The former MLB ace is all in on his gardens
PublishedOctober 11, 2025 5:20 PM EDT•UpdatedOctober 11, 2025 5:09 PM EDT
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The thing about being a pro athlete is that you hit retirement way sooner than most of us mere civilians. So, you’ve got to find something to occupy your time once you hang ’em up, and for ex-Big League ace Pedro Martinez, one of those things is gardening.
If that made you say, “Wait; the Pedro Martinez who threw elderly Don Zimmer to the ground?!” that was my reaction as well.
“I have three babies,” Martinez told The New York Post, and yes, he is speaking of gardens.
They are his “babies,” and he has one at each of his houses in Miami, Georgia, and the Dominican Republic.
“I’m trying to keep them groomed and beautiful,” he said. “It’s almost like you have a little girl, and you want her to look good all the time, so you’re always kind of fixing her hair, matching clothes, and stuff like that. It’s my moment to relax, and I just go into my own space.”
Alright, so Pedro really likes gardening…
Pedro Martinez opens up about his unexpected gardening obsession, tending to lush “babies” at homes in Miami, Georgia, and the Dominican Republic. (Getty Images)
Most people are like, “Yeah, we’ve got a garden out back. Every couple of weeks, we get a non-rancid tomato if we’re lucky. Throw it on some BLTs…”
I wish I liked to garden like Pedro Martinez (on second thought, not quite that much), but I think it just flat-out sucks.
My family history has made me averse to gardening. It’s not like my family was killed in a bizarre gardening accident like a Spinal Tap drummer; we just spent months pulling weeds and tending to plants and wound up with three crooked peppers and a watermelon that wasn’t even red on the inside.
Yay. Gardening.
But hey, whatever floats your boat, and for Pedro Martinez, apparently, an afternoon of pruning peonies does the trick.
It’s good he didn’t discover this love until he retired.
I don’t think it would have been good if gardening dulled that edge that made him so good during his MLB days.
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