I had a sticking pedal and found it was not the linkage but rather the throttle bore itself that was full of hard deposits. I have had to clean it about every 3 or 4 years. You can tell if it is the throttle body by disconnecting the little ball joint from it - you will be able to feel where the resistance really is. If you find the same issue on your car, you can remove the fresh air hose between the air flow meter and the throttle body and get to it in situ, though it might be easier to remove the throttle body for a thorough cleaning.

I used some penetrant like Liquid Wrench to soften the stuff a bit, but I needed to use a prod (a wood chopstick worked pretty well) to dislodge the resistant pieces. There was a lot.