Not really Pedro!

In what appeared to be a pretty lively World Series press conference, Pedro Martinez displayed some very severe delusions of grandeur by saying this regarding his alleged status as a Yankee Stadium icon:

"I don't know if you realize this, but because of you guys (the press) in some ways, I might be at times the most influential player that ever stepped in Yankee Stadium. I can honestly say that."*

My retort:

Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Joe Dimaggio, Mickey Mantle, Reggie Jackson, Yogi Berra, Derek Jeter, Don Mattingly, Mariano Rivera, Kevin Maas (just making sure everybody is awake out there), Phil Rizzuto, Ron Guidry, Billy Martin, Goose Gossage......

The list goes on.

When I was a young lad growing up on the mean streets of Metro Detroit suburbia, I had a hardcover illustrated book on the history of baseball. I loved the book and probably read it cover to cover hundreds of times. You still see it in libraries. I am guessing that books like this were not widely distributed in the Dominican Republic.

*Those sportswriters must have been asleep. The obvious follow up question should have been, "Well then how come you are not on even one of those thousands of Upper Deck Yankee Stadium history cards?" They blew it! They could have nailed him!