YANKEES

October 15, 1999

Pedro Martinez

PEDRO MARTINEZ: I don't really know. I am just going to go out there and try to get a win. And I did whatever I could in Cleveland and we ended up winning, that was good enough. So I am not afraid to compete with whatever I had in Cleveland against these guys also because they are equally as good.

PEDRO MARTINEZ: I didn't surprise myself, but I was more impressed with the time I stayed out there for. I stayed there for four innings and then I said, well, I feel a little bit tight but I am going to keep going and see how long I last. Then all of a sudden I was there for six innings and that impressed me more than anything else, but the results, they could happen even throwing 75, 80, sometimes you get away with pitches and sometimes you do the stuff you have to do. So the results do not impress me, but staying out there after being hurt, especially so early, with just three days, having to come out of the game, I think it was more impressive than the results.

PEDRO MARTINEZ: When he put up the numbers he did. And it doesn't matter what he is as a person; doesn't matter what he is off the field. In the field we all, all the players have to have respect for a man like that, a man that puts up the numbers, it doesn't matter what he does. He deserves respect. Probably if you want to talk about him as a person I don't have anything to say about him. I mean, I am not really good friends with him because I don't know him that well, but just to see the numbers that he put up out there, I think he deserves respect, it doesn't matter where he is. As a baseball player I recognize what he has done for baseball and for the game and all I can say is I have respect for you because you did it somehow. It is legal the way he did it.

PEDRO MARTINEZ: I can't help what is going on out there. I can only control what I do with the ball on the mound. So I don't focus on those things. I let that happen out there. I let the fans go crazy in the stands and I do my thing. I know I have spots to hit, I have movement to make, where the ball is going, I have to -- that is my concern. I don't really concern with anything out there. I can't help what is going on out there. I am not going to change my game because there is more pressure or less pressure. My pressure is just to get him out. That is what I understand the time I am out there, so I don't remember about it.

PEDRO MARTINEZ: I am pitching against the Yankees because Roger doesn't hit, so the Yankees is the one that I have to beat. Roger is part of it.

PEDRO MARTINEZ: Well it is not 100% yet. But after pitching in Cleveland, having seen the result, I don't think I need my full strength to be a pitcher or to be able to beat another team. I don't know if you guys realize it, but every pitcher you ask is going to tell you that maybe three or four times maximum five times a year, you pitch 100% fine. The rest you pitch with something, lacking something, feeling something in your shoulder, your legs, somewhere, and after that you just pitch, you know, in those situations and I am willing to deal with this and I am not going to bring up the fact that I hurt myself in the other game because I pitched well enough in Cleveland, so this should be enough to be out there unless something else happens.

PEDRO MARTINEZ: I don't, not at all. I am Pedro. I don't compare myself to not even my brother, who is my role model and somebody I really admire. I would say I am more similar to Bret Saberhagen than Roger. I don't want to be compared to Roger. I don't want to be compared to anybody. I created my own name and I hope you guys respect that.

PEDRO MARTINEZ: I don't think so. I don't think so. I think Roger is very professional and he has been through everything, so he should know how to handle the situation. Just like I will, I am just going to go out there and pitch the game and I am sure he is going to do that. I hope he puts a lot of pressure on himself and I hope he gives it up soon. Roger is Roger and he has been through everything. He has been through war and he is a great competitor and I am sure he knows how to handle the situation.

PEDRO MARTINEZ: I don't know if it does. I hope it does. It was a great game, yes, it was especially against the Yankees. The numbers tell you that that is probably one of the best games that anybody ever pitched in that stadium. But that is gone. I hope I can do it now in the playoffs tomorrow. That is what counts and I don't really want to think about it or expect whatever happened that day to happen tomorrow. So I am just going to have to go out there and do it again or do a little less, but do it good enough to win a game for my team.

PEDRO MARTINEZ: Well, I just lay myself in God's hands and let it happen. My body might be beat, my arm might be beat, but my heart is out there and my mind and my love for the game and respect for the fans, it is out there. Those things drive me and make me a little bit stronger than probably, you know, whatever exercise I could do and whatever other therapy I could get. So it is just getting my mind, my heart, and being willing to do it, I guess, drives me more than anything to not only be healthy but to do the job that they want me to do.

PEDRO MARTINEZ: Yeah, we all know each other and I spent a few hours with him last year at the Players Choice Awards. I got to talk to him a little bit, and in baseball you see him and you say: Hello, Hi, Roger, How are you doing? Pedro, how are you doing? And that is it. You keep walking. As a person to get to know him to have dinner or talk to him for more than two hours, you know, or something like that, no I don't. So I actually don't know him. I just, you know, I just met him, that is how you want to call it.

PEDRO MARTINEZ: We have done it all year. We were the underdogs. We were supposed to be in last place. We ended up beating the Cleveland Indians in the Division Series and we are here battling the Yankees. To explain that, that is all I have to say. We are here. We are going to play tomorrow. Just like we did with Cleveland, if it happened with Cleveland one of the most dominant teams, the team that everybody choose to beat the Yankees, Cleveland is not here. It is going to be us, the one that are going to have to beat the Yankees. So we are here and I am positive and I am 100% positive that we can do it. If we did it against Cleveland, we could do it against anybody. It is not over tomorrow. Tomorrow is a new game. We are starting the series, now we are starting at home.

PEDRO MARTINEZ: I have a hint, but I am not going to explain it because it is none of my business. Roger has to deal with it. I don't. I know they love me and they are going to be out there clapping and whenever I get somebody in two strikes they are going to expect me to strike him out and put up the K. So I don't really care. I don't really care what is going on with Roger and the fans out there. I can't help that. I can only help what I do. Like I said before I can only help what I do on the mound, off the field I go to my house and I don't expect you guys to follow me or anybody because that is my business. Whatever happens with Roger and the fans out there, it is his business. Let him deal with it.

PEDRO MARTINEZ: Believe me, when we won the first two games I wasn't in it. I wasn't in it until the last game and the first one that I was in, we lost. As capable as I am of beating any team, I believe my team is good to do it too. You guys got to start having some respect for my teammates. They are good. They are really good and if you don't believe it, you can analyze where you are right now and it wasn't just one single man. It wasn't me with my 23 games, no. I did it because they were behind me and I think you guys have to give them some credit.

PEDRO MARTINEZ: No, I don't. The sense I have is the same I have everyday. I think they try to do their job everyday and they work as hard as they can to win a game everyday; not only for me, but for every other pitcher that stands out there. The reason that it seems like they have more intensity is because this year I had the best year out of all our pitchers. I gave them more chances to win. But apart from that, I think they have the same drive and same intensity that they have everyday. They are all a bunch of grinders and gamers out there. They have a lot of heart. That is something I can notice and when I am not pitching I try to be out there as a groupie and start cheering them on.

PEDRO MARTINEZ: No. I am not even close to what my brother might be and like I said before, he was my role model. I am just like that. I have always been like that since I was a kid. I was the one that was always moving in the house. My family pretty much is quiet overall. I am the only one that is always jumping and doing something and I am just like that. I don't care who I am in baseball. I don't care who I am, you know, in salaries or wherever, I am just Pedro and that is the way I am. It is not only in the field. It is off the field. It is everywhere. I am like that and the things I do, they just come up to my mind and I don't restrain myself from doing it if it is not anything wrong. I know sometimes some people don't find it right until they prove me wrong, I am going to keep on doing it because so far, to me, I mean, it is a lot of fun. So I am going to keep on doing whatever I do.

PEDRO MARTINEZ: Well, we pretty much said hello and we asked each other: How are you feeling; how is everything going, but nothing really special. We talked about how grateful it was to be with each other in the same, you know, type of awards. I don't know, the same type of act that -- apart from that, no, we didn't exchange anything else. What does that matter with the players right now? What is it that you want to know?

PEDRO MARTINEZ: God, you have some serious curiosity.

PEDRO MARTINEZ: To be honest I only woke up like an hour and a half ago. I ate and I came over to the stadium to get my treatment and to get ready for tomorrow. So apart from -- I had like a board written on top of my door from my neighbors where I live. They left me a big board with something written and wishing me luck and good health for tomorrow and the rest of the season. Apart from that, I haven't talked to anybody or anything like that apart from my family.

PEDRO MARTINEZ: It was a pleasure, curious man, you.