Feeding the Monster by Seth Mnookin

Author:Seth Mnookin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: 2006-08-25T16:00:00+00:00

When Pedro Martinez returned to the mound in the eighth inning of Game 7, John Henry felt as if he were watching a horror movie. He knew Martinez was spent; hell, Henry thought, any sentient being watching the game knew the pitcher was cooked. He looked over at Epstein, sitting a couple of sections away, and the two men caught each other’s eye. Epstein gave a little shrug, as if to say, “I have no idea what he’s doing out there, either.” Martinez got the first batter to pop-up to shortstop, putting Boston five outs away from victory, and a trip to the World Series. Then, in an instant, the Yankees bats began lashing at Martinez’s pitches. Derek Jeter sized up a shoulder-high 0-2 fastball and smacked it into right field, where Trot Nixon misplayed a catchable ball into a double. With Bernie Williams at the plate, even the TV announcers were saying that, regardless of what happened here, Embree would likely come in to face the left-handed Hideki Matsui, who was on deck. Williams hit a sharp single to center, scoring Jeter, 5–3.

Now, finally, Little shuffled out of the dugout and over to the mound, where he conferred with Martinez. In his seat, Henry was beside himself. At least, he reassured himself, there’s still a two-run lead and Martinez was finally coming out of the game. Then, inexplicably, Little walked back to the dugout alone, leaving Martinez on the mound to face the dangerous Matsui. Henry turned to Lucchino. “Can we fire [Little] right now?” Henry asked. “I felt pure rage,” he says. Matsui proceeded to hit the Yankees’ second double of the inning, sending Williams to third. By this point, Martinez had thrown 118 pitches. His average during the season was less than 100, and he very rarely went over 110. What’s more, only a couple of weeks earlier Martinez had thrown 130 pitches in the first game of the Oakland series, the most pitches he’d thrown all year. Now, even Martinez was convinced his night was over.

Still, Little stayed in the dugout. With his nemesis Jorge Posada at the plate, Martinez reared back and threw a cut fastball for ball one. He got a called strike with his next pitch, a curve, before missing again with the third pitch of the at-bat. Another curve fooled Posada into swinging, evening the count at 2-2. Now, with his 123rd pitch of the night, Martinez threw a 95 mile-per-hour fastball in on Posada’s hands, which Posada fisted into shallow center field, where it dropped. As Posada scrambled to second base, he saw that both Yankees runners had scored, tying the game. He began to clap his hands furiously. Here, finally, was retribution for all the times Martinez had mockingly referred to Posada as “Dumbo” because of his large ears, retribution for Saturday’s Game 3, when Martinez had looked at Posada and pointed at his head. Only then, with the game tied, did Little hurry out to the mound and take Martinez out of the game.

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