When I first began collecting, there was a Dodgers pitcher lighting up the National League. Ramon Martinez was coming off a 20-6 performance in which he finished second in Cy Young Award voting. He had averaged a strikeout per inning and fanned 18 batters in one particularly good outing. That year I opened an insane number of 1991 Donruss packs and pulled an equally loco number of Ramon Martinez Diamond King cards. These were promptly set aside in the “good cards stack,” as there was clearly a fantastic career beginning to unfold.
After a year or so, I began to come across an occasional card that would briefly get me excited. I was happy, until I realized I wasn’t holding a Ramon Martinez card but rather a piece of cardboard depicting a similar looking face and almost identical name. Cards of Ramon’s brother, Pedro, found their way into my “not so good cards” stack. In hindsight, I am an idiot.
That’s okay, baseball is good at showing our shortcomings. Ramon was initially seen by the Dodgers and general baseball community as the better prospect. He repeatedly told the team that Pedro (signed by the Dodgers at age 16) was an even better pitcher but the front office thought he was too small to pitch effectively for any extended length of time. Pedro was eventually brought up as a reliever but was dealt to the Montreal Expos in 1993. In Los Angeles’ defense, they received “good cards stack” resident Delino DeShields in exchange for their relief pitcher.
The brothers would become further linked in 1995. Pedro had hit his stride by this point and pitched a perfect game in June (not counted in the record books because of an extra innings hit). Ramon followed up this appearance with a no-hitter that did count. The Hall of Fame requested balls and caps from both after these performances.
Ramon held down the leading position in the Dodger pitching rotation for much of the 1990s. A rotator cuff injury derailed his career and he only managed a few partial seasons in an attempt to come back. Pedro continued to improve, eventually becoming one of the greatest starting pitchers of all time.
Another Card Closer to Completing the Set
This particular Ramon Martinez card has a sketchy past: It was purchased from a former professional athlete who now has a trail of card-trimming accusations on one of the more popular sports card forums. This card does not appear altered in any way and the seller had it listed on COMC at the lowest price of any commons from the refractor set. Even though it is only his higher-end items that generate suspicion, I would have looked elsewhere for this card if I had the chance to do this over again.
