Pedro Back to the Dominican Republic

Pedro Martinez was scheduled to throw a bullpen session here in Atlanta today for the Mets coaches, another step forward in his return from a strained left hamstring that sidelined him since 3 1/3 innings into his first start.

But when Martinez landed in Atlanta he received word that his father, who is suffering from an aggressive form of brain cancer had a setback, which was serious enough to warrant a change in planes. Martinez was switched onto a plane back to the Dominican Republic to be with his father.

Martinez detailed his father's illness and its effect on his career in the Record on March 16 and again reiterated those details to the NY Daily News this week. His father's cancer has moved beyond treatment and the family has focused on comfort, bringing him back to the Dominican to be with family.

In March, Martinez said, "People write about extensions. I never said that. I don’t know what I’m going to do after this year. If anything happens to my family, I don’t know what will happen. I could be gone. I owe this organization this season. After that, I don’t know.”

We've included the story that details his family concerns below the fold:

By STEVE POPPER

STAFF WRITER

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. – Around a batting cage on a back practice field, a collection of Mets pitchers took turns at the plate, most of them playing a version of home run derby.

But in the distance, where only a few balls are coming close to, Pedro Martinez is standing alone near the center field fence. He is long-tossing, firing balls nearly to first base on a fly while his trainer sets up a relay to get the ball back to him. Martinez then fires off a quick bullpen session. After this, Martinez heads inside, covered in sweat, switches to sneakers and begins the truly arduous part of his training regimen, a workload that teammates have tried to follow and fallen off like victims of a death march.

But as hard as it is, the work to get his shoulder back in shape, to get him physically ready to get back on the mound last September and a continuing process now, is the easy part. Martinez will work as hard as he needs to, determined to fulfill the obligation he feels he owes to the Mets and their fans.

But there is another part of his path to the mound every day, a burden that can not be relieved with sweat and toil.

While he spends his days in the weight room or on the diamond, completing his comeback, he can not forget what he is leaving behind at home. His 78-year-old father is suffering from lymphoma, an aggressive strain of cancer in his brain that has put him in and out of the hospital. That tears his heart a little bit.

And at home, his children, now old enough to know when dad is gone, ask him when he can play catch with them, when he will see them again. And that tears his heart a little bit more.

And he knows that no matter how strong he makes his shoulder, how much he can absorb the physical pain that pitching inflicts upon his slightly-built body, it is that pain in his heart will still drive him from the game.

“It’s like in baseball,” Martinez said. “You just go at it, you swallow it for as long as you can. If you make sacrifices for the game and the integrity of the game and your career to be a good role model, you also have to tough it up and be there for them, because it’s not their fault that I chose this job.”

The Other Side

Martinez isn’t complaining. These stories have to be pried from him. He doesn’t tell anyone when he rushes from training camp to race the drive to Miami to bring his father to the hospital or ask for understanding from anyone when he sits by his father’s bedside, his voice the lone connection to consciousness for his dad on the really bad days.

He knows what baseball has given him. But like Tom Glavine a year ago, like the other aging players in the Mets’ clubhouse, Martinez wonders how much longer he can balance the time atop the mound with the time lost at home.

“At first when you’re moving on in your career, everything seems to be so good,” Martinez said. “It looks so good from the outside. When you’re young and healthy and full of energy, it appears as if nothing could go wrong. Time passes by. When you’re young, you’re single, you’ve got nothing else to do but to play baseball. It seems relatively easy to just keep your body in shape, looking good, and going out there and working at what seems like the best job that you can ever dream of.

“But after a while after you start getting family. Dad is getting older. Mommy is getting older. And you’re away for so long, especially for people like us who grew up in different countries. After a while you start to miss it.

“You start to realize that with baseball part of your normal life changes,” he added. “You become like an object that moves here and there. You move from one city to another. A lot of people don’t think about that because of our fame and salary and spotlight. It doesn’t allow anybody to see you, just what they see on TV. I don’t think anybody stops to think that much about when you make it home what happens.”

The Future

Those things may seem like a small cost from the outside, for those who see the huge salary and dream about this life. But Martinez sees the little things money can’t buy – the father and son sitting together in the stands watching him or the family playing catch on the grass outside the practice field while he works alone.

When he was stuck in Florida rehabbing for nearly a year before returning to the Mets last September, the hard work was eased by being able to have his sons at the complex during their summer vacation. He could play catch with them, teach them to catch and throw and hit.

But back withy the team, his days are filled now with work, individually and with the team. And he bristles when he reads stories that say he is asking for a contract extension. He has been careful to say from the start of this spring that if he is healthy, he would like to play, but will wait and listen to what Omar Minaya wants to do. He said that he won’t play more than two or three years beyond this season, but there are no guarantees that he will play at all beyond this season.

“After the season I’m going to go home. As far as anything else I don’t know,” Martinez said. “(The family concerns are) what’s going to drive me, anybody away. If I’m healthy, I’m totally gone in two or three years, regardless. I could win 20 games at age 39 and I’m gone.

“People write about extensions. I never said that. I don’t know what I’m going to do after this year. If anything happens to my family, I don’t know what will happen. I could be gone. I owe this organization this season. After that, I don’t know.”

For now, he juggles his two lives, the ballplayer and the family man, the same as Glavine did before returning home to Atlanta this winter. He finished a long work day earlier this spring and drove back to Miami to be there for his son’s seventh birthday party. He arrived and wanting to rest, found a group of kids surrounding him, then demanding he be part of their games.

“They wanted me to be the pillow monster, chasing them around with the pillow,” he said. “I want to be on top of a pillow, maybe on a sofa, anywhere I can recline. But that’s impossible.”

The time is precious and he sees it slipping past him. That is why he sees the clock running down on his career.

“When they don’t realize exactly what missing you is and they can get by with a toy or something to entertain them it’s different,” he said. “Now they’re starting to pick up that daddy is not at home. It’s hard to imagine that your son is playing on a Little League team and you’re the perfect teacher, the perfect example and you don’t have the time to teach your own kid. That’s the type of reality you have to face sometimes.”

E-mail: popper@northjersey.com

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Comments

[Joe D]

off topic, but...

Where are these guy's heads?? They look lifeless and emotionally bankrupt...

I haven't felt this terrible since the Scott Kazmir trade as a fan...