In a certain sense, a brotherhood was forged between Edinson Volquez and Yordano Ventura before they even knew each other.
It was steeped in their common experience as natives of the Dominican Republic, where each grew up with meager means in loving families.
Volquez was a self-described “tornado” as a child, Ventura a perpetual motion machine.
Each also became known as “Pedrito,” Little Pedro, a nod to their promise in the game and aspirations to be like pitcher Pedro Martinez, just the second Dominican to ascend to the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Ventura was 7 years old when he provided Martinez’s name as his idol for images to go with a Bible verse on a plaque; Volquez’s first glove was a Martinez model, and the first thing he saw in his bedroom every morning was a giant poster of Martinez — whose “every movement, every motion” he tried to emulate.