NEW YORK — Outside the new Yankee Stadium, a palace that sprouts like a gray-and-blue poinsettia in a concrete jungle, people sleep on air mattresses and huddle in tents.
It’s 2:45 p.m., 30 hours before one of sports’ great events, and everywhere fans are talking about it and hoping to secure tickets. On curbs, people ask if the Yankees can beat him. In cabs, they rip him as some kind of spaghetti-armed pitcher with bad hair.
Pedro Martinez returns to the Bronx tonight for Game 6 of the World Series. He is the villain, a role he has played with perfection since his days with the hated Boston Red Sox. Martinez is not a pitcher. He’s an event.
“There’s nobody else like him,” Yankees outfielder Jerry Hairston Jr. said.
Curiously, splendidly, deliciously, Martinez stands between the Yankees and their 27th championship. Can Lex Luthor really fend off Superman, killing the dreams of a city and a team that measures itself in titles?
“I mean, what else would I want? I’m doing the job I love,” Martinez said. “I am doing something that not everybody gets to do. If you consider the fact that two months back I was sitting at home not doing anything, and today I am here pitching one of the biggest games ever, it means a lot.”
Martinez is a Phillie now, facing off against Andy Pettitte, a rival he first met in 1998. Martinez is a high-priced, well-documented rental. He joined Philadelphia this summer, nearly straining his rotator cuff patting himself on the back for the decision.
“I look pretty smart now,” Martinez was saying as far back as the National League division series vs. the Rockies.
Martinez never pitched against Colorado, his body and arm unable to get properly loose in the wintry weather. J.A. Happ replaced him after a snow delay. But Martinez muffled Los Angeles at Dodger Stadium in the NL Championship Series, and when the Phillies returned to the World Series, manager Charlie Manuel didn’t hesitate to make the right-hander a centerpiece of the rotation. Manuel mapped his schedule to have him start Games 2 and 6 at Yankee Stadium instead of Cole Hamels.
“First of all, he’s got a tremendous feel for pitching. He knows more about hitters than people give him credit,” Manuel said. “He’s smart and confident. I like that.”
Martinez has reveled in potentially his last stroll through the spotlight. His news conferences have been candid, cathartic and bizarre. He has already called himself the most influential pitcher to take the mound at Yankee Stadium. Yankees fans refer to him as the devil — a byproduct of playing for the Mets and Red Sox — and they chant “Who’s your daddy?” every inning. The latter is a response to one of Martinez’s infamous quotes about how he would handle the Yankees.
That he once threw former Yankees bench coach Don Zimmer to the ground during the 2003 ALCS — he was deemed “Fenway Punk” — only fueled the anger. It’s almost like when Martinez pitches against the Yankees, it’s more about WWE than ERA.
“Me and Derek (Jeter) were talking about it in the clubhouse, how strange it is that after all the battles we faced with Pedro in Boston, that we are up against him again,” said Pet-titte, who will be working on three days’ rest while Martinez will be on his normal routine. “It is going to be neat.”
Martinez, the one-time Red Sox star, the current Phillie, welcomes this stage. Darth Vader is trying to slay baseball’s Evil Empire. Who would have thought?
“I know the Boston fans don’t like the Yankees to win, even in Nintendo games,” Martinez said. “I am pretty sure that every Red Sox fan out there is proud that I have this chance.
“In baseball, I am a survivor. I am someone that wasn’t meant to be, and here I am on the big stage. All you guys are paying attention to me again. And that’s a great joy.”
Troy E. Renck: 303-954-1301 or trenck@denverpost.com
