A huffy Pedro Martinez stormed away from his recent meeting with George Steinbrenner, feeling that the Yankees owner had “disrespected” him. The meeting began when Pedro sauntered into the scheduled noontime luncheon at 3:30 in the afternoon, explaining his lateness by saying he needed time to get ready.
“From there,” said the temperamental hurler, “it was just one disrespect after another. For instance, he had no salsa band there to play for me during lunch. Do you believe it? I love salsa music. There were no flowers presented to me. Mussina’s wife got flowers when he signed Mussina, why no flowers for me? There was not one single gift given to me, despite the fact that I was supposedly his guest.”
Although the luncheon was a multi-course gourmet feast prepared by the finest chefs in Florida, Pedro bristled when asked about it. “He served white wine with the fish,” sulked the pitcher, “and he should have found out that I like red wine with fish. I don’t like to be treated like this, like I am just some bum off the street.”
Although no monetary negotiations took place, Pedro did make clear some of the conditions that would need to be met if he were to come to the Bronx. “I told George, Condition One: he better get that crowd to stop shouting ‘Who’s you’re Daddy?’ You know, it’s hard to concentrate when 60,000 people are screaming at you like that, especially when my fastball’s only hitting 88 mph these days and you only got 100 pitches to get the job done. The Yankees fans better be nice to me. Even if I pitch poorly, I don’t want to hear booing or any negativity at all. That’s disrespectful.”
Yankees GM Brian Cashman, who was not at the luncheon, was heard to have said, “I wouldn’t give that torn-rotator-cuff-waiting-to-happen little prima donna a penny, let alone a multi-year contract.” Derek Jeter, referring to current Yankee outcast Arod said, “We already have one overpriced glove-slapping little girl on the team. We don’t need another crybaby.”
There are reports that members within the Red Sox organization are privately hoping that George offers Pedro a five-year contract at $13 million per. Rumors abound that when that scenario was mentioned to Theo Epstein, he could be heard within his office saying, “Oh please let it happen. Please, please, please…”
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