Martinez's parents divorced when Pedro was nine years old.
Paulino Martinez was a talented amateur (unpaid) pitcher and he passed his knowledge of the national sport of the Dominican Republic along to his sons. Pedro played baseball from the time he could walk. "Baseball is in my family," he explained in USA Today. "It's in my blood. Ever since I know I'm alive, I played baseball. I played everywhere, in any little room we had, the back yard, the house. I'd accidentally hit people, playing in the streets. I'd even quit school to play baseball. I'd tell my mom I was going to school, then run into a friend on the way, and my time for school would be over."
Martinez used a broomstick as a bat and rocks, oranges, rolled-up socks, and the heads of his sisters' dolls as balls. "When my sisters came home from school, they'd find them with no head and they would go, 'Mommy! Mommy!'" Martinez recalled in the Los Angeles Times. "I would take anything that was around to play baseball. That's the passion I had."
Brotherly Love
The young pitcher was a big fan of his older brother, Ramon.
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