Breaking News: I love Dustin Pedroia

This weekend, I learned that I am apparently not forthcoming enough about my personal opinion of Dustin Pedroia. Somehow, a friend of mine was under the impression that Jacoby Ellsbury was my favorite baseball player.

Now, this might be acceptable for someone who has never met me, or who knows next to nothing about the Red Sox... but the friend in question meets neither of these stipulations. Needless to say, I informed him that we are in a huge fight.

His excuse was that "Every girl I know is head over heels for Ellsbury." Excuse me, but in case you hadn't noticed, I'm not your average fangirl. I have three different posters of Sox players on my wall, and not one of them features Jacoby Ellsbury, no matter how "dreamy" some people find him.

Shockingly, THIS poster does, in fact, hang on my wall.

I've ranted about Ellsbury before, so I won't repeat myself (though I am rather proud to have coined the nickname "D-Ellsbury"), but I do want to get to the point of this post, which is, you guessed it, Dustin Pedroia.

It was three short years ago that the scrappy second baseman was named AL Rookie of the Year, and, a year later, the American League MVP. Since then, Pedroia has grown from an impressive rookie to a seasoned veteran, but he missed more than half of 2010 with injuries (which, by the way, totally ruined my summer).

So what can we expect from the feisty infielder next season? Just the usual: backtalk, dirty uniforms, laser shows, grit, spectacular glovework, tenacious hitting, and a work ethic that would make Paul Bunyan proud.

I know I should have spent today writing about THIS year's ROY winners, Neftali Feliz and Buster Posey, and I'll probably get to it later, but I was feeling particularly nostalgic for the days when Pedey was a young phenom.

And he's just so NICE.

So, for any of you who might be still confused (ahem, you know who you area), Dustin Pedroia is my favorite player. In my eyes, he can essentially do no wrong (even if the dipping is disgusting), and if I ever had the opportunity to meet him I'm quite sure I would hyperventilate. People are always talking about intangibles, and while I'm of the opinion that "veteran presence" and "calm eyes" are useless without a passable skill set ON the field, I'm equally confident that Pedey means a lot more to the Red Sox than simply his batting average, OBP, or even WAR.

And you know what else? He means the world to Red Sox Nation, too.

Best intangible ever? Adorable son.

Random Rant: Dipping

This evening, while I was conducting a review session for the class I'm TAing, four of the boys (all members of the baseball team) were dipping. For those who might be unfamiliar with the term, dipping is slang for chewing tobacco.

Now, I went to what could charitably be termed as a "hockey school" in high school, so there was plenty of that around, despite the fact that it was illegal for many of the students. However, I've never really understood its appeal.

I also know that athletes, hockey players and baseball players especially, dip all the time. Sadly, my favorite player is one of the worst offenders: nearly every picture of Dustin Pedroia reveals that telltale lump beneath his bottom lip.


Dipping is, to say the least, an unattractive habit, and while many of his peers eschew tobacco for bubble gum, Pedroia plows on in the tradition of so many big-leaguers before him: after all, what's an old time baseball movie without spitting in the dugout?

And what's the fun of chewing gum if you can't surreptitiously place it on the head of a teammate?

I know it takes someone crazy like me to notice these sorts of things, but Pedroia rarely gets shown in the dugout. Part of this, of course, is his tendency to swear vehemently whenever he makes an out - and even the most novice of lip readers can see the F-bomb the way Pedey drops it. However, television stations try their best to cut down on the screen time of tobacco, and it's costing me precious Pedroia time. So please, Dustin, for the sake of your fans, lay off the dip?