Dustin Pedroia Played Second Base As If It Was a Matter of Life & Death

Dustin Pedroia has finally hung up his cleats announcing his retirement from baseball. Pedroia, 37, spent his entire professional career with the Boston Red Sox played his last big league game in 2019. His career was never the same since then Baltimore Oriole Manny Machado spiked his left knee sliding into second base in 2017. Pedroia had to have a partial knee replacement last December.

An alumni of Arizona State University, Pedroia was a second round draft pick by the Red Sox in 2004. I saw him play with the Pawtucket Red Sox in 2005 and didn't think much of what I saw. Pedroia would make his big league debut in 2006 hitting .191 in 31 games.

But Red Sox manager Terry Francona, who was also a collegiate star at Arizona State, stuck with Pedroia. In 2007, Pedroia won AL Rookie of the Year and earned the first of his three World Series rings. In 2008, Pedroia won the AL MVP leading the league in hits, runs scored and doubles and also won the first of his four Gold Gloves. That year was also the first of his four AL All-Star Team selections.

Pedroia played second base as if it were a matter of life of death. He would dive for a ball as if he were diving on an IED to prevent it from exploding. Petey, as he was affectionately known, would do this whether he was preserving Clay Buchholz's no-hitter or when the Sox were up 8-0 in the 8th inning. I witnessed Pedroia doing the latter at Fenway Park against the Chicago White Sox when he dove for the ball on a grounder off the bat of Carlos Quentin as if he was about to drive in the go ahead run. I remember Pedroia getting a rousing round of applause for the play. 

In 1512 games with the Red Sox over 14 seasons, Pedroia collected 1805 hits for a lifetime batting average of .299 with 140 HR and 725 RBI. His numbers are comparable to Hall of Fame second basemen like Jackie Robinson, Bill Mazeroski and Red Schoendienst. Mazeroski and Schoendienst got in via the Veterans Committee and I imagine that's how Pedroia would get in. 

In the meantime, I leave you with a Laser Show.