Pedro Martinez: From Great Falls to the Hall of Fame

In 1993 Shelley and John Haffner traveled to Denver to see the Los Angeles Dodgers and check up on the young pitcher who three summers before had shared their Great Falls home.

The only thing Pedro Martinez was happy about, though, was seeing his friends.

"He was really mad," Shelley remembers. "The Dodgers had been using him as a reliever. He said 'Mom, I don't have to play baseball. I've got $30,000 and a house back in the Dominican and if they aren't going to let me play I'm gonna quit.' "

Shelley said Pedro had called her "Mom" since the teenager had stayed in the Haffner house while pitching for the Great Falls Dodgers in 1990.

She had some motherly advice for the young pitcher, too.

"I told him the Dodgers probably see you as a skinny little guy who can't pitch, but I know what you can do," Shelley said. "It wasn't too long after that they traded him to Canada (Montreal Expos). I think the Dodgers regretted that."

No kidding.

On Tuesday, Martinez was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He's the only former Great Falls star to earn election to the Hall as a player, although just a year ago Bobby Cox, who also had a glorious playing career in the Electric City, was inducted as a manager.

Pedro joins a select group of former Pioneer League players in the Hall of Fame, a list that includes Ryne Sandberg of the Helena Phillies, Andre Dawson of Lethbridge, Frank Robinson of Ogden and George Brett of the Billings Mustangs.

Martinez received overwhelming support from the writers in what was his first year of Hall of Fame eligibility.

"It's great," Shelley said. "I love it. Pedro deserves it."

Martinez played in the major leagues for 18 seasons and was listed as a 5-foot-11, 170-pounder. He was shorter and slighter than that as a 19-year-old in 1990, when Great Falls was managed by Joe Vavra and won Pioneer's Northern Division championship. Martinez was 8-3 with a 3.62 earned-run average, solid numbers to be sure.

But Hall of Fame? We saw him pitch several times that summer and recall that he was successful and polite — but perhaps not the best pitcher in the family. Older brother Ramon Martinez was in the midst of a 20-win season for the Dodgers in 1990.

Pedro was pretty small, though there was nothing minor-league about his arm. We have a vivid memory of one particular Sunday at the ballpark when Pedro helped us as an interpreter for Raul Mondesi, who was also on that 1990 Great Falls team and also stayed in the Haffner house.

Talk about a couple of great ballplayers playing for Great Falls. And Pedro turned out to be the greatest.

"He's pretty cool," Shelley said. "I don't look at him as a famous person. I just look at him as a person. I'm not really in awe of him, although I appreciate what he accomplished and am proud of him. But I just think of him as a great kid, which he is."

The Haffners housed professional baseball players for perhaps 10 years. The summer of 1990, Shelley said, was the best.

"Not that we didn't enjoy all the kids we had, because we did," she said. "But that was the most fun summer. We really bonded with Pedro and Raul."

Shelley hasn't talked to Pedro for several years, but she's Facebook friends with his wife, Carolina. When first contacting Carolina, Shelley asked if Pedro remembered her.

"She messaged me right back," Shelley said. "She said Pedro almost cried when he saw the message. We're just a small part of things from way back, but he remembers. He's just a great kid."

The 1990 Great Falls team had no less than five future major leaguers. Mondesi, who played 16 seasons in the bigs and batted .273 with 1,589 hits, including 271 homers, was regarded by many as the best prospect on the squad.

We now know different.

Martinez starred for the Expos and was a superstar for the Boston Red Sox.

"He really loved Boston," Shelley said. "That was like his second home. He met Carolina there."

Here's what Martinez, who has never ever been linked to performance enhancing drugs, told reporters in Boston on Tuesday afternoon:

"I wanted the chance to actually do something for my family and I took full advantage of it, once I was given the opportunity. Now the rest is history. … I took advantage of it, I respected it, I did it with integrity, I did it like there was no tomorrow. I'm glad I'm here today. In the future, I don't know what's going to happen. But it doesn't get any higher than this."

Shelley Haffner agrees.

"It's gone by fast," she said. "It seems like just a few years ago that he was here. I still think of him as a kid. Today is a great day. We're so proud."

Scott Mansch is Sports Editor of the Great Falls Tribune and has covered Pioneer League baseball since 1984. He can be reached at 791-1481 or smansch@greatfallstribune.com. Follow him on Twitter @GFTrib_SMansch