Toss this in the pile with unexpected finds of the day, but... well, just read the original tweet in all its weird glory:
Rubby De La Rosa's grandmother was Pedro Martinez's nanny.
— Brian MacPherson (@brianmacp) January 11, 2013
By itself, is this news? Maybe not! But it's a fun piece of oddball trivia, and something we should all have handy in our joke and reference cases, just in case we end up in a situation where Rubby De La Rosa is the best pitching prospect stolen from the Dodgers since James McDonald.
What, you didn't think I would be so crazy as to invoke Pedro there, did you? It's not like De La Rosa shares the genetic code of the Martinez clan, even if his grandmother was in close proximity to it. However, this does give us some background as to why De La Rosa has chosen to work with Pedro's brother (and former Red Sox himself), Ramon Martinez, this off-season. De La Rosa's goal? According to Rob Bradford, it's "to be the best pitcher in MLB."
So, if he indeed becomes anything close to that admittedly lofty dream, then it's fair to say the true secret to Pedro's success was the change-up Rubby's grandmother taught him, which Pedro in turn taught Rubby. While the first part of the statement isn't accurate so far as I know, this story becomes more fun if you just roll with it.