The jacuzzi story Pedro Martinez couldn't wait to share
Prior to Tuesday night's game against the Rays, the Red Sox used the penultimate game of Fenway Park's 100th anniversary season to honor the 2004 World Series champions. Then once their duckboat parade around the warning track was finished, Kevin Millar, Keith Foulke, and Pedro Martinez met the media.
In describing what made that team special, Millar talked about how well that team got along with each other, lauding its chemistry as a difference-maker -- and as the three ex-Sox cited a few examples of that, Martinez alluded to a jacuzzi story involving left fielder Manny Ramirez. He didn't tell it then. But the legendary righty sure seemed to be itching to share.
So when another opportunity arose later, he did.
"I'm gonna tell this story because it's hilarious," Martinez said with a laugh. "I'm in the jacuzzi and I'm trying to relax in the jacuzzi. I cleaned up my jacuzzi really clean before I got in and everything. I put new water and everything in there.
"All of a sudden Manny comes out of nowhere. Takes off his pants, but leaves his socks on, and his shirt. I'm not looking, and all of a sudden Manny jumps in the jacuzzi. Millar sees Manny, and all of a sudden, "Oh! What do we have here? Do we have a party here?' He jumped in. Then Johnny Damon broke the party because Johnny Damon wanted to take all of his clothes off.
"Manny came right out, took my clothes -- my underwear, my socks, and everything -- put it on, sprayed perfume on it, and put his uniform on and went to play. To see four guys, a couple of them half-naked, in the same jacuzzi -- you can't make it up. But that's the kind of group we had."
"Can you imagine Jeter, Posada, and Bernie buck naked jumping in?" Millar added, in reference to a trio of Yankees. "You just can't make it up."
A moment later, Martinez said he's never signed the inside of the Green Monster because he didn't feel as though he'd earned the right to do so "until (he) won it for Boston." He intends to stop inside the wall on this visit, and ink his signature in a certain spot.
"I'm gonna sign really high so Manny doesn't pee on it."
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