It’s awesome when my favorite former baseball players reveal that they understand just how awesome they were at baseball. Anyone remember in 2005 when Rickey Henderson pointed out — probably accurately — that he was almost certainly still better than Tony Womack?

Anyway, Pedro Martinez went on WEEI’s Big Show yesterday and said — accurately — that he was better in 1999 than Justin Verlander was in 2011 and better than Cy Young Award winner Barry Zito in 2002. He also revealed that he maintains a grudge against the two writers who left him off the MVP ballot in 1999, made some vague suggestions of racism, insisted that he never took steroids, and dropped some truly Rickey-esque bombs like this one:

Nowadays, 250 strikeouts is a big deal. For Pedro, it was a minor deal to have 250.

Probably worth reading the whole thing. I don’t agree with everything Pedro says, but he’s Pedro regardless.

Via Repoz.