Pedro Martinez Quotes

I've been a Yankees fan for a long time. When I was a kid in the mid-'70s, the Yankees were really great. They had Reggie Jackson in '77. I was 8 years old at the time. He hit three home runs to win the World Series in game six against the Dodgers, and I was just hooked.

I was a big baseball player, and my passion in life, in third grade, was collecting baseball cards. That was my childhood thing.

I was a professional baseball player from the time I was drafted out of high school in 1981 until the time I retired in 2003.

I collect autographed major-league baseballs.

I know Reggie Jackson is a good player.

I'm a big Geena Davis fan. I have a Geena Davis-signed baseball, which is funny because I don't get signatures from most baseball players I meet.

I went to my first game May 30, 1956, and Mantle was in the beginnings of his Triple Crown season. And he was drop-dead handsome.

I was actually more of a baseball and Padres fan when I was younger.

I'm a huge baseball fan and follow it very closely.

Brooklyn was a famous team. I wanted to play for the Dodgers.

You can play football and be the next Jim Brown or play baseball and be the next Reggie Jackson.

All America is familiar with the Yankee-Dodger-Giant trivia, but so many other teams had great moments.

I know I never saw Casey Stengel when I was being scouted. And how could you be in a ballpark and not know if Casey Stengel was there?

One of my biggest gifts ever, my mother made a Yankee uniform for me as a little boy, and I wore it to bed dreaming I could pitch in the major leagues and then be a Yankee.

I came of baseball age (isn't it always around first grade?) in the last sputtering years of the A's Philadelphia tenancy. I probably plighted my fated troth in 1949, when the A's fluked into a winning season and introduced a pintsize southpaw named Bobby Shantz.

When I was in the West Coast watching the Giants, Rich Aurilia was a guy I always liked.

I don't want to be buried in a Red Sox casket.

You realize it's a business and that teams are going to do what's best for them. That's how it is. That's what we sign up for as a Major League Baseball player.

I always tried to be Mark McGwire and hit homers like he did. I was kind of following his race, too, when he was trying to break the record.

It's definitely a dream come true playing for the Red Sox.

I was sort of obsessed with the Phillies as a young kid.

I told Pedro this story: I used to wear a freakin' Pedro Martinez jersey because it had 'Martinez' on the back.

My grandfather was the general counsel for the Washington Senators, and my dad grew up on Ted Williams' lap.

I've definitely been to my fair share of Dodger games growing up. Didn't grow up too far from the stadium. That's where I first learned, first watched major-league baseball.

It was always a dream of mine to play for the Orioles.