In light of last week’s Hall of Fame balloting, here’s Pedro Martinez’ 1999 APBA card.
Between 1997-2003, P.J. Martinez had a string of seven outstanding years (with the possible exception of his injury-plagued 2001 season). In that time, he went 118-36 with a 2.20 ERA and struck out 1761 batters in 1408 innings. He also won three Cy Young awards in those seven years.
One of those Cy Youngs came in 1999. Pedro was pretty much unhittable and unbeatable. He went 23-4 with a 2.07 ERA. He averaged 13.2 strikeouts per 9 IP. For the Red Sox, he led the AL in wins, ERA, strikeouts (313) and WHIP.
| W | L | G | GS | CG | SHO | IP | H | R | ER | HR | BB | SO | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 23 | 4 | .852 | 2.07 | 31 | 29 | 5 | 1 | 213.1 | 160 | 56 | 49 | 9 | 37 | 313 |
How dominating was Martinez in 1999? He won AL Pitcher of the Month in April, May, June AND September. Not only did he win the Cy Young award, he also came in a close second place to Ivan Rodriguez for AL MVP.
For his career, Martinez led his league in ERA five times, strikeouts three times and won 20 games twice with a 219-100 record.
On his 1999 APBA card, Pedro Martinez gets all the good pitching ratings and none of the bad ratings… almost. He’s graded an A&C plus he has letters KXZ (he’s only missing the Y for the trifecta). It is incredibly rare for a starter to get the K rating. Martinez’ card is over the top with an X tacked on to that.
If you’re wondering about the 66-6, Pedro did bat twice in interleague play with Boston. However, he went 0 for 2 with a strikeout. For his last double before 1999, you have to go back to 1997 when Martinez was with the Expos.
Thanks to Pastor Rich for making this suggestion a long time ago. This week, it is ever so relevant.
