Just got back to the good ol' south after an awesome long weekend in Cooperstown. It was a thrill to be there for Pedro's induction and certainly something I'll never forget.
My favorite in-person Pedro moment was May 18, 2002 at Fenway vs. the Mariners. A buddy of mine and I had flown up from Memphis for the weekend series. It was his first trip to Fenway and Boston in general so I was excited to show him my favorite place on Earth. This game is, of course, famous for the "Immaculate Inning" in the first where Pedro struck out all three hitters (Ichiro, McLemore, Sierra) on a total of 9 pitches. Pedro was awesome that day going 8 innings, struck out 9 I think, and only gave up one run, pretty sure it was a solo homer. I don't remember him walking anyone either. In a word, Pedro.
There were so many other things that stuck out about this game besides just the pure Pedro domination. As I said, we were there for the entire weekend series (which the Sox won 2 out of 3 by the way) and on Friday and Sunday we were able to wear shorts and t-shirts. But on this day, the Saturday Pedro game, it was like 40 degrees with icy rain! And the start of the game was delayed, maybe two hours or so. Because of this tons of folks didn't show up at all and I got to sit right at the Sox dugout, first row. It was amazing. I was so close I got to tell Tek to "never do that again" when he tried to steal second and we both cracked up.
The most memorable thing happened at the end of the game for me though. I turned to my friend as Uggie recorded the last out and said, "Can this day get any better?"
It did.
My wife, Cat, called on the phone (she was still down here in the Deep South) and told me that I was gonna be a dad for the first time. (Despite my desperate attempts to name the future child Pedro, my wife resisted.) I went straight to the souvenir store and got a baby Pedro jersey. My friend and I were staying at my folks house in Natick and when we got there that is what I used to tell them that they were going to be grandparents for the first time. They were like "Oh, that's cute. Who's it for?" And I said "your grandchild."
I saw Pedro several times throughout the years both at Fenway and on the road but that, for me, was my most special day.