Pedroia's tough battle

I've heard everything doesn't have any bats be easy there's a high drive left they about the dryer don't have any power but Roya has gone deep in consecutive at-bats against Kashmir Plains careless they think in a sport where the most valuable player award is usually the domain of larger-than-life power hitters Dustin Pedroia has spent a lifetime striving to measure up that's all are you serious yeah like I mean cuz you know I'm not that tall and I feel like you know Wilt Chamberlain no I got I got I didn't we are physical the other day and I was at 5:00 8:00 on the dot 170 pounds at 25 years old and after just two full seasons of the major leads the undersized to Boston Red Sox second baseman already finds himself on a short list in baseball history Pedroia is one of only eight players ever to win Rookie of the Year Most Valuable Player a Gold Glove and the World Series ring he is a pain in the ass when he comes up to the plate you know you're in for a fight who's he remind you of Wow that's hard because I never see a little man with that kind of tonic the way play the game throw me a pill Rose it's ridiculous it doesn't make sense it doesn't compute his stature is it's just it takes you back as you wouldn't have this situation in the NBA or the NFL kind of thing that MVP could be a guy who looks like that appropriately enough Pedroia excels at playing small ball in 2008 he led the American League in runs scored and stole 20 bases in 21 attempts his size or lack thereof guides Pedroia's old-school approach to the game Morris we're gonna be diving for everything that's just who I am and it doesn't matter how big or tall you are you know if you want to win and you want to play this game that you could do it this guy's a winner he's never been denied and his career he's probably had people tell him with his whole life he can't and he loves telling them oh yes I can considered too small Pedroia went undrafted out of Woodland High near Sacramento California instead he went to Arizona State where he twice her national Defensive Player of the Year honors as a shortstop and then at 384 over three seasons still he was mostly overlooked by major league teams you look at the way that teams evaluate hitters particularly our hitters they look at five tools the hit tool power running speed fielding and armed and petroi didn't grade out well in any of those tools except for the hips for the Red Sox front office though was enamored enough to select them in the second round with a sixty fifth pick of the 2004 draft determined to prove he belonged Pedroia added bulk and weight prior to his first major league spring training camp in 2006 he was overweight he was out of shape and he was kind of fat we had one at bat he threw his shoulder otic like gotta be kidding me this is the kid that all these guys have been bragging about as a late season call-up Pedroia's average resembled his weight he hit 191 and 89 at-bats in the offseason Pedroia lost 25 pounds and transformed his body yet after the first month of the seventh season his average stood at 172 they're about to send me to triple-a and you know the fans they're like who's this little guy you know that he can't play what was that like for you to struggle that badly um it's tough you know my biggest thing when I get in trouble as I tried too hard I wanted to hit a home run every time I was up and it just wasn't working out struggling to establish himself as a major leaguer Pedroia became a target in Red Sox Nation we were in a taxi heading to Fenway for a game and the sports talk radio was on and they were saying a bunch of bad things about us maybe wasn't the right guy for the job this and that so the cab driver went to turn it down and Dustin said no no no go ahead and turn that back up and it was kind of like fuel the fire for him all the reporters are talking about oh you've got a big swing you can't do this here and I'm thinking to myself they don't know anything about hitting all they do is watch the game and then write about the game they don't know how to play it he were talking back and forth I said you are 5 foot 2 you can't run you can't throw you're not gonna hit the ball very far remember where you are you're in the big leagues how did you get there slow down a little bit just be who you are and sure enough he texts me back I'm about to put the red sock nation on my back who says that to another multi-hit night for Dustin Pedroia striking back at his critics with his trademark violent swing Pedroia jump-started his career hitting 417 over the next six weeks on his way to being named Rookie of the Year as an encore in 2008 Pedroia played Gold Glove defense and became the seventh player to leave the American League in hits doubles and runs earning MVP OS my whole life I mean I just grabbed the bat you know I mean I hold my finger up which is a little different and I try to get that pitch and I swing as hard as I can and just try to hit it when I first saw him and he swung that hard I said man he's enough to change his swing but the more you see him play the more you realize that he knows what he's doing in the batter's box there's an intangible thing about the way he understands the game the way hustles the the power that he produces he's a bad ball hitter he's a good ball hitter it's clear for me and I think for a lot of the industry what we missed the hand-eye coordination the grinding out about bats fouling off balls on the outer half I think Pedroia is essentially but once in a decade maybe once in a generation type of player the desire to overcome his physical limitations created an edge that Pedroia brings to the game and to life he's loud he's abrasive but but he's very true to himself it's not made up it's you know he can say things that other people can't I'm miked up don't say anything stupid definitely a big smack talker he's the one that kind of gets everything started doesn't matter who you are you're fair game don't get used to it oh no we're teeing off on you right now Pedroia's brashness game more public notoriety after an April 2009 Boston Magazine article of Alex Rodriguez he said that guy is a dork asked about his hometown of Woodland California he responded it's a dump and he added what do you want to stay in Woodland for the place sucks causing a local furor you know it put a big black eye on us and with this economy the last thing we need is to take dollars out of the community I just felt that someone needed to fire back the situation escalated to the point Pedroia's parents received a death threat at the tire store they owned in the center of town Pedroia who refused to discuss the situation with these 60 apologized saying he was laughing and joking when he made the comments about his hometown I truly believe he he does care about this town we seem to forget there's a reason why he is where he is that chip on the shoulder that cockiness he he plays with oftentimes gets carried outside a filter Pedroia stature in the game now looms large in the offseason he signed a six-year 40 and a half million dollar contract extension and became the cover boy for a major league baseball videogame even this most high-profile of endorsements amusingly questions Pedroia skills MLB o.9 the show thinks I can't hit the high and inside fastball you're gonna fix that right he was the MVP was the Rookie of the Year he won a Silver Slugger you wanted gold go there's not a lot of doubters anymore I'm sure he'll go out and find somebody just to give him a little extra Drive you still feel like you have to prove people wrong even now yeah absolutely why you do it who's that with you know there's always people man people are crazy people always have their their opinions I'm not the biggest guy not the strongest guy but I'm gonna play the game how I want to play it and if you don't like it then just start to like it you

Channel: JCash233

Views: 38,534

Rating: 4.9019608 out of 5

Keywords: Dustin, Pedroia, baseball, red, sox, MVP, AL, 2007, ESPN, Struggle, Big, League, MLB, the, show, 09

Id: mNB_Oyi-WN8

Length: 8min 58sec (538 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 12 2009