A cub reporter meets his hero, Pedro Martinez, at Cooperstown

This is the second part of an article that began in the June 5 Lakeville Journal about the reporter’s visit to Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame. There, he had the opportunity to interview one of his baseball heroes.As I walked into the interview room, I began to rethink my being there. What could I possibly ask these players? I’m a brand-new sports reporter, I’ve never interviewed a professional athlete and the last thing I wanted was to get laughed at by someone I’d revered my entire life for asking a stupid question. I’ll just let the other guys ask the questions and just blend in to the periphery. But who do I interview? Hideki Matsui was surrounded by 20 Japanese reporters and the majority of the other players were just talking amongst themselves. I can’t interrupt professional athletes.Finally, after a few minutes (during which I felt like the entire room was watching me) the other reporters began to single out who they wanted to talk to and began breaking off into groups. There, sitting in front of me, was Pedro Martinez. The reporter talking to him was from the Albany Times Union; I’d introduced myself earlier in the Media Room, trying to find someone I could follow around for the day so I didn’t embarrass myself. I figured one of my favorite players of all time on my favorite sports team wasn’t a bad place to start, and the reporter had been nice enough when I’d introduced myself. He probably wouldn’t laugh at me (I hoped).A future in the Hall of Fame“Pedro, have you thought about the fact you may be back here next year, being inducted into the Hall?” he asked. I don’t remember Pedro’s response, as I was more attuned to the fact that I was standing next to a childhood idol. He finished his response and then … there were a few seconds of silence. Here was my chance — but what do I say? Hi Mr. Martinez, my name is Sam and I really liked you as a player. Stupid. Then it hit me.For the uninformed baseball fan, Pedro Martinez rose to Major League stardom as a player for the now extinct Montreal Expos, and then was traded to the Red Sox before the 1999 season. When players are inducted into the Hall of Fame they choose one team they played for, to go into the Hall as a player of that team.“Pedro, have you put any thought into what team you’d represent? Would you go in as a Red Sox or an Expo?” I asked. “It should be the Red Sox,” Martinez said. “That’s where I spent the majority of my time and had the most success. I would be extremely proud to come here next year, representing the Red Sox.” He smiled at me and then turned his attention to the next person asking a question. Nobody was laughing and I’m pretty sure I didn’t completely embarrass myself. Maybe this isn’t so bad.Helping the young ’unsAs a die-hard Sox fan, I read anything and everything about the team. Prior to the 2013 season, the team announced the hiring of several former players as special assistants to General Manager Ben Cherrington. Pedro was one of them, and his duties included working closely with a young player in the team’s minor league system, Rubby De La Rosa, who, like Martinez, hails from the Dominican Republic. Martinez was to be a mentor to the young player, while also helping him finetune his pitching skills. Having had professional mentors myself, I knew how important these figures can be.“I know that you’ve worked a little bit with Rubby De La Rosa in the farm system, kind of mentoring him. He’s a Dominican player like yourself. How important do you think it is for Major League Baseball to have former players come in and mentor the young guys as they work their way up, learning the trials and tribulations of being a professional?”“Coming from the Dominican Republic, I can truly relate to what they might go through and what they might face, some of the things that go on even when you’re ready to pitch in the big leagues,” Martinez said. “In Rubby’s case he could be in the big leagues with any other team except maybe the Red Sox and be a starter. He has to just stick to it and continue to play hard and wait for his time to come. “It’s good that they can take advantage of the knowledge that we have and explain to them in time that those things happen and they are normal things that happen in baseball. For us to be able to communicate with those guys before they start thinking in a negative way is huge because that way they know what to expect, they know how to anticipate the different things that may be happening.”“What about a spot start? Any conversations with Ben about coming back and providing a little relief to the pitching staff?” I asked.“Ha,ha, no, that’s out of the equation. It’s not even thought about. I’m not coming back honestly, now that it’s been four years, next year hopefully you guys will be able to vote me in and I won’t have to deal with that anymore. I’m too old for that,” he replied.The end of the curse“You talked about it before, with 2004, that you’re one of 25 guys that brought a championship to the city of Boston for the first time in 86 years. What does that mean to you personally to be able to say you were part of the end of the Curse of the Bambino?”“I never believed in the curse and I have a really good quote that I dropped, but I’m not going to drop it this time. [“I just tip my hat and call the Yankees my daddy.”] “It’s probably the most special ring ever for someone like me — not because I was a champion but because of what it meant to win and the way we won it. It was so special the way everything happened. Being able to be part of the team that brought it back after 86 years was so special that I would say I would never trade my ring for three anywhere else. I wanted that one. There is never going to be another ring that is more special to me.”At that point, the majority of the other reporters had joined our group and I figured it was time to allow someone else a chance to ask some questions. I tried to walk away but had some difficulty, as my legs felt like Jell-O. I’d worshipped Pedro ever since I watched him take the mound at Fenway, and I’d just had a 10-minute conversation with him, like I was an old friend. I could definitely get used to this.I looked around the room for the next player to talk to. I began to feel my confidence building. I belonged here. I’m a professional baseball writer.