Pedro Martinez will travel to Boston on 11 January to receive the Cy Young Award, for being the best pitcher of the American League last season. This is the second time he receives the award. Last year he won the award while pitching for Montreal, of the National League. Martínez spoke with reporters when attending the clinics organized by the Department of Drug Control at a Juan Pablo Duarte Olympic Stadium on 4 January. Some 6,000 Dominican children received t-shirts and the clinics from 20 Major league baseball players that are in the DR for the holidays. These included Quilvio Veras, Ramón Martínez, Vladimir Guerrero, Wilton Guerrero, José Rijo, Deivis Cruz, Jose Offerman, Juan Guzmán, Pablo Ozuna, Miguel Batista, Mario Encarnación and Junior Noboa. Pedro Martínez dominated in most major pitching categories last season. He struck out 313 batters; his 37 walks were the fewest ever for a pitcher with 300 strikeouts. He won 23 games and lost only four. His ERA of 2.07 was more than a full run better than that of his closest rival (David Cone’s 3.44), in a year when the ERA for all pitchers in the American League was 4.86. Martínez was the 1999 season’s showman. He held his opponents to a .205 average and was best when the heat was on. In the September pennant race, he struck out 17 Yankees on his way to a one-hitter. As the American League starter in the All-Star Game, he struck out five of the six batters he faced, including Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. And when his team most needed him, he delivered six innings of no-hit, eight-strikeout relief in the decisive game of the Division Series (despite a back injury). Martínez also posted the Boston Red Sox’s only victory in the championship game against the Yankees. The major disappointment of the year was when two sports writers did not include him in the best of the year vote and he finished second to Texas catcher Iván Rodríguez in the MVP balloting.
