Admittedly, I’m biased.

Let me get that part out of the way first. I love Pedro Martinez. He’s my binky. He’s my favorite Red Sox player of all-time. He has a spot reserved on my Mount Rushmore of Boston professional athletes (the ones I’ve seen in my lifetime) along with Bobby Orr, Larry Bird and Tom Brady. He is a legend. And he is probably the greatest pitcher of all-time.

Most of you will view that last statement as ridiculous…just another bit of lunacy from the same keypad that wrote Kobe would win a title before Shaq. Except this time, I have the numbers on my side...no, not overall numbers taken from different eras or accumulated over many years of big league work. I’m talking numbers so dominant for their period they transcend generations.

The comparison was done years ago, when Martinez possessed the combination of Greg Maddux finesse and Randy Johnson power that no other pitcher in major league history other than Sandy Koufax possessed. When you took Petey’s numbers from the 1999-2000 seasons and compared them to the norm for other pitchers during that time period, there wasn’t a better statistical performance in history, be it the dead ball and higher mound eras, to the days when ballparks were pastures and Babe Ruth hit more home runs than every other team combined.

I mention 1999-2000 because those were the two that stand out. Really, you could count his entire career up to now, but what he did those two years was from another world. Pedro drove a stake through the heart of the "Juice Era."

23-4, 2.07 ERA and 0.92 WHIP with 313 K’s in 213 innings in 1999. The strikeouts were down (284 in 217 IP) and the record wasn’t as good (18-6) in 2000, but the ERA and WHIP dropped to 1.74 and 0.74 respectively.

Think about those numbers for a minute. Take some more time to digest them. Then feel free to compare them to any single year from any pitcher of this era and you’d be shocked by how much Pedro Martinez blows them all away. Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux…you name him, Pedro’s stats bury him. Then notice how even Pedro’s worst years fit right in with the rest of those guys and any one-year wonder you’d like to bring up.

But numbers alone aren’t why I love Pedro Martinez. What the Red Sox are today can be directly traced back to the day Dan Duquette traded for the National League Cy Young winner (for the Montreal Expos, no less).

When Pedro pitched, Fenway was packed. (Hard for you Johnny Come Lately’s to understand, but they didn’t always sell out that crap hole of a ballpark) When Pedro pitched, you went to the bathroom when the Red Sox were at bat. When Pedro pitched, the Boston Globe produced an entire page in Spanish. In short, a Pedro Martinez start was an event…something not to be missed for fear of losing out on a piece of history.

The highlights are too many to list, so I’ll give you my personal favorites;

17-K’s and one hit allowed at Yankee Stadium late in 1999, the game that served notice the Red Sox were a legitimate threat to the New York dynasty. It took another 5-years to finally beat them. But Joe Torre will tell you from that night on he always feared the Red Sox most, because they had Pedro Martinez.

The injured ace coming out of the bullpen in the deciding Game 5 of the 1999 playoffs. That he no-hit the Cleveland Indians over the final 6-innings, even though he was hurt and only throwing about 88-89 mph wasn’t what impressed me. It was how defeated and pathetic the potent Cleveland hitters looked as soon as he trotted in from the pen. Check out the game next time it’s on ESPN Classic. I swear they were striking out on purpose in the 9th inning just to get it over with.

Game-3 of the ALCS the same year…the only game the Sox won. Pedro baffled the Yankees while Roger Clemens shriveled like a prune and was taunted off the mound. Undoubtedly, Dan Duquette’s greatest day as GM.

The All-Star game at Fenway when Pedro destroyed the best the National League had to offer. Larkin, Larry Walker, Bagwell, McGwire, Sosa (some at their steroid induced peaks)…all reduced to little leaguers flailing away helplessly.

Game-5, 2004 ALCS…Pedro brushes back Hideki Matsui, who to that point was killing the Sox. Godzilla is not heard from again in the series.

Game-3, 2004 World Series…7 shutout innings in his first World Series appearance. After threatening in the 1st inning, the Cardinals had no shot. They looked more beaten than the ’99 NL All-Stars.

The above performances, along with the many serious and goofy moments in between are why I love Pedro Martinez. And apparently, so does the majority of Red Sox Nation.

I can’t tell you how happy I was to see the standing ovation given to him between innings Tuesday night. After what happened with Johnny Damon, I was a bit nervous. Red Sox fans are mocked nationally for their inferiority complex and for eating their stars alive. The Damon incident was embarrassing to me because it validated the belief that Boston fans hate the Yankees more than they love the Sox. Had they booed Pedro, too, a new low would have been reached.

Luckily, we don’t have to worry about that now. We can sit back, watch the master at work, and root like hell for another Red Sox victory tonight….1-nothing…9th inning HR by David Ortiz…off Billy Wagner.

Welcome back Pedro. And thank you for a lifetime of memories!

What are your thoughts on Pedro’s return to Fenway? Favorite memories? Bad ones?