A former Major League Baseball pitcher, Pedro Martinez is an eight-time All-Star, three-time Cy Young Award winner, and 2004 World Series champion. His new memoir is Pedro.From Martinez's Q & A with Robert Siegel for NPR:
SIEGEL: Now I want you to clarify something that may have mystified some baseball fans for years. After a loss to the Yankees you famously told reporters, the Yankees are my daddy. And this was seized upon as evidence that you were some kind of goofy guy or something. So tell us, what did you mean when you said, the Yankees are my daddy?--Marshal Zeringue
MARTINEZ: I didn't really say it that way. I said it - but you know that the media feeds off of negativity. They need quotes in order for them to write what they have to write. And what they got from the quote was I might as well go ahead and call the Yankees my daddy. That was the quote, but at the time what I meant was - in the Dominican Republic, we have a say that whenever you have a guy that has your number, you call him your daddy. And that's what I said. I might as well just call the Yankees my daddy.
SIEGEL: He owns you, that guy's got your number.
MARTINEZ: That's - he owns you. And that's what I meant at that time. But in no way did I mean that I couldn't beat the Yankees or...[read on, or listen to the interview]