As Pedro Martinez takes the mound tonight against the Washington Nationals, he reminds us about what was once good about baseball, and what still is.

Throughout the 1990’s, an era when falsified sluggers roamed the ball-parks like oversized dinosaurs in a Jurassic period of long shots and syringes, Pedro dominated like few pitchers have before. At a slight five-foot eleven, 190 pounds, the Dominican was the most feared force in all of baseball.

Statistically he was impeccable. Between 1997 and 2003 Pedro led the league in ERA five times with marks of 1.90, 2.07, 1.74, 2.26 and 2.22. During that same period he won three Cy Young awards, and finished in the top five for Cy Young voting six times, as well as the top five for MVP twice. Pedro also recorded a 118-36 record during that stretch with 1761 strikeouts to only 315 walks.

However what made Pedro so special wasn’t just his numbers but the fact that he tallied them during an era when the league ERA skyrocketed, homers were hit at an alarmingly raised rate, and everywhere you looked, power and size was the name of the game.

Perhaps this is what made the feisty starter such a fan favorite throughout baseball. For many of us, Pedro was the embodiment of our own struggles in life and with baseball. Surrounded by titans, this average man had lifted himself above all the cheating and the unfairness, and became simply, ‘Pedro.’ He was a force to be reckoned with in a way that we all wish we could be, in a world that was stacked against him, much like ours is against us.

Pedro contained all the characteristics we wished to see in ourselves. Among them charisma, guts, fearlessness, excellence, confidence, and swagger.

Perhaps it was the perfect fit that he was the guiding hope for the game’s lovable losers, the Red Sox. The Sox were a team that despite their devotion to a single goal, despite their hard work and their paid dues, they never seemed to get their day. For seven years Pedro led the Red Sox charge to a World Series. Year in and year out they pounded on the door only to be turned away by the mighty Yankees seemingly every time, until 2004 when it finally all turned around.

In the end it may not have been Pedro’s arm that won the World Series for the Sox in 2004, but it was his heart and soul that paved their road to get there.

Now five years later Martinez has definitely reached his twilight years. Following 2004, the Red Sox ace left Boston to go to New York to try and give the Mets their shot at the crown. Despite solid pitching, Pedro struggled to stay healthy his final three years and inevitably was left as a free agent this season as the year started.

Pedro, once again, was in the place of the common man. Like so many in the last two years, a once fully able man he was left on the outside looking in at his profession, and his love. While Pedro was a millionaire he had fallen on hard times in baseball terms. He was a 36-year-old pitcher with a reconstructed arm and a depleted reputation.

The Philadelphia Phillies decided to give Pedro some brotherly love in August as they signed the former star in the middle of July to a $2 million deal. Finally given a chance, Pedro has excelled as a major league starter yet again, proving to us all that we should never give up on ourselves.

Through 23 innings pitched Pedro has gone 3-0 with a 3.52 ERA, and has struck out 23 while walking only 3 batters. It appears that at least for now he is pitching at a dominant level yet again and both the Phillies, and baseball fans everywhere are better off for it.

Once an inspiration competing against giants, now Pedro is an inspiration to us all to never give up our hopes, or on ourselves.

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