20/20 Hindsight At The New York Times



from Harvey Araton in today's NY Times :

Let me be honest about how I have gradually become a Martínez sympathizer, and about how I found myself smiling as he stifled the Cardinals until Francona pinch-hit for him in the eighth. Martínez cruised after Ramirez threw Larry Walker out at the plate to quell a potential first-inning uprising; and after Ortiz, slumming at first here in the National League city, nailed Jeff Suppan in the third, as the Cardinals' starter hedged like a Little Leaguer on a bouncer to second, with the infield back and the Red Sox conceding a run.

Unless the Cardinals have a Sox-like Houdini act in them and can force Martínez back to the mound in Game 7, last night's performance should quiet the idiot chorus that has become so eager to cast Martínez as a chronic failure in the most important games of his career.

For all of his headhunting, clubhouse sideshows, no-shows in the interview room and mango-tree melodrama, much has been blown out of proportion. With a stronger baseball daddy in his life, none of the grief and scorn he has come by since a fateful eighth inning in Yankee Stadium last October would have necessarily occurred.

When Martínez needed a real manager to take the ball from him and thank him for his highly successful seven-inning effort in Game 7 of the American League Championship Series last year, he got Grady Little. When he has required a benefactor to keep him from having to relive that nightmare, he has had Francona for reasons only the Red Sox' first-year manager knows spit in the eye of fate.

His vintage showing last night aside, everybody realizes this is not the Martínez of his prime, the Cy Young winner who in 2000 struck out 284 hitters in 217 innings and pitched to a throwback earned run average of 1.74. In the same number of innings this season, his E.R.A. was a career-high 3.90.

The national editions of the paper must've had a late deadline, because this same article was printed early this morning with this opening stanza :

"Seldom has a man so deftly handled 24 players, as Terry Francona has managed the Boston Red Sox within striking distance of a World Series championship, while grossly mismanaging a 25th, as he has Pedro Martinez."

The printed headline read "The Pedro Rules : Boston's Francona Has Been A Failure In Managing Martinez". The post-game headline for the Times' online version? "Boston's Francona Does Just Fine With Martinez".



(Pedro, coddled by Francona into solid performances against Anaheim and St. Louis this post-season.)

Posted: Wed - October 27, 2004 at 03:15 PM      

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