The Citizen (Gauteng)

Pearce joins the pantheon of baseball greats

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Los Angeles – Steve Pearce (right) travelled a long road to end up living a childhood dream as the World Series Most Valuable Player for his beloved Boston Red Sox.

The 35-year-old slugger grew up in Florida in a family with Massachuse­tts roots and a passion for the Red Sox.

“This has been a lifelong journey,” Pearce said. “And to be here right now is a dream come true.”

In a talent-laden Red Sox team that won 108 regular season games and included American League Most Valuable Player candidate JD Martinez, it was Pearce who emerged as the unlikely home run hero of the World Series.

He clubbed two homers in Sunday’s series-clinching 5-1 win over the Dodgers, a day after fuelling Boston’s game four victory with a homer and a clutch three-run double.

Pearce, whose career has been slowed by injury, arrived in Boston in June, joined from the Toronto Blue Jays on June 28.

The Red Sox are his seventh team in 11 seasons but the player who personifie­s the term “journeyman” has starred in the post-season, finishing the World Series with eight runs batted in, the second-most by a Red Sox player in a World Series behind only Dwight Evans – who plated nine in the 1986 Fall Classic.

“Best feeling in my life,” Pearce said of celebratin­g with his teammates on the Dodger Stadium field.

“This is what you grow up wishing you could be a part of something like this. With that special group of guys, to celebrate with them, that was awesome.”

Pearce is the first player to win World Series MVP with 50 or fewer regular season games for the winning team in his career.

He said he felt at home at the Red Sox as soon as he arrived, and not just because he had backed them as a boy.

“You see how much fun they have, playing against them all the time and how good they are. And to come over and be a part of that team, the chemistry they had, they welcomed me with open arms from day one,” he said.

With his unlikely World Series MVP, Pearce put his name alongside a couple of greats, joining Babe Ruth and Ted Kluszewski as the only players 35 or over with multiple-homer games in the World Series. –

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