Dustin Pedroia’s Top Five cockiest moments
It is no secret that Dustin Pedroia has always been considered a cocky person. But just how cocky is he? Here are his Top 5 Cockiest Moments.
5. The time he met Arizona State University’s baseball coach
The first time he met Pedroia, coach Pat Murphy said he was put off. Pedroia walked in wearing a cut-off T-shirt and had the body of a sixth grader. He flexed his biceps at his prospective coach.
“Hey, coach, how do you like these guns?” he said.
Coach Murphy’s first thought?
“He’s a mouthy, cocky kid who’s only about 5-foot-6, but he can really play. He really believes he’s Babe Ruth.”
Pedroia interrupted the coach’s speech to the team while Murphy was saying not one person is more important than another.
“I got to be honest, coach, you’re going to win a lot more games with me than without me.”
4. The time he went off on Kevin Millar
In 2008, when former Red Sox Kevin Millar was playing for the Orioles, Pedroia showed no signs of missing Millar.
“There he is,” Pedroia said. “The only opposing player who gets his own song played for him when he comes to the plate at Fenway. I’m telling you, if they play that song tonight, I’m stopping the game. I’m going up to the booth and fighting the guy at the controls. Enough already.”
Pedroia even jumped out of the dugout and shouted to Millar.
“Hey, 2004 was like 20 years ago! And all you did was walk! Mariano let four fly! It was not, like, some 12-pitch at-bat!”
He then went on to imitate Millar’s stance in that critical Game 4 moment against the Yankees with the Red Sox three outs away from elimination.
“Ball 1, ball 2, ball 3, ball 4,” he said. “That’s all you did.”
3. The time he bashed his hometown
Pedroia was born in Woodland, California, about 20 miles northwest of Sacramento. Often described as a place being something out of Our Town, Pedroia did not seem to agree.
“It’s a dump,” said Pedroia in a 2009 interview. “You can quote me on that. I don’t give a [expletive].” He shakes his head.
Pedroia claims that he’s angry with the town for something he won’t talk about though.
“Everyone wants to get out of there,” he said. “You don’t want to stay in Woodland. What do you want to stay in Woodland for? The place sucks. The newspaper there, I don’t really get along with. I come from your town. You should embrace me. I play for the Boston Red Sox. You haven’t had a lot of major-leaguers come out of your city.”
2. The time he was “sexy and he knows it”
In Terry Francona‘s book, Francona mentioned that the Red Sox owners did a marketing survey that determined Dustin Pedroia was a “sexy” player and that the team needed more such players.
On Feb. 12, 2013, Pedroia was asked how he felt about that.
“They didn’t need to hire a damn marketing team. I could have told them that for free,” Pedroia said. “It was all my friends. … I don’t know, I just started laughing. That’s pretty funny.”
When asked what he did during the offseason, he replied by saying “straight body building”
“How did that go?” asked the reporter.
“How do you think?” he said. “Awesome.”
1. The time he thought he was better than everyone else
In the last few innings of a Red Sox-Rockies game in 2010, Pedroia was overheard yelling at his team in the dugout.
“What are you guys going to make me do?” Pedroia said. “Make me hit a third home run to win this game?”
“C’mon, guys, let’s finish this,” he went on. “Haven’t I done enough for this team already? I’m 4-for-4 with two homers, and you’re going to make me go out there and hit another homer?”
