Pedro's Back! And He Ain't Afraid of No Ghosts

A city seethes in anticipation.

Philadelphia Phillies' Pedro Martinez smiles as he leaves the game during the seventh inning of Game 2 of the Major League Baseball World Series against the New York Yankees Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens)

(AP)

Outside Yankee Stadium, workmen wielding power washers crisscross the walkways on a crisp autumn afternoon, dutifully cleaning each and every groove between thousands of concrete squares. Inside, groundskeepers wielding rakes push pebbles back and forth, smoothing the dirt around home plate. Everyone in town, it seems, wants the place to look perfect for the return of Pedro Martinez.

"This is the kind of stage that I deserve," Martinez said, "and in a stadium like this, the most legendary of all places."

It will be nothing short of a miracle if the Yankees' new baseball palace remains anchored to its moorings when Martinez walks out to the mound Wednesday night in a Phillies uniform for Game 6 of the World Series. The last time the level of psychokinetic energy in New York pushed the needle this far off the meter, the "Ghostbusters" were called in to save the city.

Pedro ain't afraid of no ghosts, either, even though he brings a history to the Bronx like almost no other.

When Martinez last showed his face here — in the interview room after losing Game 2, despite a strong effort — he was wearing a striped jacket that looked like it had been stolen from the set of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat." Yet it was while wearing the red socks of hated rival Boston a half-dozen years ago that Martinez was rendered a villain in these parts forever.

In Game 3 of the ALCS, he was at the center of a tit-for-tat, purpose-pitch skirmish that erupted into a bench-clearing brawl. Don Zimmer, then a 72-year-old bulldog of a bench coach with the Yankees, rushed from the Yankees dugout straight for Martinez, who threw him to the ground.

New York didn't have to wait long for its revenge.

In the eighth inning of Game 7, Red Sox manager Grady Little left a tiring Martinez in to clean up the jam he'd gotten himself into. Bad idea: four straight hits erased Boston's 5-2 advantage, leading to a dramatic extra-inning, series-ending victory for the Yankees.