FORT MYERS, Fla. – Soon to be an official member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, Pedro Martinez strolled into the Player Development 5-Plex around mid-morning Friday and must have immediately felt like it was the late 1990s and early 2000s all over again.
He was almost instantly surrounded by a wide variety of fans – everyone from curious 14-year-old ballplayers to adoring adults – all wanting to have a baseball signed or a selfie snapped with the baseball legend on their cell phones. As always, Martinez was all too happy to honor every request with a smile even as he tried – mostly in vain – to watch some of the action on the field.
The reason for Martinez’s return to the 5-Plex – he spent seven months-of-March (1998-2004) here when the Boston Red Sox used the complex as their spring training practice facility – was the 14u Perfect Game BCS Finals, which began its weeklong run Wednesday and concludes Tuesday.
One of Martinez’s sons, 14-year-old right-hander and infielder Pedro Pablo Martinez, is playing for the Miami (Fla.) Giants at the PG national championship tournament.
“This is home-sweet-home; it actually does bring back a lot of memories,” Martinez said Friday, a wide smile spreading across his face while he took a look around the 5-Plex, which sits not far from this city’s historic downtown district.
“But seeing the kids playing here is a lot more fun than when I was here. Back then, it was always about work; it was always about the pressure to win,” he continued. “Now it’s relaxing sitting here and watching a ballgame even though it’s hard for me not to predict pretty much what’s going to happen.”
George Diaz, the Miami Giants’ general manager, is a native of the Dominican Republic, as is Martinez, and moved to Miami less than a year ago. His son, third baseman and right-handed pitcher George Andrew Diaz, and eight of young George’s class of 2018 and 2019 teammates – including Pedro Pablo Martinez – a attend G. Holmes Braddock High School in Miami; most of them list Santo Domingo, D.R., as their hometown.
According to Diaz, this team consists of seven players who are native Dominicans and six players of Cuban descent who were born and raised in Miami; there is another native Miamian who is of Colombian descent. It’s a 14u team with a decidedly international flare.
Diaz said that Pedro Pablo Martinez and his son, George Andrew Diaz, have been playing baseball together since they were 6-year olds back in the Dominican Republic, and the elder Diaz said the elder Martinez has always been supportive of his involvement with youth baseball.
“I’ve always been in contact with my people in the Dominican Republic and they’re always interested in participating in Perfect Game (events) so our kids can start getting ratings and rankings,” he said. “I started talking to everybody and it just came together for this tournament.
“We’re trying to stick together and participate in more Perfect Game tournaments, and this year we should be competing in two more, if God permits.”
The Giants won two of their first three pool-play games Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Dominican Alex Buenaventura De Jesus Vittini led the team with four hits, including a double. Dominicans Angel Gabriel Jimenez and David Elias Peralta, and Miamian Jason Lee Garcia all three hits; Garcia had a pair of doubles and Jimenez and Peralta one two-bagger each. Pedro Pablo Martinez had a pair of singles in two at-bats, drove in a run and scored one. George Andrew Diaz made pitching appearances in all three games.
“This has already been very beneficial for the kids,” Diaz said of the 14u PG BCS Finals experience just three days in with as many as four more to go. “Half of the team didn’t know the other half of the team (early in the week) and now they look like they’ve been together for years.”
Team members are all staying in the same hotel, and when the players first arrived the Dominicans shared rooms on one side of a hallway and the Miami natives were on the other side. After the first day, Diaz recounted with a laugh, they were all mixed in with each other and he couldn’t tell who was from the Dominican and who was from Miami; best of all, it just didn’t matter.
Pedro Martinez immediately picked up on the camaraderie the youngsters were enjoying while also understanding how fortunate he is to be able to enjoy it all in the company of his young son. Sharing the 14u PG BCS Finals experience would not have been possible during Martinez’s playing days.
“It’s special to actually get to see your son and see him compete; hopefully he’ll get an opportunity to show what he can do,” Pedro said. “It’s really important that parents – regardless of who you are or what you have achieved – actually support their kids, and I’m no exception. I’m trying to be a role model father and also someone who looks out for his kid.”
Pedro Pablo Martinez is playing for the Miami Giants at the 2015 14u BCS Finals in Fort Myers, Fla.
His presence was certainly appreciated by young Pedro Pablo: “It’s a real honor just being able to see my dad cheering me on,” he said. “It’s something that motivates me every day just to go out and play harder and harder. He’s had a big impact on me and for him to sit here, watching me play, it’s just amazing.”
George Diaz is experiencing many of the same emotions, also having the opportunity to be so closely involved with his young son’s baseball career. He said he loves working with all the age-groups in youth baseball but right now his priority is the 14u level. “(George Andrew is) 14 right now so next year I’m going to be supporting the 15-year-olds, and that’s how I’ve been working,” he said with a laugh. “I do this for the love of the game and for the love of my son.”
The Los Angeles Dodgers signed Pedro Martinez as an amateur free agent as a 16-year-old in 1988 and he made his major league debut with the Dodgers in September 1992 as a 20-year old. What followed was a brilliant, 18-year Hall of Fame career pitching for five teams, most notably the Montreal Expos from 1994-97 and the Red Sox from 1998 through 2004.
He was a two-time National League All-Star in Montreal and won his first Cy Young Award with the Expos in 1997. He was a four-time All-Star in Boston, won AL Cy Young Awards in 1999 and 2000, and was the AL Cy Young Award runner-up in 1998 and 2002.
Martinez pitched in two World Series, winning the championship with the Red Sox in 2004 and losing with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2009, his final season before retiring. He finished with a career record of 219-100 (.687) with a 2.93 ERA while pitching during an era when just about every offensive record in baseball was being shattered.
It is a classic “rags to riches” story, although Pedro Martinez would never refer to it that way. He was born into poverty in Santo Domingo, D.R., in October of 1971, but recalls fondly a childhood spent idolizing his older brother, Ramon, who in turn nurtured Pedro’s love for the game of baseball. When Pedro was 14 he was going to school and also walking with Ramon over to the Los Angeles Dodgers’ baseball academy to watch him play, much like he’s now doing with his son, Pedro Pablo.
Ramon Martinez was a right-handed pitcher like his younger brother, but at 6-foot-4 looked more the part of a big-league pitcher than the 5-foot-11 Pedro. The Dodgers signed Ramon as an amateur free agent in 1984 and he went on to enjoy a fine 13-year big-league career, winning 135 games with the Dodgers (11 seasons) and the Red Sox (two).
He was an All-Star with the Dodgers in 1990 and finished second in the NL Cy Young Award balloting behind the Pirates’ Doug Drabek after finishing 20-6 with a 2.92 ERA and a league-high 12 complete games. Ramon and Pedro played four seasons together, two years in Los Angeles (1992-93) and two in Boston (1999-2000).
There was a palpable sense of excitement when Pedro Martinez entered the 5-Plex Friday morning, about midway through the Giants’ 9-6 win over the Orlando Baseball Academy. Teenage ball players from other teams waiting to play their games in the next time slot soon surrounded him, their parents guiding their actions. Finally, when the game ended, the Miami Giants’ players had their opportunity to gather around Martinez for photos, and he happily donned a Giants’ uniform top for the occasion.
“When he’s around the kids feel better about themselves, more confident,” George Diaz said. “He’s always talking to the kids, and I told him he should be our bench coach. I got him a uniform and told him he was my pitching coach because he had so much experience.”
Pedro Martinez will be inducted in the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y. – along with fellow greats Craig Biggio, Randy Johnson and John Smoltz – during ceremonies Sunday, July 26. His has been a life of tremendous success and sacrifice, and if he can use his experiences to pass along just one central message to these 14-year-old ballplayers, it would be this:
“You need to have discipline, faith and dedication,” he said. “I think discipline is the biggest thing for these kids nowadays. They need to understand that the coaches are trying to help them, that everybody on the team is trying to do something special and everybody is trying to contribute to get a win for the team.
“With discipline you’ll be able to understand all that and if you’re respectful of the game and respectful of your coaches, you should learn what you need to know.”