Sammy Sosa and Pedro Martinez
Photos & Story by Ozzie
Gonzalez They're a fearsome duo in different baseball leagues, but from the same country. These men are not huge is stature, but sheer power runs through their bodies when it's time to attack their opponent in close games. Fans look on in total amazement at how these two Dominican Dominators, Sammy Sosa and Pedro Martinez continue to buzz saw the competition and become the baseball darlings of Latin America and modern day heroes to America. They
grew up 50 miles from each other in the Dominican Republic. Sammy in the
baseball-rich city To say those two gentlemen grew up in poverty is an understatement. Hustling the streets selling orange juice and shining shoes for pennies was a necessity for survival. Parents couldn't buy baseball equipment, so they played with whatever resembled the parts of the game. As a boy, Martinez and his brothers would throw rolled-up socks (Sosa did the same), fruits and even his sister's doll heads to get a game going. "When my sister came home from school, they would find their doll with no head and would scream out 'Mommy Mommy!' and we would get in trouble," recalls Martinez during an interview. They both turned professional as teenagers for a combined $10,000 dollars. Today, these two All-Stars are worth over more than $25 million a year and they're worth it. When the Chicago White Sox traded Sammy Sosa to their cross town rival Cubs for George Bell in March of 1992, their young prospect had never hit more than fifteen home runs in a season. But eight years later, the young Dominican from the baseball goldmine of San Pedro de Macoris hit 66 home runs in 1998-- right behind Mark McGwire's record breaking 70 home runs in one of baseball's most memorable seasons. In 1999, Sosa hit 63 home runs and went into the record books by becoming the first player in history to have two 60 home run seasons. Sosa's leadership, effervescent personality and humility gave him an overwhelming victory in balloting for the 1998 NL MVP award and the 1999 Hank Aaron award.
One of his best performance came on September 10, 1999, when he struck out 17 NY Yankees and gave up one hit at Yankee Stadium. Martinez was so dominant that Yankees' All-Star shortstop, Derek Jeter said "That was the best pitching performance I've ever seen". The performance even left the Yankee fans cheering in appreciation when he ended the ninth inning. A dazed Paul O'Neill added, "He's the best pitcher in the league. In baseball. Period." In 2000, Pedro Martinez made history by becoming the first pitcher to win the Cy Young award unanimously in two consecutive years. (1999 & 2000 AL Cy Young award winner with the Red Sox). He also won the NL Cy Young award with the Montreal Expos in 1997. Sammy Sosa continues to be one of the top homerun hitters in all of baseball. On April 7th, Sosa became the 18th player to hit 500 career homers and the first Latino to ever reach that plateau, when he connected for a solo home run against the Cincinnati Reds.
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of San Pedro de Macoris, where he played pelota
as a youngster with a tree branch for a bat and sock rolled up into a ball
and Pedro born in a small town named Manoguayabo, where he
was the fifth of six children who were raised by a single mother. 
A thoroughbred in a jockey's body, the 5-foot-11, 170 pound Pedro
Martinez, almost single-handedly led the Red Sox to the playoffs in 1999, by going
23-4 and leading the American League by a huge margin in wins (no one else
had more than 18), ERA (2.07, the next best was David Cone's
3.44) and strikeouts (313, the next closest was Chuck Finley with
200). Pedro has lead the league in ERA and strikeouts three out of
the past four years.
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