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Baseball was Pedro Gomez’s first love and the sport through which most fans identified him via his work at various newspapers, including the Arizona Republic, and ESPN.
But, strangely, my friendship with Pedro was centered more on football season. That’s when I saw him most often, and this is the first one without Pedro, who died last February of sudden cardiac arrest.
When I was the Cardinals beat writer, it wasn’t unusual for me to arrive at team headquarters in Tempe and see Pedro and producer Charlie Moynihan set up outside.
“Kent!” Pedro would say.
“Pedro!” I’d reply.
With Pedro, the “!” was never fake. He sincerely was happy to see you, sincerely wanted to know how the family was, sincerely wanted your take on the news of the day.
Almost everyone who came in contact with Pedro felt this way. I knew that, but the point was emphasized 62 times over in the book “Remember Who You Are: What Pedro Gomez Showed us About Baseball and Life,” published this summer.
That’s the number of individual essays in the book, which was conceived and edited by Steve Kettmann, one of Pedro’s close friends.
Kettmann has edited several books of essay collections, and the idea for the one about Pedro came to him in the days just after Pedro’s death last Feb. 7.
“I had put something together called a ‘kudo’ board which is an online bulletin board,” Kettmann said. “I talked to Sandi, Pedro’s wife. There was so much going on that we thought it would be a good idea to have something that could pull things together, as opposed to Facebook and Twitter and different options.”
The variety of people who posted on the board and the eloquence of their words and experiences with Pedro struck Kettmann. This is a book, he thought.
Kettmann curated the collection, meaning he just didn’t say, ‘hey email me your essays.’”
He handed out assignments, of sorts, and defined roles.
The result is a wonderful collection of essays from people who encountered Pedro throughout his career.
Howard Bryant, a senior writer at ESPN, writes about the time Pedro defended Bryant, then a young writer, when Tony La Russa went on a rant about a headline on Bryant’s story.
Dave Sheinin writes about the times Pedro egged him into singing “O Sole Mio” in a popular Italian restaurant in New York City.
Pedro’s sons, Rio and Dante, contributed, as did former Arizona Republic writer and editor John D’Anna. Brett Kurland, the director of strategic initiatives and sports programs at Arizona State’s Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communications, writes about Pedro’s willingness to work with students.
(Profits from the book will benefit the Pedro Gomez Foundation. https://www.pedrogomezfoundation.org. Currently, that money is being directed to undergraduate students at Cronkite.)
Anyone who knew Pedro could tell you a Pedro anecdote.
In mid-October 2001, he and I were on the road together covering the Cardinals in Chicago. Pedro was a sports columnist, and I was the Cardinals beat writer.
The Diamondbacks were playing the other Cardinals in a playoff game that day, and the baseball game was on the televisions in the press box at Soldier Field as we were writing our stories.
Pedro and Darren Urban of the East Valley Tribune finished before I did and were watching the Diamondbacks. Casually, Pedro started predicting what pitch Curt Schilling was going to throw next.
“Fastball, inside,” he’d say.
“Curve, down and away.”
“Slider, middle in.”
Six or so times Pedro did this. And he was right every time.
Urban praised Pedro, saying something like, “I knew you were a baseball savant, but this is ridiculous.”
Pedro started laughing and confessed that he was watching the game on a monitor that carried a feed about 10 seconds ahead of the one Urban was watching.
There are anecdotes like this throughout “Remember Who You Are.”
My last contact with Pedro came in early February. I had just written a column about my upcoming heart surgery and Pedro texted me.
I’d forgotten about it until a day or two a go, and I searched for it. Still in my phone.
“Damn, Kent. Glad you found out in time. All the best, amigo.”
That was Feb. 3. Four days later, Pedro, two years younger than I am, was gone.
Life cheats, a lot.
But “Remember Who You are” is more a celebration of life than anything. Part of Pedro’s story is about baseball, diversity, authenticity, doing your job right, being passionate about your work and devotion to family.
The overarching theme to Pedro’s life, Kettmann believes, is “you give people a chance and you give a moment a chance,” he said. “That’s something that really stays with me. I feel like with this book, for every 100 copies that go out there, I feel like a thousand conversations are started.
“Why celebrate Pedro? Well, it’s not just about that. It’s celebrating the people who matter to us and help to inspire us to treat other people right.”
Reach Kent Somers at [email protected]. Follow him on twitter @kentsomers. Hear Somers every Friday at 7:30 a.m. on The Drive with Jody Oehler on Fox Sports 910 AM.
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