Early Life

Pedro Jaime Martinez was born on October 25th, 1971 in Manoguayabo, Dominican Republic. His nationality is Dominican and he was the fifth of six children. His father did odd jobs while his mother washed clothes for a living. He grew up in a small one-room house and he became a mechanic when he was old enough to work. Even though the boys had a craze for baseball, they couldn’t afford the necessary equipment. So they improvised with oranges or stuffing socks with the heads of their sisters’ dolls. Pedro used to carry his elder brother Ramon’s bags when he was pitching at a Los Angeles Dodgers baseball camp in the Dominican Republic. One fine day, he saw the potential in his younger brother Pedro when he clocked his brother’s pitches at over 80mph.

Career

Pedro decided to follow in his star brother’s footsteps and signed up with the Dodgers in June 1988. For several years, he pitched in the Dodgers farming stage after which he made his MLB debut for Dodgers in September 1992 against the Cincinnati Reds. Even though he had a 5ft 11in frame, the Dodgers team manager Tommy Lasorda thought he was very small to be a good pitcher. Pedro delivered a powerful 1993 season with a 2.61 ERA and 119 strikeouts in 65 games. But that couldn’t stop him from being traded to the Montreal Expos before the 1994 season.

It was with the Expos when Pedro’s full potential got unleashed. In 1995, in a game against San Diego Padres, he pitched nine perfect innings before surrendering a hit. In 1997, he came up with a 17-8 record for the Expos along with a 1.90 ERA, above 300 strikeouts, 13 complete games and the only Expo to win the Cy Young Award.

He was traded to the Boston Red Sox in November 1997 and was awarded a contract of $75,000,000 for six years by the Red Sox manager Dan Duquette. He immediately proved his worth by notching up a 19-7 record and 2.89 ERA in his debut season for Red Sox in 1998. Year after year he racked up brilliant performances which culminated in the famous World Series win over St. Louis Cardinals in 2004.

In December 2004, he signed up with the New York Mets for a 4-year contract but from here onwards, injuries marred his performances. He signed up with the Philadelphia Phillies in 2009 to a one-year contract as a backup pitcher. He finally called it quits in December 2011, ending his illustrious career with an exceptional 219-100 record and a 2.93 ERA.

Personal Life

Pedro Martinez met his wife Carolina Cruz in the year 1998 when she was a sophomore in the Boston College while he was pitching for the Boston Red Sox. She was a college volleyball player and Pedro used to cause a stir at the Boston College when he went to meet her. She was majoring in Journalism and went on to become a reporter for the ESPN Deportes.

They married in the year 2005 and Carolina looks after Pedro’s charitable organisation – Pedro Martinez and Brothers Foundation which operates in the US and the Dominican Republic and focuses on children, education and healthcare issues in the Dominican Republic. She also formulated her own program called “The Power of Learning” which helps teenage women to get a quality education in the Dominican Republic.

Pedro, after his retirement, joined the Boston Red Sox as a special assistant to general manager Ben Cherington in the year 2013. His net worth stood at $70 million and he was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in January 2015 with 91.1% votes in his favour.