My favorite moment as a baseball fan: Pedro’s induction ceremony
By Dario Collado
The excitement I felt when I learned another Dominican baseball player would be inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame was overwhelming as a Dominican-American. Pedro Martínez would be part of the Hall’s 2015 class, and I could hardly contain my excitement.
One of my favorite baseball players was making history as the second Dominican to enter baseball’s hallowed grounds and join Boston Red Sox legends such as Ted Williams, Wade Boggs, Carlton Fisk and, yes, Carl Yastrzemski himself on baseball’s highest hilltop.
In the Presence of Greatness
I was part of a group of over 500 individuals from Boston and surrounding communities such as Dorchester, Roxbury, Mattapan, Cambridge and Jamaica Plain. We boarded five buses from downtown Boston shortly before 5 am on the morning of July 26, 2015, for the trip to Cooperstown, N.Y., to attend Pedro’s induction ceremony.
During that bus ride to Cooperstown, I reminisced about all of the great games I watched Pedro pitch and show off his talent. Watching Pedro pitch for the first time live for me was like watching an Elton John concert back in college at UMass-Amherst. You knew you were in the presence of greatness.
Who can forget Pedro’s September 10, 1999, game at Yankee Stadium, where he struck out 17 hitters, a record against the Yankees, retiring 27 out of a possible 29 batters—the lone hit being a Chili Davis second-inning home run.
Or how about his Superman performance from the 1999 All-Star Game in Boston, where he had five strikeouts in two innings in front of one of the Red Sox all-time greats in Williams.
Or better yet, the 2004 World Series title that finally broke the dreaded 86-year-old Curse of the Bambino, a moment many Red Sox fans never thought would come.
Pedro has always been a giant among giants as the leader of our tribe. My father would call Pedro the sure bet, “un animal de lanzador” (a beast of a pitcher), he would say when we would turn on the TV to watch Pedro pitch every fifth day.
Journey to Cooperstown
The trip to Cooperstown took about five hours. Our group arrived an hour before the opening ceremony with Dominican flags, t-shirts, Juan Luis Guerra’s music blaring, and mamajuana [a traditional Dominican drink] to celebrate while some played dominoes to kill time.
Our group made Cooperstown look like downtown Santo Domingo on a summer day where dominoes and Presidente beers were flowing. You would think you were a tourist visiting a five-star resort in Punta Cana just watching our group enjoying ourselves on the side of a hill in the Clark Sports Center where the Induction Ceremony is held.
We all walked from the buses over a steep hill to the ceremony in full gear with Pedro jerseys and merengue blasting from speakers. I felt like a runner running over “Heartbreak Hill” at the Boston Marathon.
We brought our Dominican A game! Everyone in the audience knew Boston loved Pedro but it was our turn to show Pedro just how much he meant to Boston. I still get goosebumps thinking of that moment, a signature memory in my own brain’s rich sports memories.
We were all there for Pedro!
An Unforgettable Ceremony
The ceremony was fun and touching, especially when Pedro acknowledged everyone in attendance and of course pitcher Juan Marichal, the first Dominican in the Baseball Hall of Fame, whom he honored during his touching speech.
History is still being made as we speak and we can expect to see another incredible sight this Sunday when Vladimir Guerrero becomes just the third Dominican to be enshrined into Cooperstown.
Later in November of 2015 I ran into Martínez at Yvonne’s Supper Club in Boston’s Theatre District where we were both there celebrating David Ortíz’s 40th birthday party and Big Papi’s announcement earlier that day that the 2016 baseball season would be his last. I couldn’t help but tell Pedro of my Cooperstown experience. It was my first time meeting him and I was struck by how big his pitching fingers were. To me, it now made perfect sense how he was able to command all his pitches every single time.
Pedro was excited to hear my story play by play. He told me that he realized during his Cooperstown induction of how much Boston really cared for him and that it was a special moment to bring that magical day back to life for him. Of course, it was also truly a special moment for a big baseball fan like myself.
Today, I want to thank Pedro for always being a role model to everyone who has followed his career. I, for one, will never forget that magical time in Cooperstown.
We returned to Boston at around 1 am the next morning. It was a long journey, but the trip was beyond worthwhile as we all made memories that will last a lifetime. Now we’re all eagerly anticipating the moment when Big Papi Ortiz gets his Cooperstown call so that we can do it all over again…
–Dario E. Collado is the Director of Strategic Development for the Hispanic Heritage Foundation in Washington, DC. He can be reached at dario@hispanicheritage.org
Featured Image: Jean Fruth / National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum