Pedro probably had more friends in this business than anyone I know. You can see it everywhere on this site, that people LOVED him. But this is the kind of friend he was:

He didn't just remember kids' names, he wanted updates after every inning my son pitched. Who always made the same goofy joke to my daughter about going to GW ("Did you pledge?"), who attended my older son's virtual graduation. All three of them were in tears last night.

We spoke almost every day. If either Godfather movie was on (there are only two) or Goodfellas or a few select others, we'd spend hours trading lines and clips. Everyone in our lives had a nickname - Berlin, G-man, the Lefty, etc. I can't repeat the ones we had for each other.

Some of the craziest nights of my life were with him, and even when we'd be in some out-of-town bar and some asshole would try to start something over something Pedro wrote, he usually ended up winning the guy over.

Ok, this is the best day I had with him. Most people know his son, Rio, is a minor leaguer with the Red Sox. A few times when Rio pitched in college or as a pro, Pedro facetimed me and I'd watch with my son, Mikey, who's also a ballplayer. 1

In 2017, Rio's was in rookie ball with the Lowell Spinners, Pedro called me to say he was going to come to New York to see the Spinners play the Brooklyn Cyclones. Mikey and I picked him up at the airport and drove him out to Coney Island. 2

We went to the original Nathan's, walked the boardwalk and the beach, made a day of it. He was recognized everywhere we went and spoke to everyone like he'd known them for years. Especially all the ushers and workers at the ballpark. 3

We weren't sure whether Rio would pitch, but in I think the 6th inning we saw him warming up. I've seen nervous fathers before, but, christ. I think Rio gave up a single but he had a scoreless inning and he threw maybe two balls the whole frame. 4

God, I forgot - when he got to my house that day the first thing he did was drag Mikey into the backyard so he could see him hit off the tee. 5

After the game he just wanted to make sure my then-13-year-old ballplayer could meet Rio. My favorite vision of him will be his talking to my son about his own son and making my son feel like the star. 6

When my older son, Liam, who was at Mizzou, went to a Mets/Cards game in St. Louis a few years ago, Pedro told him to call when he got there. He was working but wanted to come down to see him and meet his girlfriend. 7

Holy shit I'll miss him.