Letter to Pedro Martinez

Dear Pedro Martinez,

I don't know you, so it seems strange to start this letter with a friendly "how are you". But I might as well be friendly. How are you?

My name is Grace Zivny. I am 18 years old and I just graduated from high school. I am a big Red Sox fan, but I hesitate to call myself diehard since you have left Boston for the Mets. I can hardly blame you; I find myself tempted to become a Mets fan.

You have been my favorite baseball player since I was twelve years old, when I first became a baseball fan. I used to write you every month, but you never replied. Not that I expected you to.

I met you once in a mall in... Watertown, or something. I stood in line for two hours with hundreds of other Red Sox fans. You signed my hat and after that I took it everywhere with me. Now your signature is hardly visible.

I thought it appropriate to write you now, for the first time in nearly six years, to tell you what you have done for me. Besides being my favorite, and giving us a Championship and all that, you have given me interest in your country, culture, and language. Since 7th grade, I have dreamed of the Dominican Republic, of seeing the country that produced Sammy Sosa, Miguel Tejada, and you. When I started high school, I planned on taking French, because I love the culture and the country and, well, the language. The problem was that you spoke Spanish!
I took French, and I lived in France for six months in 2003 as an exchange student, so I am now pretty fluent.

Which means it's time to tackle Spanish.

And what better way to learn the language than to live in the Dominican Republic?

So I applied to an exhcange student program, AFS, and decided to take a year off from school. This February, if I'm lucky, I will arrive in the Dominican Republic for six months of immersion, during which I will live with a host family, learn Spanish, and volunteer full time. I don't know what I will be doing or where I will be living, but since hearing of your childhood and what you have since done in your hometown, I have been in love with the idea of going there, seeing it, and doing something myself.

The funny part is when people ask, "Why the Dominican Republic?"

I can only blush and say, "Pedro Martinez."

I aspire to learn many languages and travel the world, live the world. I honestly feel that I owe a lot of this to you. So. Thanks for being an awesome baseball player, for signing my hat, for winning the Cy Young Award, for playing on the Red Sox, for bringing us the World Series Title, and for always killing the Mariners when you played Seattle (as that's the only time I ever got to see you).

I hope you read this.
Grace Zivny.