CreditNathaniel Brooks for The New York Times
COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. — In the hour before the Baseball Hall of Fame’s induction ceremony Sunday, the fever for Pedro Martinez began to grow. Fans of Martinez, mostly for his time as a member of the Boston Red Sox and the Montreal Expos, waved flags of the Dominican Republic and chanted “Pe-dro! Pe-dro!” with little prompting.
Thirty-two years after Juan Marichal became the first Dominican to enter the Hall — Martinez is the second — this induction was looking like a party.
But it would take more than two hours for Martinez’s supporters — spread out on the vast lawn of the Clark Sports Center, along with fans of Sunday’s other inductees, Craig Biggio, Randy Johnson and John Smoltz — to fully erupt.