Baseball in French, Lesson 13: La Balle Tire-Bouchon

Welcome to Baseball in French, Lesson 13. Previous lessons can be found here.

 

Today's term is La balle tire-bouchon.

 

In English, that translates to "the corkscrew ball". Or, as we better know it, "the screwball".

There's a certain Montreal Expo who wasn't exactly known as a screwball pitcher, but had a change-up that acted like one, falling away from left-handed batters. Here he is on his 1994 O-Pee-Chee card. 

 

Martinez only spent 4 seasons with Montreal, from age 22 through 25, but that's when he started to show glimpses of the brilliant pitcher he'd become. In 1997, his final season in Montreal, he'd go 17–8 with a minuscule 1.90 ERA (led majors), 13 complete games (led majors), 4 shutouts, and 305 strikeouts to 67 walks. He won his first of 3 Cy Young awards that year.

His grand totals with les Expos:

55 W, 33 L, 3.06 ERA, 20 CG, 8 SHO, 248 BB, 843 SO, 797.1 IP

Then he was off to Boston, and you already know the dominance he displayed there. More Cy Young Awards, All-Star teams, a Triple Crown, a World Series championship. Total stud. I'm glad I found a way to get him into these French lessons.

And speaking of these lessons, I think I'm going to make this the final one in the series, which is fitting with "corkscrew". In other words, if you've stuck with the entire series—all 13 posts—consider congratulating yourself in the only way a French baseball player would: by taking out that corkscrew, opening a bottle of wine, and enjoying a glass. (Beer is fine, too.)

Thanks for reading!

Martinez Brothers

Have a look at the pitching deliveries featured on these two cards, as Ramon Martinez almost seems to morph into his brother Pedro.

1994 Pacific Crown Collection #314 Ramon Martinez and #313 Pedro Martinez

 
Same road uniforms, same high jersey numbers, same blue long-sleeve shirt, same black baseball glove, same stride off the mound. 

Two great careers, too, as foreshadowed by the opening sentence on the back of Pedro's 1991 Upper Deck Final Edition card #2F: 

As if Ramon Martinez was not formidable enough for the Dodgers, Los Angeles also has his younger brother Pedro speeding through their farm system.

Most folks these days will know more about that younger brother Pedro, of course. He did speed through the Dodgers' farm system, so quickly in fact that he'd spend parts of the next two seasons up with the big club. But he started to show his stuff in earnest with the Montreal Expos in 1994. He built on strong numbers there until in 1997 he really let loose, going 17-8 with a major league–leading 1.90 ERA and 13 complete games. He also put up a whopping 305 strikeouts. 

From there he went to the Red Sox, where remarkably he'd show even more of his stuff. In the five seasons from 1999 to 2003, he led the majors in ERA four times, and led the A.L. in strikeouts three times. In those same five years he went 82-21 and put up 1,205 strikeouts to only 181 walks. Those numbers could have been even more staggering had he not been injured for a good portion of the 2001 season.

He's a three-time Cy Young Award winner, eight-time all-star, 2004 World Series champion, and the 1999 A.L. triple crown winner (23 wins, 2.07 ERA, 313 strikeouts). He played for the Dodgers, Expos, Red Sox, Mets, and Phillies.

But let's go back to that time when Pedro was still speeding through the Dodgers' farm system. Because in 1989 a whole lot of people were raving about older brother Ramon. If you were a baseball card collector back then, you'll remember Ramon's rookie cards being sought after. And he'd quickly prove there was good reason for that.

He had an all-star year in 1990, going 20-6 with a 2.92 ERA and 3 shutouts across 234.1 innings pitched, putting up 223 strikeouts to only 67 walks. And get this: 12 of those 20 wins were complete games. That led the majors. He'd post some pretty good win-loss records for a few seasons thereafter, too (17-13, 12-7, 17-7, 15-6).

And the guy was also a decent hitter. Check out these career stats:
596 AB, 91 H, 33 R, 12 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 33 RBI, 68 sac bunts, .153 avg.

In 1994 he had a fantastic season at the plate, going 18-for-66 with 3 doubles, 3 RBI, 5 sacrifice bunts, and a .273 average.

Rotator cuff surgery in 1998 shortened his career, but his totals across 14 seasons with the Dodgers, Red Sox, and Pirates are more than respectable.

Here are the career numbers for both brothers.

 

 

 

	PEDRO (18 seasons)	RAMON (14 seasons)
WINS	219	135
LOSSES	100	88
ERA	2.93	3.67
STRIKEOUTS	3154	1427
WALKS	760	795
SHUTOUTS	17	20
COMPLETE GAMES	46	37
INNINGS PITCHED	2827.1	1895.2

 

So here's to Ramon and Pedro, and to two careers worth celebrating here on the blog. I can only imagine how fun it must have been for them to pitch on the same team for those couple of early years.