Ron DeSantis recalls legendary Pedro Martinez pitching performance in Iowa remarks

Image via AP.

Gov. Ron DeSantis has seen and played a lot of baseball, but in Iowa, he noted how one particular pitcher stood out in his memory.

Speaking to the Westside Conservative Club in Ankeny, DeSantis recalled a particular game from Boston Red Sox legend Pedro Martinez as particularly notable.

Back when DeSantis was in college, he was friends with the son of Jimy Williams, who managed the American League squad.

“I was at a game in Yankee Stadium, I think it was ’99 or 2000, somewhere around there, 1998, ’99, 2000. Pedro Martinez against the Yankees. He struck out 17. One hit a home run. A solo home run by Chili Davis,” DeSantis said.

“He would have had a perfect game if not for that,” DeSantis added. “Just absolutely lights out. That was kind of a pitcher at his prime and a Hall of Fame pitcher at his prime.”

The game was actually in September 1999, but the Governor’s recall otherwise was sound for a sporting event a quarter-century ago. Davis’ home run was in the second inning, meaning Martinez recovered and closed out 22 straight batters from there.

DeSantis has told crowds and talk show hosts at various points in the campaign about how he became a Red Sox fan during his stints at Yale and Harvard Law School, cheering them on as they broke the “curse” created when the team traded Babe Ruth to the Yankees. He hadn’t talked Red Sox baseball to Iowans until this moment.

But that doesn’t mean he hasn’t talked baseball overall in the Hawkeye State.

He’s brought up Iowa native Bob Feller during various remarks in the state, including comments suggesting that he and fellow legend Nolan Ryan threw harder than today’s pitchers, which is obscured because current “radar guns are juiced compared to what they were in the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s.”