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By Jamie Amos. By The Turf Team. By Katie Pierce. By Terry Cudmore. By Justin Colombo. By Ryan Kelly. The St. Pedroia and Kevin Youkilis carried that team to within one game of the World Series.
Youk was incredible at the plate and a stellar first baseman, but Pedroia was Red Sox that year. Pedey got sixteen first-place votes and the award. Such was the power of all the other things Pedroia brought to the table.
I doubt anyone ever wrote about Pedroia without mentioning his diminutive size or his hustle on the field, but for those who really loved watching him play, those were not the main attraction. Sure, I am a small guy and I love seeing small guys who can rake and gun down guys and first and dominate on the field. Pedroia gave you that. Pedey was a star. He had otherworldly talent. It was just not in the most obvious qualities, the ones that we are used to finding in exceptional ballplayers. His swing was a testament to that.
Dustin Pedroia had the kind of balance you only see in skiers and X-Games athletes. It is the only way he could possibly swing like. That is something only Pedey could do.
I hope Trout tries though, because a guy bigger than lbs managing that kind of swing might hit the ball feet. Pedey needed that cut to get it to go More than anything else, though, Pedey had baseball instincts the likes of which we have only seen a few times in recent history. He once told David Ortiz had fix his swing. A guy who hit home runs in the show. He listened to Pedey. Pedroia was as quick getting to the ball as one who ever played the keystone, not because he was the fastest, but because he reacted instantly to every batted ball that came his way.
He stole twenty or more bases four times his career, and bases overall, all because he could read pitchers perfectly. He was caught just 46 times. He knew when to run. He knew when a young pitcher was going to try to beat him inside veterans knew better. He was the master of positioning himself in the field and got to balls he no business fielding.
He understood the game the way other players have. These gifts made him a star, but it was hard to ignore the signs that this was going to end badly. In , he missed the end of the season after breaking his foot with a batted ball. He had a wrist issue that hampered his production at the plate in , but he gutted out solid batting numbers anyway. It seemed like he was always hurt, but he played well through the pain and bounced back to superstar levels when he was fully healthy.
He burnished his legend by homering to lead off Game 1 of the World Series at home against the Rockies and then being asked for ID before entering Coors Field for Game 3. It would be easy to say that Pedroia played beyond the limits of his physical skills, but that would do a disservice to his considerable physical skills.
Blessed with absurdly quick hands and an unorthodox swing that saw him collapse his back leg while punishing fastballs that ended up at his eyes, Pedroia was truly one of a kind. On the day the Red Sox drafted him in , general manager Theo Epstein bristled at the suggestion that Pedroia looked like more of a performance player at Arizona State than a toolsy one.
Pedroia's last great season came in , when he gutted through leg injuries to hit. The four-time Gold Glover and four-time All-Star directly contributed to a pair of titles, including in , when he tore a thumb ligament diving into first base on Opening Day and led the American League in plate appearances anyway. It is what it is, and it's my responsibility to perform well,'' Pedroia told the Boston Herald at the time.
That's the way I think about it. Maybe I'm crazy.
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