As he prepares to start Game 2 of the World Series tonight against the Yankees, Phillies’ pitcher Pedro Martinez had some interesting things to say about the New York media and fans.

From ESPN.com:

“You guys have used me and abused me,” he said. “I remember quotes in the paper, ‘Here comes the man that New York loves to hate.’ Man? None of you have probably ever eaten steak with me or rice and beans with me to understand what the man is about. You might say the player, the competitor, but the man? You guys have abused my name. You guys have said so many things, have written so many things.

“There was one time I remember when I was a free agent, there was talk that I might meet with [George] Steinbrenner. One of your colleagues had me in the papers with horns and a tail, red horns and a tail. That’s a sign of the devil. I’m a Christian man. I don’t like those things. I take those things very serious. Those are the kind of things that the fans actually get used to seeing, and actually sometimes influence those people to believe that you are a bad person, that you are like an ogre.”

“I don’t know if you realize this, but because of you guys in some ways, I might be at times the most influential player that ever stepped in Yankee Stadium. I can honestly say that,” Martinez said. “I have all the respect in the world for the way they enjoy being fans. Sometimes they might be giving you the middle finger, just like they will be cursing you and telling you what color underwear you’re wearing. All those things you can hear when you’re a fan. But at the end of the day, they’re just great fans that want to see the team win. I don’t have any problem with that.”

He also addressed the fight he had with Don Zimmer when he was a member of the Red Sox:

“It was an ugly scene,” Martinez said Wednesday during a pregame World Series news conference, adding this was probably the first time he was discussing it publicly. “Zim charged me and I think he’s going to say something, but his reaction was totally the opposite, [he] was trying to punch my mouth and told me a couple of bad words about my mom. I just had to react and defend myself.

Zimmer wasn’t having it though:

“Pedro is full of crap,” Zimmer told the St. Petersburg Times. “It’s what, six years later? If Pedro wants to be a big man, I don’t care what he says.”

Zimmer, however, was more forgiving in an interview with the New York Daily News.
“I told the whole world I was wrong and that I was embarrassed by what I’d done and I apologized for it,” Zimmer told the Daily News. “I was definitely wrong and Pedro didn’t do nothing. I told the whole world that, even though the Yankees didn’t want me to hold a press conference because they were afraid I might say something to stir things up more.”

There’s definitely an added element to tonight’s game with Martinez taking on the Yankees in New York. The Yankees are almost in a must-win seeing as how they lost last night and would no doubt love to stick it to their old Boston nemesis.