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Get on My Level: Pedro Martinez Responds to Colin Cowherd

Pedro Martinez had the perfect response to Colin Cowherd's dumb and racist opinion about Dominicans.

Pedro Martinez will be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame later this afternoon and he should be a lock for the People's Hall of Fame after his crushing response to Colin Cowherd's dipshit opinion about the intelligence of Dominicans. By now you've likely heard what Cowherd said on the show he has inexplicably hosted for years, but it's always good to refresh our memories: "I've never bought into that 'baseball is too complex.' Really? A third of the sport is from the Dominican Republic."

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The context, which is important, is that Colin Cowherd is a world-class troll who is not as smart or clever as he would like to believe. Colin Cowherd is a guy who got quietly shuffled off ESPN airwaves while guys like Skip Bayless and Stephen A. Smith do their thing. ESPN can stomach Skip Bayless, but not Colin Cowherd. That's your context for the quote.

Pedro Martinez, a native of the Dominican Republic and a straight-up hero to the country, did not take issue with Cowherd's statement. No, he took Cowherd's statement, folded it up neatly, tossed it into a coffin alongside Cowherd, and buried it.

"I'm sorry. He needs to get to my level to answer him. I'm in the Hall of Fame."

Pedro's full quote is equally amazing. He took the high road in the best possible way and refused to even suffer this fool, while also hoping for more for his country and fellow citizens. "We don't want to look down to where he is. We want to look to you guys, the voters, the seniors that are here, the Hall of Famers, and hopefully set the bar high like Roberto Clemente did."

Here's Pedro's complete answer when asked about Cowherd's comments: pic.twitter.com/xhR1qlWsS8
— Tim Britton (@TimBritton) July 25, 2015

It's always a tough balance to strike between pointing out obvious idiocy and not feeding the trolls. There are benefits to both—people shouldn't be allowed to say dumb, racist things without consequence, but sometimes ignoring someone does make them go away—and Cowherd's popularity is almost entirely due to the difficulty of that balance. The more we talk about his stupid clown show, the more we talk about him. What Pedro did, though, struck the perfect balance. He said he wasn't going to give this joke of a pundit the time of day precisely because he's a joke of a pundit, and there are more important people to talk about.