You know the Pedro Martínez story.
He was the best pitcher alive when the game was at its all time offensive height. Across 1999 and 2000, Martínez threw 430 innings, allowed 288 hits and 69 walks while striking out 597 and finishing with a 1.90 ERA — awe inspiring numbers for any time, but especially in an era when steroids were so common even wiry leadoff guys were (allegedly) imbibing. He played in a hitter friendly ballpark they crammed into a city block. Martínez wasn’t even six feet tall, but he threw five plus pitches, topped by a devastating circle changeup that poor Barry Larkin still probably sees in his nightmares.
Hall of Fame and World Series-winning MLB pitcher Pedro Martínez returned to Great Falls Saturday 35 years after he began his professional playing career in America with the Great Falls Dodgers. Pictured: Martínez addresses the Voyagers Stadium crowd for roughly four minutes pregame Saturday.
Daniel Shepard
The Pedro Martínez story climaxes with the bright lights of Fenway and Yankee Stadium, with “Who’s your daddy,” three Cy Young awards and the end of the greatest curse in American sports history.
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The Pedro Martínez story ends with a first ballot selection to the Baseball Hall of Fame and a cushy gig on the MLB Network. It ends with immortality.
You know all that. But do you know where the Pedro Martínez story starts?
A mural commemorating Pedro Martínez painted inside Voyagers Stadium was unveiled Saturday. Martínez signed the painting.
In 1990, when Martínez was barely 18 and freshly out of his home in the Dominican Republic, he pitched for the Great Falls Dodgers. It was his first professional baseball gig in America.
During his time in Great Falls, Martinez was 8-3 with a 3.62 ERA across 77 innings. The 1990 Great Falls Dodgers, who won the Pioneer League championship that year, were studded with talent. Future Phillie Mike Mimbs played in Great Falls with his twin brother Mark. All star Raúl Mondesí roomed with Martínez. Garey Ingram, who played with the Los Angeles Dodgers and now hosts a fishing channel on YouTube, hit .343 in Great Falls.
Pedro Martínez signs autographs for young fans inside Voyagers Stadium ahead of Saturday’s game against the Billings Mustangs. A fan is pictured wearing a “Martínez” 18 Dodgers jersey that was part of a giveaway.
Daniel Shepard
But Martínez topped them all. He topped everybody, everywhere. He’s probably the best player to ever play in the Pioneer League. And he went on to do so many great things, etch his name onto so many records and trophies, that the baseball world forgot about his time in Great Falls.
But Great Falls never did. And Martínez never did, either. He proved that last weekend by appearing at Great Falls’ Centene Stadium — the place where he learned to throw that circle change — for a game between the Great Falls Voyagers and the Billings Mustangs. The city proclaimed it Pedro Martínez Day.
Martínez milled around his old stomping grounds, meeting with players, signing autographs for fans and throwing out the first pitch. Afterwards, he gave a heartfelt speech, specifically thanking the Haffner family, who housed him and Mondesí. The pitcher calls them his “second family.”
“We felt like fish out of water, we didn’t know anything but to just be goofy,” Martínez. “Baseball wasn’t as difficult once we got in between the white lines as it was stepping outside the white lines.”
It was a reminder of the often forgotten human element of this game. The men who play baseball, as remarkable as they look on TV and under the flood lights, are just people. People who need support — the exact support Martínez found in Great Falls.
“It’s with gratitude I want to express to the fans here,” Martínez said, “for supporting our humble beginnings.”
The Billings Mustangs play the Great Falls Voyagers at Centene Stadium in Great Falls.
JAKE IVERSON, Billings Gazette
And the promise of low level baseball is that those beginnings could be anywhere. At one point Martínez turned and spoke directly to the Mustangs in the visiting dugout.
“If I can do it, you guys can do it,” he implored. “Don’t you ever lay your dreams on anybody’s hands. Go get it, and don’t fear.”
Centene Stadium, although it was known as Legion Park back then, is the same ballpark where Martínez’s legend started. But other than that, the baseball world in Great Falls looks pretty different than it did in 1990. The team haven’t even been called the Dodgers since 2002.
But there’s still baseball here. There’s always baseball. The Voyagers’ box score tallied 2,339 attendees, a number that, while it’s nearly 1,000 more than came out to the team’s game the next day, still feels a little light. Right as doors opened at 6 p.m. there was a line snaking through the parking lot. Concessions lines were backed up all night, the stadium’s internet network seemingly unable to keep up with all the credit card transactions.
A long line ques outside Centene Stadium before Pedro Martínez Day in Great Falls.
JAKE IVERSON, Billings Gazette
Pedro Martínez Day was a resounding success. And maybe a way forward for the Pioneer League.
The league, which was established in 1939, spent almost a century as an official Major League Baseball Minor League, taking inexperienced youth like Martínez and turning them into superstars. But after the Minor Leagues were reshuffled in 2021, the Pioneer League lost its affiliation status and became an MLB Partner League.
Hall of Fame and World Series-winning MLB pitcher Pedro Martínez returned to Great Falls Saturday 35 years after he began his professional playing career in America with the Great Falls Dodgers. Pictured: Martinez signs autographs for young fans inside Voyagers Stadium ahead of Saturday’s game against the Billings Mustangs.
Daniel Shepard
But on a Saturday night in Great Falls, the league came alive again. They remembered the past, nodded respectfully, and then played a heck of a baseball game. Billings was ahead 3-2 in the bottom of the 8th when, with two outs, Great Falls loaded the bases. The Voyagers’ slugging right fielder Tommy Specht came up and fouled off pitch after pitch, even utilizing the Pioneer League’s innovative strike zone challenge system to overturn a strikeout into a 3-2 count. The roar from Centene Stadium when that strike got overturned probably could be heard from across the Missouri River.
After a couple more fouls, Specht rolled out harmlessly to the Mustangs’ first baseman. Billings held on to win. But that wasn’t the end. The next day, both teams got up and played again.
At times, baseball feels almost unbearably poetic. Begin with the bright promise of spring, end with the cool death of autumn, in between rise and fall with the heatwaves and thunderstorms. It goes away, and it always comes back. That’s the promise. It’s always been kept.
“This will not be the last time that I come back,” Martínez said. “And it won’t be 35 more years.”
Like baseball, Pedro Martínez keeps his promises.
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