“Pedro” by Pedro Martinez and Michael Silverman; Houghton Miffin Harcourt (336 pages, $19.99)
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When you get right down to it, baseball is the best blue-collar job you could ever have. Primarily physical, it demands more blisters and brawn than mental gymnastics. That it is now played by millionaires with mega-houses can’t mask that baseball is brutal, often-dangerous work. Sublime? Sure. And occasionally very nasty.
That inherent nastiness is at the core of Pedro Martinez’s new memoir, “Pedro,” written with columnist Michael Silverman. For 18 years, Martinez packed the most dangerous weapon in sports: a 5-ounce hardball.