Hey, Mets fans! Guess what?
"Who's your daddy?"
Pedro Martinez is in the process of finalizing a one-year contract with the Mets most hated rival, the Philadelphia Phillies, in hopes that he can not only prove to all of Major League Baseball, but to the Mets, that he still has something left in that golden right arm.
Throughout February and March, Martinez tried his best to coax Mets GM Omar Minaya to sign him, claiming he could still pitch at a high level, even though he had a sub-par 2008 season, posting a 5-6 record with a 5.12 ERA, and proving to be a five-inning pitcher on his best days.
His asking price was too steep for an aging pitcher; he was rumored to desire a contract that would pay him $8 million for a year. Based off of that, no one can blame the Mets—nor anyone else—for not signing him sooner.
Martinez had such a high opinion of his own abilities that he went so far as to join the Dominican Republic team during the WBC, and he did quite well. He pitched 12 shutout innings, granted they came against the Netherlands.
His top speed was around 91, he was fooling hitters with his trademark change-up, and, like the Biblical character Samson, re-grew the mop-like locks that became a symbol of Martinez when he was in Boston and New York.
It appeared that Pedro was ready to return to the Pedro of old.
Many thought that the Mets were missing the boat by not signing Martinez, bringing him back for the final few weeks of Spring Training. What theatre that would have been? The Mets would not only have welcomed back 16 players from the WBC, but an old friend as well.
Heck, they had a shaky rotation to begin with, with only Johan Santana as its lone legitimate starter, and nothing but questions about John Maine's health, Oliver Perez's mental state, and whether Livan Hernandez had anything left.
Four months later, people are still asking those same questions about the Mets rotation. Maine is out with a dead arm, and there is no telling when he will be back. Perez returned last week, but he is a ticking time bomb waiting to pop, and Hernandez has been awful for the last month.
The Mets decided to stand pact. Pedro was a thing of the past.
Now, Pedro may be a thing of the present.
He should be successful in Philadelphia, and with that great offense behind him, there is no doubt that Martinez is going to win games; he will be the constant reminder to the Mets and its fans of what could have been.
The worst thing that could ever happen to the Mets for the rest of this miserable season is Martinez making his return to Citi Field in August as a Phillie, and throwing seven strong innings of four-hit ball, allowing one run, walking one, and striking out six.
Worse would be getting the win over the Mets.
Or even worse, Martinez is on the mound as the Phillies clinch another World Championship, something Martinez was never able to do while in New York.
Now that is a disaster of monumental proportions.
That is almost as bad as Chad Pennington returning to Giants Stadium to thrash his old team, the New York Jets, in the final week of the regular season to kill their playoff dreams, while capturing a division title for the hated Miami Dolphins.
That is almost as bad as the nightmare Yankee fans would have if their Bronx Bombers were to square off against Joe Torre and the Dodgers this October, and lose the World Series to their old manager.
Like William Shakespeare once wrote in Hamlet, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
Sometimes, the unexplainable, the improbable, and the unlikely are just bound to happen; so is the cruddy existence of this franchise known as the New York Mets.
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