"Dustin Pedroia is one of the best baseball players I've ever seen." -- Josh Beckett

I've already said how much I hate 'here's why I haven't written' posts, but basically there's been a confluence of factors distracting my from baseball in my first week back from vacation, namely, starting a new job, though I am following, as usual.

Just watching the text message score updates last night gave me emotional whiplash. 2-0 Rockies...I knew I was right to skip Daisuke! Are the Sox going to get swept? WTF?

3-2 Sox...oh me of little faith...

4-2 Sox...6-2 Sox...I am obviously too pessimistic for my own good!

6-4 Sox...uh oh.

6-5 Sox...um...

7-6 Rockies...back to glad I'm missing this one...

*Text message service blips, and the next score I get is 11-8 Sox* What in the freakin hell...

11-9 Sox...here we go again!

11-11 Oh for the love of Pete!!

13-11 Sox...well...my reaction can best be expressed in the form of an amazing video I saw of reactions to Landon Donovan's World Cup Goal this week. Especially when I found out that my fierce favorite, Dustin Pedroia -- whose stature only continues to grow in my eyes -- was the hero. 

Three freakin' homers and 5 RBI??

The only thing better than watching Dustin Pedroia kick ass and take names at the plate and haul ass around the bases is hearing him talk about it afterwards: "Oh, yeah, I hit a lot of bombs. Don’t kid yourself.” And it seems the 'scrappy' meme is finally, finally dying when it comes to the Pup. As Yahoo! Sports' Jeff Passan put it:

By now, we needn’t. Everyone knows Pedroia isn’t a joke, some little balding guy with a big, bad beard scratching out the 25th spot on a roster because of his pluck and chemistry and other immeasurables often attributed to short white guys. He is a ballplayer, and that is about the best compliment one in his profession can earn.

I don't watch soccer and I didn't see either of these things happen live, but watching the replays gives me goose bumps the size of gumdrops.

Comments

[MoonstarMA]

I missed the end because it was so late, but seeing the replay has me grinning from ear to ear. Scrappy-Doo does it again! :-)

[Sam]

I could not believe it when he hit that third one. And yes, if we can get rid of the 'scrappy' business, I will be a happy cat. This is not David Eckstein, folks (thank the baseball gods).

Don was all over 'the laser show' stuff too. Aces.

[beth]

I always seem to get punished for not watching, whether it's going to bed all cocky the other night after they torched Ubaldo or skipping last night and missing the laser show (I also noticed that about Don's calls, Sam).

@Moonstar: My favorite part of the 3rd homer trot was the big clap and "F YEAH!!" As he rounded first. That's getting to be his signature celebration. You get the sennse he thinks that's how every game should be, wonderfully audacious as he is.