Question of paternal identity not a favorite with Martinez

NEW YORK - They mocked him as he walked from the bullpen to the dugout before the game.

"Who's your daaa- ddy?'

They mocked him again as he stood on the mound and warmed up before the bottom of the first.

"Who's your daaa-ddy?'

The fans who filled Yankee Stadium for Game 2 of the American League Championship Series last night never stopped mocking Pedro Martinez.

The Red Sox's star right-hander was in circumstances as daunting as any athlete could face.

Things tend to get exaggerated when the Yankees and Red Sox are playing for a pennant, but you couldn't overstate the pressure on Martinez. Everything was working against him.

The Sox had to win to avoid falling behind 2-0 in the best-of-seven series. And they really had to win after learning before the game that their other ace, Curt Schilling, had an ankle injury that could keep him from pitching well, or at all, in the rest of the series.

Martinez also was at the center of a high-pitched storm he alone had created with his September lament that the Yankees were his "daddy' because he couldn't seem to beat them.

The comment, little more than a throwaway line Martinez uttered in frustration, has become a tabloid newspaper staple and spawned derisive cheers that have cascaded through Yankee Stadium in the first two games of the series.

As the Yankees built an 8-0 lead in the early innings of their 10-7 victory in Game 1, the sellout crowd roared, "Who's your daddy?'

Martinez's teammates probably didn't think the "daddy' controversy was as humorous then as they did before the series, when they joked about it.

The tabloids have kept the story going. One titled its pre- series special section, "Come to Daddy." featuring a cartoon in which, according to the headline, "Pedro and the Bosox pop in for their annual spanking." Another paper called its section a "Father's Day celebration."

There was a new twist yesterday when one of the papers ran a picture of a grimacing Schilling losing Game 1 while saying, 'I want my mommy!'

It's all in fun and just a media sideshow, but standing at the center of it probably wasn't good for many grins. No one had to guess why Martinez chose to duck a standard session with reporters before Game 1.

There would be too much daddy talk.

In the past, Martinez seemed to enjoy being the inscrutable star who made bizarre comments the world couldn't make sense of, but this one clearly got away from him.