Pedro shows true toughness by talking

On April 30th, Pedro Martinez proved that words don't make you tough. In a game against the Cleveland Indians, Pedro mowed down the Tribe for most of the game with the exception of catcher Einar Diaz. Diaz doubled in his first two at-bats off of Pedro so what does Pedro do the next time he's up? You got it - threw at his head not once, but twice. In retaliation, Charles Nagy drilled Jose Offerman with a pitch in the 7th inning and it seemed to be over. As the benches cleared with little incident, one player seemed curiously absent from the field - Pedro Martinez. The man who started this whole thing by trying to take off a backup catcher's head was sitting in the dugout while the two teams nearly brawled. Once Pedro took the mound, he suddenly became tough again and plunked Roberto Alomar with a pitch. Martinez was ejected from the game. In a postgame interview, Martinez was quoted as saying he had to protect his teammates by retaliating. We're fine with that (although we're still not cool about aiming at heads). But then he said, "We win as a team, we lose as a team, and we fight as a team." We fight as a team? This is coming from the only Red Sox player NOT on the field during the altercation. We fight as a team? It's fine to sit in the dugout and not get involved, but when you are the reason for the altercation and you sit by yourself in the dugout and then have the nerve to say, "We fight as a team", there are issues. Pedro has tremendous ability as a pitcher, but he lost our respect as a player that day. Either shut up and play, or finish what you started. It's that simple. There is no middle ground here. If you say that "We fight as a team," then you better be out there when there's a problem. If you want to sit and watch your teammates rumble around without getting involved, that's great. But don't try to make yourself look tough by saying things that are simply not true.

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