A True Blue Pedro Martinez Collectible

Ramon's spotlight got smaller in a hurry

Oct 25, 2024

That future crashed right into the 1990 season in the form of young righthander Ramon Martinez, who had been the darling of scouts and pundits pretty much ever since he signed with L.A. as an amateur free agent in 1984.

At just 22 years of age, Martinez made his supporters look really smart in 1990 — twenty wins against just six losses, held up by a 2.92 ERA landed him a second-place finish in the National League Cy Young Award voting (behind Doug Drabek).

But while Ramon was tearing up NL batters, the Dodgers had even more “future” on the way, and closer than might have been expected from a timing perspective.

See, that was the summer that Ramon’s younger brother, Pedro, made his professional debut for the Dodgers after signing his own amateur deal in 1988.

While Ramon was basking in the NL West sunshine, Pedro had to pay his dues a few rungs further down the ladder, toiling all season for the Rookie-level Great Falls Dodgers of the Pioneer League.

The youngster wasn’t quite as dominating as his older brother, but he did put up a nifty 8-3 record in 14 starts with a 3.62 ERA and 82 strikeouts in just 77 innings.

It was just the sort of performance big league fans would come to expect of Pedro within a few scant years — lopsided won-loss record, modest workloads (by ace standards), lots of strikeouts.

Of course, in the Majors, that ERA dropped precipitously and Pedro developed into one of the greatest hurlers of all time.

In 18 seasons, Martinez’s Hall of Fame career produced a ridiculous 219-100 record with a career ERA of 2.93 and ten strikeouts per nine innings, good for three Cy Young Awards and a ring with the Boston Red Sox in 2004.

All of that greatness predictably made Pedro a hot commodity in the hobby, too, with his 1991 and 1992 rookie cards among the most popular in several “Junk Wax” issues of the day.

But cardboard was another place where P. Martinez got a head start in that summer of 1990, courtesy of Sport Pro.

The Spokane, WA, firm issued a set of 30 of those Great Falls Dodgers, which included future Chavez Ravine denizen Raul Mondesi.

And, of course, a young man named Pedro Martinez. It’s his first card ever, but it already showed him in Dodger Blue, as if he were always destined for Major League greatness.

Today, as the World Series begins, Pedro Martinez turns 53 years old.

Not Quite Lost in the Shuffle

Pedro came up through the ranks at just the right time for his rookie cards to sort of get lost in the overproduction, over-choiced hobby boom of the early 1990s. Even so, his inimitable mound dominance managed to lift several of those RCs a notch or two above the general muck of the era.

I ran through several of the key Pedro rookie cards a few years back right here. (The general commentary still applies; the prices, maybe not so much.)

—

Enjoy the first game of the World Series. Every moment counts now — there aren’t many left before we start the Spring Training countdown!

Thanks for reading.

—Adam

Like these stories and want to support them? Now you can contribute any amount you like via PayPal: