Shocker! Pedro Martinez Admits to Being "Embarrassed" About What He Did to Don Zimmer

DVR Alert: I got an email today from MLB Network letting me know that Pedro Martinez is going to appear on Bob Costas' Studio 42 MLB Network Show next Wednesday, March 30, at 7 p.m. Eastern. And yes, I will be watching it!

While I hate what Martinez did to Don Zimmer, I also appreciate that Pedro has a quick wit and a real love for the game. Not only was Martinez one of the most exciting pitchers I ever watched, he also is smart and entertaining. I loved to hate him as a Red Sox, and grew to just like him when he was a Met. He was even fun to watch in the World Series as a Phillie, especially when he lost to the Yankees!

Anyhow, the MLB Network sent some of the quotes from the interview, and a link to a sneak peek of the show. He said that throwing Don Zimmer to the ground "was probably the only thing that I might be embarrassed" about for his career, that Grady Little deserves another shot at managing, and why Ted Williams' complimenting him at the 1999 All-Star Game meant more to him than winning the game's MVP that night. Here are some of the topics listed. Thanks again to the MLB Network for sending these quotes!

ON HIS ALTERCATION WITH DON ZIMMER DURING 2003 ALCS GAME THREE:
I think that’s probably the worst highlight that you could ever find about me. Everything else, I don’t mind. …But Don Zimmer was probably the only thing that I might be embarrassed [about] for the rest of my career.

ON BOSTON RED SOX MANAGER GRADY LITTLE LEAVING HIM IN TO PITCH DURING THE EIGHTH INNING OF 2003 ALCS GAME SEVEN:
I say he did what he felt was right for him to do. I would say that I still had stamina and I had good enough stuff to get them out. I would stick to that and I believe that. What you have to do is give those guys on the Yankees side credit for making it happen. I made some great pitches. I don’t think Grady has anything to be blamed for. As a matter of fact, Grady should be in the big leagues with a team, managing a team right now regardless of what happened that day.

ON WHETHER HE COULD PITCH IN 2011:
I’m not ruling it out, I’m leaving the door open but at the same time I’m really getting used to being with the family and getting comfortable. I’m not used to being at home yet, I’m still eager to move and step away from the house and all that, but at the same time my family’s becoming the number-one aspect in my life.

ON MEETING TED WILLIAMS AT THE 1999 ALL-STAR GAME AT FENWAY PARK:
It meant probably so much that I cannot even describe. And not only putting up a show, it was being called in by Ted Williams and autographing my program, and saying, “That was some of the best pitching performance I’ve ever seen.” Those were his words when he said that. He said, “You’re going to be a great one.” To me, that meant so much. Forget about the MVP trophy, it was what he said and what he wrote in that program that meant really a lot to me.

You know, I hope that in 20 years, they do an Old-Timers game with the Yankees and Red Sox of the early 2000s era facing off. Wouldn't that be fun to watch?

What do you think? Tell us about it!

Pedro Martinez sez Yankee fans wanted to cheer for him

Here's something to get Yankee fans fired up, just in time for this weekend's Boston Red Sox series. In a recent interview, former Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez talked about how Yankee fans really, really like him (or at least respect him), and the one Boston writer he won't miss.

Writer Dayn Perry recently interviewed Pedro about a variety of topics. As is always the case with a Martinez interview, it is an entertaining read:

Dayn Perry: Although Game 2 of the 2009 World Series wasn’t your last game, I think that’s one of the things people are going to remember about the tail end of your career–a great effort against the Yankees and that smile you cracked while walking off the field. Why were you smiling at that moment?

Pedro Martinez: I was realizing that New York wanted to clap for me, but I was wearing the wrong uniform. They wanted to show me respect, and I knew that, and I loved it. If you understand baseball, the more they boo you, chant your name, the more respect there is.

I don't think Pedro is totally wrong here. As Reggie Jackson once said, fans don't boo nobodies. And Martinez  was the greatest Yankee nemesis of his generation. He played the villain very, very well against the Yankees. The fact he's intelligent and has a quick wit also helped add to his mystique.Watching the Yankees beat him -- twice -- in the World Series last year was great fun.

I was trying to think of a current player who can rouse Yankee fans' ire the way Martinez did, and I couldn't really come up with anybody that the fan base loved to hate the way it was with Pedro. ESPN's Bill Simmons had a piece last week about how the Red Sox players are boring these days. I thought the article was mostly pretty whiny. For one thing, Simmons seems to have been more of a fan of the Red Sox's past mystique via misery and masochism, than an actual Boston fan.

But it's also true that there is no current Red Sox villain on the level of Pedro Martinez. Jonathan Papelbon is my least favorite Red Sox, but even many Boston fans are tired of his act. And while lots of Yankee fans dislike Kevin Youkilis and  Dustin Pedroia, neither of them get under Bombers fans' skin the way Pedro did.

Here's some more from the Pedro Martinez interview about his thoughts on the Yanks:

DP: Have you thought about pitching for the Yankees?


PM: I thought about it a couple of times in my career. I was a Yankee fan growing up, a Reggie Jackson fan. I had a couple of opportunities to pitch for the Yankees, but it never worked out.

Imagine Pedro in pinstripes, and what an outcry there would have been in Yankeeland!

There was talk in the past week about how the Yankees supposedly nearly traded for Mike Lowell. He's one of the few Red Sox who wouldn't have caused a complete uproar in coming to the Bronx. Of course, he was once a Yankee, so that might have something to do with it.

Our Red Sox fan readers will appreciate this tidbit from the interview:

DP: Do you miss Dan Shaughnessy?


PM: No, no, no. That’s the only thing I don’t miss about Boston. I’m pretty sure other players feel that way, too.