I am 41. I have watched MJ and Jeter get ring after ring with the rest of their All-Star teams. I watched Tiger Woods, pre-meltdown. I watched Kobe and Shaq. I watched Bird, Johnson, Kareem and Dr. J. I watched Gretzsky and Lemieux. I watched Edwin Moses and Carl Lewis. I watched Larry Holmes, Mike Tyson and Julio Cesar Chavez. I watched Bill Rodgers and Grete Weitz. I watched Javier Sotomayer jump 8' (the second most amazing athlete ever). I've seen many, but in my opinion, for seven years, there was only one athlete who changed the way I watched baseball. Pedro Martinez.
Pedro Martinez was one of the few players in team sports that made you forget about everyone else on the field. When he pitched, everyone seemed to be in awe. For seven years between 1997 and 2003, he set a pace which was impossible to compete with. At somewhere between 5'9-5'11 and 170 lbs soaking wet, Pedro dominated from start to finish. During that time, he pitched to an incredible 118 wins and 36 losses (almost a 77% winning percentage). He won three Cy Young awards, came in second twice and third once. He was even injured one of those years. He had 1761, strikeouts in that period for an average of 251 per year. If he had only pitched those seven seasons, he'd still be 92nd all-time in strikeouts. Take a minute. Yeah. His ERA during that period was equally scary at 2.20. That's good for an aces top five or six starts of a year. He did that game in and game out for seven years. During this time, he average less than a base runner and inning.
Stats aside, there was just something about Pedro. Maybe it's because he was so much smaller than other power pitchers. Maybe it's because of his attitude. Maybe it's because in our lifetime, we haven't seen anything like it. If you compare these seven seasons with any other pitchers top seven in the last 35 years, nobody even comes close. To put it in perspective, Roy Halladay is the most dominant pitcher in baseball and his personal bests, for one season, are a 76% winning percentage (16-5), an ERA of 2.40 and 219 strikeouts. Pedro's worst were better.
Michael Jordan needed someone to pass to and to receive from. Joe Montana needed Jerry Rice. Tiger sometimes needed someone to choke. Everyone somehow benefited from a circumstance, but when Pedro was on the mound, it was him against the world. Pedro usually won. Sometimes stats tell the whole story, but in this case, they only scratch the surface on how dominant he was. He'll be remembered for being fiesty, for tossing Zimmer, for some negative things that aren't warranted. In a time of steroids, arrests, and pretty much being a jerk, he was a standup guy, gave back to not only his community but to that from which he came. He'll be a hall of famer when the time comes, but the reality is, for a brief period in time, he was the best player, in his sport, to play the game.
Pedro Martinez was one of the few players in team sports that made you forget about everyone else on the field. When he pitched, everyone seemed to be in awe. For seven years between 1997 and 2003, he set a pace which was impossible to compete with. At somewhere between 5'9-5'11 and 170 lbs soaking wet, Pedro dominated from start to finish. During that time, he pitched to an incredible 118 wins and 36 losses (almost a 77% winning percentage). He won three Cy Young awards, came in second twice and third once. He was even injured one of those years. He had 1761, strikeouts in that period for an average of 251 per year. If he had only pitched those seven seasons, he'd still be 92nd all-time in strikeouts. Take a minute. Yeah. His ERA during that period was equally scary at 2.20. That's good for an aces top five or six starts of a year. He did that game in and game out for seven years. During this time, he average less than a base runner and inning.
Stats aside, there was just something about Pedro. Maybe it's because he was so much smaller than other power pitchers. Maybe it's because of his attitude. Maybe it's because in our lifetime, we haven't seen anything like it. If you compare these seven seasons with any other pitchers top seven in the last 35 years, nobody even comes close. To put it in perspective, Roy Halladay is the most dominant pitcher in baseball and his personal bests, for one season, are a 76% winning percentage (16-5), an ERA of 2.40 and 219 strikeouts. Pedro's worst were better.
Michael Jordan needed someone to pass to and to receive from. Joe Montana needed Jerry Rice. Tiger sometimes needed someone to choke. Everyone somehow benefited from a circumstance, but when Pedro was on the mound, it was him against the world. Pedro usually won. Sometimes stats tell the whole story, but in this case, they only scratch the surface on how dominant he was. He'll be remembered for being fiesty, for tossing Zimmer, for some negative things that aren't warranted. In a time of steroids, arrests, and pretty much being a jerk, he was a standup guy, gave back to not only his community but to that from which he came. He'll be a hall of famer when the time comes, but the reality is, for a brief period in time, he was the best player, in his sport, to play the game.
How about Kelly Slater. He's won 10 world championships and is on pace to win an 11th. Perhaps you would have to divide athletes into categories of team competition and individual competition, to even begin considering the most dominant athlete of our time.
ReplyDelete