Let's go Red Sox!

Let's hear it for the "little guy"! Yesterday Dustin Pedroia, 2nd baseman for the Sox, won the American League MVP award. He is the first 2nd baseman to win the award since 1959. DP has been my favorite Sox player the last couple years because at 5' 8" he is the hope of us regular folk. He epitomizes the fact that hard work and guts and skill can win out over physical giftedness in the arena of professional baseball. I mean lets face it, the guy has been told he is too small to make it at every level of baseball he has participated in since his High School days. And yet here he is, MVP. This year he led the league in hits (213), doubles (54), and multi hit games (61). I only got to see him only once this year, at Camden Yards, in Baltimore. As I recall this years 3rd place finisher in MVP voting, Kevin Youklilis, stole the show that night. Along with a typical "walk five or six batters and still dominate" performance by Daisuke Matsusaka.

Why am I writing all this down here? Because I need to go on record as saying "I love baseball". I miss that the season is over and that I have to wait till spring to see another game. During the season I watch at least some ball almost every night of the week. Baseball is really the perfect game. I won't make that case here, whole books have been written on that topic anyway.

Now, just to be self-indulgent, I will list two personal basball watching highlights that come to mind. For the record: in 2000 I travelled to Fenway Park and watched Pedro Martinez (when at his best, the best pitcher in the history of the game) strike out 16 batters. A feat that has been surpassed in only a handful of games in baseball history. And in 2004, October 19th to be exact, I travelled to Yankee Stadium to see the Red Sox beat the Yankees in game 6 of the ALCS. That was the infamous Curt Shilling "Bloody Sock" game. The following night they beat the Yanks in game 7 thus, after being down 0-3, completing the biggest comeback in a seven game series in baseball history (by the way, does this make the Yankess the biggest losers in history?) And of course from there the Red Sox, as history records, went on to win their first World Series Championship in 86 years.


So, you may ask, what do I look forward to now that Baseball is over for the season?


Simply really: February 22nd, 2009...mandatory reporting date for all postion players!