OAKLAND, Calif. — He’s played a mere two full seasons in the Major Leagues. Yet already, Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia owns a treasure trove of baseball memorabilia.
A World Series ring.
A Rookie of the Year award.
A Gold Glove.
A Silver Slugger bat.
An MVP plaque.
And a featured role in a hilarious video game commercial, co-starring said plaque.
His critics, however, add that Pedroia also boasts something darker — a stunning lack of class.
It says here, though, that Pedroia actually possesses a more innocent quality — a wide-eyed naivete inherent in a small-town kid playing and excelling at a boy’s game in the fishbowl that is Boston.
But I digress. Because sure, you folks in Woodland, Calif., your initial righteous indignation was warranted in looking at your favorite son’s hurtful words in black and white, his calling your fair city, his hometown, “a dump,” as he did in Boston magazine, and adding, “You can quote me on that. I don’t give a (hoot) … Everyone wants to get out of there. You don’t want to stay in Woodland. What do you want to stay in Woodland for? The place (stinks) … “
Throw in his brother Brett being arrested in Woodland in January on child-molestation charges — he has pleaded not guilty — and you’ve got a cauldron of heated emotions. Just check out the user comments section on this newspaper’s web site (sacbee.com). Or take a peep the latest report that had a man named Kenneth Samuels arrested for making threats to Pedroia’s family.
Sadly, this is spiraling out of control.
“Hopefully, and like I know, everyone makes mistakes, but I hope he’s not serious,” a penitent Pedroia said Monday at the Oakland Coliseum before the A’s beat the Red Sox, 8-2. “(The threat) was a big deal. I mean, that’s threatening life. You don’t joke about that. Hopefully he’s not serious and he’s sorry.”
Pedroia has already apologized for his malicious meanderings, telling my colleague Joe Davidson on Friday and reiterating to me Monday that his jokes were taken out of context.
That he does not understand why his name is mentioned in reports about his brother’s arrest, and you see the simplicity in his manner.
Pedroia is still a relative newbie in the stab-you-in-the-back game of big market publicity.
No doubt those same critics see any such apology as sorry damage control.
Because who doesn’t take the occasional crack at their hometown, be it Barstow, Woodland or Shangri-la? We’ve all done it, in jest and with love and in moments of frustration. Problem with Pedroia is he cracked on his ‘hood in mixed company.
These are the trappings of such stunning success so soon in a career. A world where everything you say is magnified, no matter how silly or inane you might think. Especially, as Pedroia said, when he opens up to a writer, who encounters his somewhat salty personality for the first time and takes everything he says as Gospel.
“I trust everybody,” he said. “It’s something I’ve got to work on. I’m a young guy. That’s not an excuse, but hopefully people forgive me. I still have the same morals and work ethic of Woodland.”
Yes, you can take the boy out of Woodland, but you can’t take the Woodland out of the boy.
“It’s the worst possible scenario for me and Woodland,” Pedroia added. “I love that place … this hurts.”
Need something else to rip on Pedroia about, then? He ate his pre-game ice cream with a fork.
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