"Pedro Martinez is back in The Bronx and he had some things to get off his chest

In his pregame press conference, Martinez spoke about how the media made him the most influential player at Yankee Stadium and defended himself for pushing 72-year-old Yankees bench coach Don Zimmer to the ground in 2003.

Martinez said he believed Zimmer was originally coming at him to give advice.

"So he comes at me and I thought he was going to say something, but his reaction was totally different," said Martinez, who will start Game 2 of the World Series for the Phillies.

"He was trying to punch my mouth and called me a couple of bad words about my mom. And I just had to react and defend myself. But the twist that it took made me look like a monster."

Martinez placed the fault on Joe Torre's former confidant.

"I think both me and Zim are wise people … and he acknowledged that it wasn't my fault – it was his fault," Martinez said. "It is a normal reaction to defend yourself when you feel threatened and that's what happened to me. I didn't feel the need to apologize, but it's not something I am happy about."

A quick summation of what led up to the fight: Martinez hit ex-Yankee Karim Garcia with a pitch then the next inning Manny Ramirez took exception to a high fastball thrown by Roger Clemens. The benches cleared and Martinez pointed to his head while looking at Jorge Posada, which the Yankees catcher perceived as a threat the next time he was at the plate. Following that, Zimmer charged at Martinez. "