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Pedroia is Old School
August 27, 2008
There was a time when all baseball players hustled...they needed the job. It's a sad commentary on baseball when the average fan pays more to go to a Major League game than Ty Cobb earned to PLAY in one. Players were so broke in the 1919 season that they could earn 3 times as much money by throwing the World Series than an annual salary. Even in the 60's when great players like Rico and Lonborg and Radatz were in the prime years for Sox, they had winter jobs like teaching and salesmen and, in the case of Gene Conley, playing for the Celtics. DIck Radatz was the highest paid Red Sox player in 1965 and was making $42,500 per year.
Money aside, we expect effort from ball players and in most cases it's there. For others like Manny, money doesn't matter. Manny will hustle when he damn well feels like it. This is why I have a fondness for scrappers like Dustin Pedroia. He plays like he needs the money. He plays like winning is the only thing that matters to him. DP runs hard, dives in the dirt, swings with a vengeance and has a big chip on his little chipmunk shoulder.
During the radio-telethon for the Jimmy Fund, a panel of Sox players including Dustin was asked how they felt about the Yankee players. After Lester and Lowrie skirted the issue a little...Dustin said "We hate 'em".
Everyone laughed, including me and the other players....but the honesty of the answer made me aware that Pedroia is my kind of player, and mark my words, he WILL win a batting title, if not this year then soon
Mikey
-Mikey Adams
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