Pedro Martinez admits he enjoyed throwing at Jorge Posada
If it seemed like the bad blood between the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees ran the deepest during the 2000s, when Pedro Martinez and Jorge Posada were both a major part of the respective organizations, that’s because it’s probably true.
During an appearance on SNY’s “Daily News Live” along with his fellow 2015 Hall of Fame electees, host Jonas Schwartz asked Martinez which Yankee he enjoyed throwing at the most. Kind of a surprising question. Perhaps a question Schwartz didn’t expect Martinez to even take seriously, but without any hint of hesitation Martinez said Posada. Then he explained why.
“Jorge always seemed to have a bad attitude towards me,” Martinez started to explain, before Schwartz brought up Martinez’s less than flattering nickname for Posada. “I call him Dumbo,” Martinez said while gesturing to his ears, “but that’s no reason for you to want to kill me.”
Are you sure about that, Pedro?
Martinez would add that Posada was among the most arrogant hitters he competed against, but that he never actually tried to hit him. He just enjoyed seeing him squirm, apparently. History seems to bare that out, as Martinez only plunked Posada one time in 86 meetings.
“Believe it or not, we competed cleanly. I never tried to hit him or do anything. It was just competing, but he was always mad at me for some reason. Then he let it go a little bit too far with the Zimmer incident.”
The Zimmer incident was among the most infamous moments in the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry. It happened during Game 3 of the 2003 ALCS after Martinez threw behind Karim Garcia. When Roger Clemens came up-and-in against Manny Ramirez a half-inning later, both benches cleared, and Zimmer, then New York’s bench coach, made a run a Martinez, which resulted in Zimmer being thrown to the ground.
According to Martinez, it was an insult Posada hurled about his mother that set him off and ultimately led to that awful scene.
“Between Latinos you don’t mention anybody’s mother. And I never forgot that one. Up to this day. I did not appreciate that. I know that it was in the heat of the situation, but that’s sensitive to Latino players.”
That’s a subject just about everyone would be sensitive about to some degree, regardless of race or nationality. Still, it would seem like professional ballplayers would be above name-calling and mom jokes and beyond allowing either to push them over the edge.
Like Martinez said though, the heat of the moment sometimes takes us places we’re not comfortable with. But even with 11 years to cool off, it’s clear Martinez is quite comfortable holding a grudge.
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Mark Townsend is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Townie813
