Pedro Martinez took a moment out of a hectic Old Timers’ Day at Citi Field to approach Mets aces Jacob deGrom and Max Scherzer.
“I don’t normally ask for much, but this time I did,” Martinez said. “I said, ‘Can you get it done for me?’ I felt like there was unfinished business.”
Following a World Series win with the Boston Red Sox in 2004 to break an 86-year drought, the future Hall of Famer signed on with the Mets to do the same to a then-19-year drought.
After posting a 2.82 over 31 starts in his first year in Queens, Martinez suffered a torn calf muscle in 2006 that forced him to miss the postseason — one that saw the Mets fall one win short of a World Series appearance, falling in Game 7 of the NLCS to the St. Louis Cardinals.
“Some of us fell short, some of you got closer to the goal,” Martinez said after Old Timers’ Day on Sunday sitting alongside 2000 pennant winner Robin Ventura and 1986 World Series champion Ray Knight. “Some of us, me in particular, I felt like I had unfinished business.”
The Mets’ World Series drought is now up to 36 years and it appears that this season is their best chance to end it since 2006.
They’re off to their best start since 1986 and after Saturday night’s win against the Colorado Rockies, are 36 games over .500 for the first time since the final day of the 1988 season.
“They play the game right. When you play under Buck [Showalter], you do things correct,” Knight said. “He doesn’t accept anything but that. There’s a lot of talent on this ball club. You have power, you have speed, you have a lineup that’s deep. Any time you have Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom 1-2, that’s going to win you a lot of series… For the first time in a long time, I feel like there’s something special there.”
Currently the No. 2 seed in the National League with a three-game lead over the second-place Atlanta Braves in the NL East, the Mets are on the cusp of making the playoffs for the first time since 2016 and for just the 10th time in their 60-year history.
“I’m extremely proud to have been part of the Mets… I’m just praying to God that they bring it back because it’s about time,” Martinez said. “I don’t know if I’ve put too much pressure on those two guys but I’m just praying to God that they do what I couldn’t do.”
