On This Rock
Pedro Martínez, Boston and a Pitching Peak for the Ages
By Allan S. Martin · Amici Books
In 1999 and 2000, in the highest-scoring American League environment in decades, a slight right-hander from Manoguayabo put up a peak with no real precedent in its era. Fenway was a hitter's park. The era favored the bat. The body on the mound did not look like the job.
The industry had already written its conclusion. Los Angeles used him as a reliever, trusted him for sixty-five appearances, and still treated "starter" as a forecast his frame could not survive. They were not looking at nothing. They were looking at something true — size, a surgeon's caution, a roster hole — and mistaking it for the whole truth.
On This Rock follows the public record from the yard in Manoguayabo to Montreal to Boston. It does not invent scenes a journalist never saw. It does not need to. The 8–8 game in Cleveland, the rock across the ravine, the bullpen door at Dodger Stadium, and the two summers in Fenway are enough.
Independent. Unauthorized. Written for readers who already know the feeling in the park, and for readers who want to know how the experts got him wrong.
Publication
Publication date: October 23, 2026
Paperback ISBN 979-8-952889-00-2
Ebook ISBN 979-8-952889-01-9
Kindle pre-order $9.99. Paperback $19.99. October 23, 2026.
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Also available in Spanish: Sobre esta piedra