00:00Okay, that's probably it for Pedro Martinez.
00:03Not a bad outing at all.
00:05Bullpen just needs to hold this lead,
00:07and the Boston Red Sox will be American League champions.
00:10Wow.
00:11Oh, they're leaving Pedro out there for the eighth inning.
00:15Hmm.
00:16Well, that's not good.
00:17Time to pull him.
00:18Bullpen time.
00:19Make the call.
00:20Make the call.
00:21They're still leaving him out there?
00:23What is Grady Little thinking?
00:25Ugh, please, Pedro, just get out of this and...
00:27Oh, no.
00:30Red Sox manager Grady Little's decision to leave Pedro Martinez on the mound
00:34in Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS was a big, big deal.
00:40This video is presented by T-Mobile,
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00:50In Game 7 of the 2003 ALCS,
00:53the Red Sox had their hated rival, the New York Yankees, on the ropes.
00:57Boston held a 5-2 lead entering the bottom of the eighth inning.
01:01Six more outs, and the Sox would advance to the World Series.
01:05Just one problem.
01:06Boston's ace righty, Pedro Martinez,
01:09one of the most dominant pitchers in the history of baseball,
01:12was starting to wobble a little bit at the end of a strong outing.
01:15Martinez had just given up a home run in the seventh inning
01:18and had thrown exactly 100 pitches.
01:21The heart of the Yankees' order was due up.
01:24This was Red Sox manager Grady Little's problem to solve.
01:28Managing a potential pitching change in the late innings of an ALCS Game 7
01:33would be a high-stakes proposition no matter what.
01:35But history hinged on this particular decision.
01:39Boston hadn't been to the World Series since 1986.
01:43They hadn't won a World Series since 1918.
01:45They had never been closer to cracking the notorious Curse of the Bambino,
01:51a long and miserable parade of mistakes and misfortune.
01:56If the Red Sox mishandled their pitching situation,
01:59they risked handing Game 7 back to the Yankees.
02:02Not only their historic rival,
02:05but the smug, big-money, evil empire bully of all Major League Baseball.
02:09Since Boston's last AL pennant,
02:13New York had won five,
02:14punctuating four of those runs with World Series trophies.
02:18Incidentally, over in the National League,
02:20the Chicago Cubs had witnessed a bizarre,
02:23harrowing extension of their own curse just days prior.
02:27That only intensified the desperation for Sox fans.
02:30With a worn-down ace and all that at stake,
02:33Little had a few options.
02:35Option one, pull Pedro Martinez off the mound
02:38and bring in someone from the bullpen.
02:41Option two, let Pedro keep pitching.
02:44And of course, number three, cry.
02:46Crying is always an option and often the best one.
02:49Pedro himself believed his manager would go with option one,
02:53and he had company in that belief.
02:56Boston's trainer believed Martinez was fatigued
02:58because he had said as much.
03:01Boston's lead executives watching from the stands
03:03believed their bullpen was up for the task
03:05of getting six high-stakes outs on the road.
03:07And within that bullpen,
03:10Boston's pitching coach believed he had a lefty,
03:12Alan Embry, ready to face the next batter
03:14in New York's lineup, left-handed Nick Johnson.
03:17The stats actually disagreed with that last thing, though,
03:20so it wasn't that big a surprise
03:22when Martinez returned for the bottom of the eighth
03:25to face Johnson.
03:26Pedro got him out.
03:27Cool.
03:28No harm done.
03:29Score unchanged.
03:30Five outs needed.
03:31Same problem as before,
03:33Pedro's pitch count now stood at 107,
03:37firmly in the territory where stats showed his effectiveness
03:41dropped from legendary to ordinary.
03:45The math said to take option one.
03:48Still,
03:48Little left Martinez out there to face Derek Jeter.
03:51Pedro got himself an 0-2 count,
03:53but left his third pitch a little low,
03:56allowing Jeter to drill it into right field.
03:58Trott Nixon maybe could have made a play out there,
04:01but got a bad jump on it
04:02and ended up flailing at a ball over his head.
04:05Tiny moments like that one
04:07can make or break a bold decision.
04:10Pedro himself has recounted a time
04:12he stayed on the mound
04:13way longer than anyone expected,
04:15Game 5 of the 99 ALDS vs. Cleveland,
04:18and pitched near perfectly.
04:20It was a super risky move,
04:21perhaps not the sensible choice,
04:23but Pedro rose to the occasion.
04:25But, just as easily,
04:27a single brain fart or errant blade of grass
04:30could have made that decision in 99 look stupid.
04:33During this very 0-3 playoff run,
04:36Grady Little had faced a similar situation with Martinez.
04:39He decided to leave Pedro on the mound
04:41with a lead in the eighth inning,
04:42then watched Martinez give up two hits in a run.
04:45Little pulled Pedro mid-inning,
04:47then his bullpen cleaned up the mess,
04:49and Boston advanced to face the Yankees.
04:51That decision was overshadowed in history
04:54because Boston won anyway.
04:56The point is,
04:57in this Game 7 against New York,
04:59you could tweak one tiny little variable,
05:02but leave everything else the same
05:03and get a different historic result.
05:06If Nixon got a perfect jump off Jeter's bat,
05:08maybe he would make a great catch,
05:10and there would be two outs,
05:11and everything else thereafter
05:13would have gone differently.
05:14But he didn't,
05:16and the combination of well-hit ball
05:18and defensive miscue were not enough
05:20for Little to lose faith in Martinez.
05:22One hit didn't change his mind,
05:24neither would a high pitch count.
05:26Pedro was his man,
05:28more than anyone in the bullpen.
05:30Little trusted Pedro's stuff,
05:32which, to be fair,
05:32still had a lot going for it.
05:34Several Yankees later said
05:36they didn't feel like Martinez was slipping,
05:38and Pedro's fastest pitch of the night
05:40was his very last one.
05:42Nevertheless,
05:43the Yankees were getting to him.
05:45The next batter,
05:46Bernie Williams,
05:47had no problem
05:48driving Jeter in
05:49with a single dissenter,
05:50tightening the score to 5-3.
05:53So after a few batters,
05:54this decision was not looking
05:56like a sage roll of the dice.
05:58It was looking like
05:59a disastrous example
06:00of gut instinct
06:01over empirical reason.
06:03But here's a question.
06:05Whose decision was it?
06:08Hideki Matsui was the next batter,
06:10a lefty.
06:11Southpaw Alan Embry
06:12remained available
06:13in the bullpen
06:13ready for that matchup.
06:15Option one was screaming
06:17in Grady Little's face.
06:18But this time around,
06:20Little strolled out to the mound
06:21and put the option
06:22in his ace's hands.
06:24He asked Martinez
06:25if he had enough
06:26to face Matsui.
06:27Basically,
06:28no one blames Pedro
06:29for his response.
06:30His shoulder was hurting,
06:32but a proud pitcher
06:33would never back down.
06:35Asked if he can retire
06:36a particular adversary,
06:37a pitcher would never say no.
06:40Pedro considered it
06:41his job to say yes
06:42and Grady Little
06:43had to know this
06:44about his ace,
06:45but he asked anyway.
06:47So yeah,
06:48Little returned to the dugout
06:49without a pitching change.
06:51Martinez would face Matsui.
06:53Again,
06:53Pedro got ahead in the count.
06:55Again,
06:55Pedro picked a spot,
06:57missed it by a little,
06:58and got punished for it.
06:59Still one out,
07:00still a 5-3 game,
07:02men on second and third.
07:03And now,
07:04Grady Little's decision,
07:06albeit with some input
07:07from Pedro Martinez
07:08had kind of gotten away from him.
07:10The next batter
07:11was Jorge Posada.
07:12And if you were going to let
07:13a worn-down Pedro
07:15face all those previous batters,
07:17you had to let him face Posada.
07:19They had been going
07:20at each other all series,
07:21with Posada allegedly
07:23saying something
07:23about Pedro's mother,
07:25and Pedro mocking Posada's ears.
07:27Martinez also had
07:28a pretty strong track record
07:30pitching to Posada,
07:31so here he went
07:32against yet another Yankee batter.
07:34Yet again,
07:35Pedro pitched himself
07:36into a favorable count,
07:38and when Posada made contact,
07:40it was just a little boink
07:41off the narrow part of the bat.
07:43For a moment,
07:44Grady Little's decision
07:45to leave Pedro on the mound
07:46all this time
07:47still seemed survivable.
07:49Yes,
07:50everyone was already appalled.
07:52Yes,
07:52the lead had already dwindled.
07:54But this looked like
07:55a weakly hit,
07:56catchable ball
07:56that would create
07:57the second out of the frame
07:58and hold both runners.
08:00The inning looked salvageable.
08:02The above could all be forgotten.
08:04Here again,
08:05we see the margins of fate.
08:07Plop!
08:08The ball dropped
08:09plumb in between
08:10three Boston fielders.
08:12Williams and Matsui scored.
08:14The game was tied.
08:16Only then
08:17did Little pull Martinez,
08:19pressing the option one button
08:21way too late.
08:22Option three looked
08:23more appropriate than ever.
08:25Embry and Mike Timlin
08:26pitched excellently
08:28to stop the bleeding,
08:29but in extra innings,
08:30Tim Wakefield surrendered
08:31one of the most famous
08:33walk-off home runs
08:34in baseball history
08:35to Aaron Boone.
08:36The Yankees advanced
08:37to the World Series
08:38while Boston mourned
08:39yet another harrowing
08:41playoff outcome.
08:42The curse continued.
08:44So many Red Sox failures
08:46in their prolonged title drought
08:48felt like cruel twists of fate.
08:51But if you reopen them,
08:52you can sometimes find
08:53a decision preceding
08:55the botched execution.
08:56Like, before Bill Buckner
08:58made his infamous
08:59through-the-legs error
09:00in the 1986 World Series,
09:02Sox manager John McNamara
09:04had left him in the game
09:05when many thought
09:06the logical move
09:07was to use a pinch hitter.
09:09Little had done
09:10something similar.
09:11He defied logic,
09:12dismayed every single
09:13interested party,
09:14and trusted his gut.
09:16Cruel twists of fate
09:17just finished the job.
09:19Some Boston media
09:20took a moment
09:21to appreciate
09:22all those marginal variables,
09:23all the what-ifs
09:24that could have mitigated
09:26the disastrous outcome
09:27of Little's decision.
09:29Also, he was one
09:30of the most successful managers
09:31in franchise history
09:32up to that point.
09:34But what Red Sox management
09:36wanted was calculation
09:38in the truest sense of the word.
09:40Long before that
09:41fateful Game 7,
09:43observers had the sense
09:44that Red Sox management
09:45was souring on Little
09:46because of his tendency
09:48to manage from the gut,
09:49to neglect the bevy
09:51of situational planning
09:52and mathematical analysis
09:54available to him.
09:55And that was the headline
09:56when Little lost his job
09:58a couple weeks
09:59after Game 7.
10:01Grady Little, they say,
10:02did not get fired
10:03because he decided
10:04to leave Pedro in the game,
10:06but that decision
10:07epitomized the reason
10:08Boston fired him.
10:10Management insisted
10:11they neither wanted
10:12to be a stats geek organization
10:14nor a salty dog
10:15traditionalist organization,
10:17but it was clear
10:18which side of that spectrum
10:19they felt Little represented.
10:21So, Little's decision
10:22became a major part
10:23of his legacy.
10:24When he was hired
10:25for his next job,
10:26manager of the L.A. Dodgers,
10:28it was all people
10:29wanted to talk about.
10:30And then when Little
10:31fell out with Dodgers management
10:33and resigned
10:34less than two years later,
10:35that decision remained
10:36part of every news story.
10:38And since we're here
10:39to talk about decisions,
10:40we cannot neglect
10:41the outcome of
10:42Boston's decision
10:43to fire Little.
10:45The Red Sox hired
10:46Terry Francona,
10:47and a year after
10:48Little's club melted down,
10:50the 2004 Sox
10:52made a legendary
10:53ALCS comeback
10:54against the Yankees,
10:55advanced to the World Series,
10:57and finally
10:58fully broke
10:59their franchise curse.
11:01There was another batch
11:02of high-stakes decisions,
11:04some of which
11:05probably defied reason,
11:06some of which resulted
11:07in super close calls.
11:09If any of these
11:10little things
11:11broke differently,
11:12if you tweaked
11:13any of these
11:13tiny variables,
11:15the 2004 Red Sox
11:16might have collapsed
11:17and broken hearts
11:18just like they did
11:19the prior year.
11:20But they didn't,
11:21and they didn't.
11:23That's how it goes
11:24with big deal decisions.
11:26You flip a switch
11:27one way or the other,
11:28and fate determines
11:29the rest.
11:50exclusive stuff
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11:52and videos
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