Pedro Martinez Believes 60% of MLB Players Were Using PEDs During His Career

Pedro Martinez is one of the most dominant pitchers in modern baseball history, and his accomplishments remain even more impressive because they came at the height of the steroid era. Still, there has long been a debate about just how many of the hitters Martinez faced were juicing.

In an interview with Bob Nightengale of USA Today on Thursday, Martinez put his own number on the issue: 60 percent. The future Hall of Famer, who will be inducted alongside fellow steroid era stars Randy Johnson, John Smoltz and Craig Biggio later this month, said he had no regrets despite the competitive balance disadvantage.

"How did I feel like pitching in the juiced era? I wouldn’t want it any other way," Martinez said, per Nightengale. "There's no crying. I know I did it the right way."

The so-called steroid era ran from the early 1990s through 2003, when baseball finally implemented performance-enhancing drug testing. A large majority of that era's best players, most notably Mark McGwire, Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa, have been unable to gain Hall of Fame votes due to their (in some cases alleged and others proven) steroid use.

Martinez, 43, went 219-100 with a 2.93 ERA and 1.05 WHIP across his 18 MLB seasons. His 1999 and 2000 campaigns are among the best for a starting pitcher in history, as he earned back-to-back Cy Youngs and nearly won an MVP award during the height of the steroid era. He was also an integral member of the 2004 Red Sox team that won the World Series, breaking the "Curse of the Bambino" in the process.

The Red Sox announced last month that they would be retiring Martinez's No. 45 on July 28. Not a bad result for a player who was 165 pounds soaking wet during an era of muscle-bound behemoths.

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