finitum non capax infiniti

Sometimes I wish I was cool and cultured. I wish that I could turn my nose up at Americans and their infatuation with baseball, beer, and chicken wings. I wish that I could claim to be an avid follower of some league two European football club like Shrewsburry or Macclesfield. Or maybe tell people about how much I love exotic teas from Asia and how much I love Rosemary roast beef with chevre and arugila. But I, like everyone, am a creature of my environment. I love the Red Sox, Samuel Adam’s, and chicken wings..and I’m not ashamed of that.

I can’t help it. I love baseball. More precisely, I love Red Sox baseball. For the past ten years my favorite (or “favourite” if I was cultured) player has been Trot Nixon. He played baseball because he loved baseball. He represented what was pure about the game. He had a slow start with the Sox, but he stuck it out and ended up being a key part of the 2004 World Series championship team (although the ALCS 4 game comeback against the Yankees was more exciting then the World Series).

But, like all good things, Trot’s stay in Beantown came to an end when the city proud of its Dirty Water failed to resign him. So here I am left without a favorite player because my loyalty ends once someone replaces their Red Sox jersey with another team’s.

Enter: Dustin Pedroia.

Dustin Pedroia was drafted by the Red Sox from Arizona State and was called up to the Sox last fall. His performance last fall and early this season was….well, it was awful. Last fall he batted .191 and going into this May he was batting .172. I was wondering what Francona was doing keeping him at second when he had Alex Cora on the bench.

But there was just something about Pedroia and the way that he played that attracted me to him. I couldn’t put my finger on it. Perhaps it was because he was batting 9th, listed as 5’9″, and struggling. Maybe after the years of dissappointment and heart break that comes along with being a Red Sox fan I’m forever attracted to the underdog.

And then Pedroia started to hit…and hit…and hit…and hit. He batted .415 in May, bringing his season average to .323. This started a riot in Red Sox Nation. Articles and interviews started pouring out of the Boston Globe that centered on who, exactly, is this kid. The more I read, the more I understood why I loved him.

Pedroia is from a small town in California where his parents own a tire shop. His father and mother didn’t have enough money to buy the shop when they were offered the chance to purchase it, so they worked 15 hour days for years and years before they could put the money together to buy the shop. Its this dedication that has rubbed off on Dustin and it shows in the way that he plays the game.

Pedroia got a full ride to Arizona State University, where he was All-Pac 10 3 years in a row and Pac 10 Player of the year as a sophmore. At the end of his freshman year Arizona State had their eye on a big prospect called Ben Thurmond and wanted to offer him a scholarship. The problem was that the baseball team was out of scholarships. Ben Thurmond was an amazing pitcher who could have put Arizona State in the position of winning the College World Series. So what did Dustin Pedroia do? He called the coach and called his parents with the news: he gave back his scholarship because he wanted to win the World Series.

It wasn’t about money *cough*Clemens*cough*, it wasn’t about celebrity status *cough*A-Rod*cough*, it was about doing anything he could do for his team to win. That is what is missing in professional sports today. Players are tied up with money, the spotlight, blondes *cough*A-Rod*cough*, and just about anything else that has nothing to do with the sport. It’s refreshing to see someone play baseball because they love the game. It’s refreshing to see someone play hard not because they want a better contract, but because they want to win.

Pedroia recently told the Boston Globe, “I really don’t play for money. I play because I love the game, and because I want to make an impact. I hope to play for the Red Sox a long time.”

That’s why I love Dustin Pedroia.