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Aging Hall of Fame-caliber hurler, relying on guts and guile, returns to baseball's biggest stage, perhaps for the final time.
Pedro Martinez was back in the Bronx Thursday night, the Phillies right-hander creating a major buzz with his return to the Yankee Stadium mound for the first time since June 2005; with renewing of acquaintances with Jeter, A-Rod and Co.; and yes, with the Gotham hordes that hounded him when he was the ace of the rival Red Sox.
"This was something I had in the back of my mind," he said on the eve of what became a classic duel with A.J. Burnett. "Coming against the Yankees in a World Series, it's a special occasion."
Even more special was Pedro's willingness Wednesday to open up, to bare his soul to the media. Special since it was so unexpected, coming from a guy whose personality seemed as impenetrable and guarded as the Kremlin, and just as secretive and self-contained.
Maybe it's his maturation, maybe it's the realization that this might be his last go-round on the big stage. Whatever, his tell-all session with the media offered a rare glimpse into what makes one of the all-time great pitchers tick.
Pedro spoke of the infamous incident with former Yankee coach Don Zimmer in the heated 2003 playoffs; of New Yorkers' "Who's Your Daddy?" chants; of his years with the Mets; of his coping with advancing age and injuries.
"This is the last time I'm going to talk about this," he said of the Zimmer takedown. "Please understand that and respect that. Zim … acknowledged that it wasn't my fault, that it was his fault (Zimmer told the New York Daily News as much on Thursday).
"When I saw Zim down on the ground, I thought of my dad. I respect older people. I don't condone anything like that."
Martinez spoke of his uneven relationship with this city, chalked it up to his playing for Boston and said he realizes New Yorkers are "very passionate and very aggressive … I have all the respect in the world for the way they enjoy being fans."
He did object, he said, to how he has been portrayed by the New York media.
"One of your colleagues had me in the papers with red horns and a tail," he said. "That's a sign of the devil. I'm a Christian man. I don't like those things. I take those things very seriously."
He takes his craft seriously as well. By the time Yankee captain Derek Jeter led off the bottom of the first inning, Pedro's game face was firmly fixed. It's a look Phils shortstop Jimmy Rollins is familiar with.
"He kind of gives you that serious look like he's off into space," Rollins said Thursday. "But he's working on his game plan."
The plan this night was to find out which of his four pitches — fastball, slider, curve or changeup — was working and then mix and match. Having just turned 38, this was a different Pedro than the dominant power pitcher of 1999-2000 vintage. Concessions have to be made.
"I'm not as powerful as I used to be," he admitted. "On some pitches I can be a power pitcher because I can click a fastball sometimes. And some time I'm a finesse pitcher that knows what to do out there. I'm out there to beat you with whatever I have."
Burnett was aware of what he was up against.
"I know what he's all about," the Yankee right-hander said. "Everybody in the world knows what he can do."
What Pedro did was silence the Bombers early on. At the same time, the Yankee strategy was clear — work the count and grind the three-time Cy Young winner down. After two innings, Pedro had already thrown 43 pitches.
Pitch No. 61 never made it to Carlos Ruiz's mitt. It landed in the right-center bleachers, courtesy of Mark Teixeira, tying the game at 1-1 in the fourth. Pedro and Burnett continued their duel deep into the Bronx night. It was still tied when Hideki Matsui hammered a two-out homer in the sixth on Pedro's 97th pitch.
He had worked with intelligence and grit, but when the Yankees roughed him up at the start of the seventh, Pedro was lifted. As he walked off the mound, you thought back to what his skipper, Charlie Manuel, had said of Martinez the day before.
"He can handle the big setting," Manuel said. "He's been there before and he likes being there. He likes everything about it."
Even though he left on the short end of the score, the old master made that evident again Thursday night.
