PEDRO EXPECTS PAPI TO RETURN
Ex-pitcher feels for Price, too
LEDYARD, Conn. — Pedro sees the Davids in a way we can’t.
Pedro Martinez is David Ortiz’ great friend, so you must listen when Pedro says he thinks Ortiz might come out of retirement this year, as Martinez did yesterday.
And a generation ago, the Hall of Fame pitcher walked in David Price’s shoes as a newcomer in Boston with huge expectations.
Racist comments, like the ones Price has said he heard when struggling with the Red Sox?
Martinez has felt that same pain, and not just in Boston.
“I did, too,” Martinez said last night. “I think everybody goes through that. I think everybody every once in a while will find a crazy one that will come up with something crazy, like we have all over the place.”
Disgusting interactions sadly happen away from the stadium as well.
“But those are things that are normal for us,” Martinez said. “You get hate mails, and the fan mail. That’s why you don’t see most of the players now returning those fan mails with the little card inside. Because sometimes you find to your surprise, a hate letter. And you sometimes just run away from that.”
Retirement, and the stircrazy feeling that Martinez thinks could lead Big Papi to a mid-year comeback?
Yeah, Martinez knows that, too.
But let’s be clear: It’s simply a hunch for Pedro, and a delicious one for Red Sox fans.
Martinez yesterday said on WEEI’s Trenni and Tomase show that he thinks Ortiz will try a comeback midseason, that he won’t believe the designated hitter is retired until he makes it through the year.
As Martinez emphasized to the Herald at Foxwoods, he was speaking from his own experience on a hunch — not direct knowledge of Ortiz’ thinking.
“Because I experienced a lot of discomfort when I didn’t know what to do with all the time I had (when I retired),” Martinez said. “But it’s not precise, because David has stayed so far steady with his decision, even though I thought he could have probably waited one more year. And then complete the mission.”
Yet, it’s hard to just ignore a Martinez inkling, considering how well he knows Ortiz.
“It’s not anything he has told me,” Martinez said. “So far, he says he’s retiring. But I just think, he’s going to be uncomfortable the first two months. Especially when he has so much time to spare. Something he hasn’t done in almost 20 years. So, I expect him to be uncomfortable, and if he is, I would suggest that he comes over and starts trying it again.”
When Martinez was done playing, it took a while for him to actually say he was definitively done. But he didn’t make a comeback after hanging up his spikes.
“I retired, and what I did is, I got myself busy with other things,” Martinez said. “I started doing different things. And trying to figure out what would fill up the spot for me. And that’s how I got over it.”
When it comes to Price, Martinez has tried to help the pitcher get over his early mental struggles in Boston.
“It could be some of the things that I faced,” Martinez said. “I found myself trying to do too much, and trying to grind it out too much and I sometimes got away from the things that made me land in Boston. And those are mostly the things that I would talk about. Because David doesn’t have anything to prove. He’s done it before. He knows how to do it. He knows how to get it done. He knows how to work.
“You respect his space, and you respect his mentality. He’s always been receptive to whatever I have to suggest when I see him pitching. It wasn’t so much physically or mechanically. It was more mentally what he was going through. And once he relaxed a little bit and figured out a little bit about Boston, he started doing better, and I expect him to continue to do that.”
There has to be technical improvements for that, though. Price is working to regain his fastball command, which was too often absent last year.
“I feel like you do that playing catch,” Price said yesterday.
Price plays catch with Sonny Gray of the Oakland A’s in the offseason, and makes it a game.
“I’m not going to throw that baseball until you put your glove up,” Price said. “And I want you to move it around. I don’t want it to be right in the middle of your chest. Hold it over your head. Do different stuff. We’re going to play a game. We’re going to go to 10 — whoever can hit that glove 10 times first, you won that day.
“I should be able to throw my fastball on both sides of the plate with both two-seam and four-seam.”
Pedro could, and did. Pedro knows.