Former MVP second baseman Pedroia retires

BOSTON » Dustin Pedroia, the undersized and over-achieving second baseman who spurred the Boston Red Sox to a pair of World Series victories with his grit and a third, after a knee injury effectively ended his career, with his mouth, has retired.

“I never took one play off, from Little League on,” Pedroia said on a videoconference with reporters on Monday. “I hope I did enough and set the right example in the city of Boston.”

Pedroia, 37, was the AL Rookie of the Year in 2007 and the MVP in his second season but played in a total of nine games in the last three years because of the 2017 injury from a spikes-high slide by thenOrioles shortstop Manny Machado.

He was the longest-tenured player on the Red Sox roster and the only holdover from the 2007 championship team.

“He was the ultimate team player,” said Terry Francona, the current Cleveland manager and Pedroia’s manager and cribbage opponent for six seasons. “He always seemed to save his very best plays for the most important time of the game. He seemed to will himself at times to lead us to victory. It is impossible to spend any amount of time with him and not become close to him. He just has that type of personality.”

A four-time All-Star and fourtime Gold Glove winner, Pedroia batted .299 with 140 homers and 725 RBIs in a 17-year career, all with the Red Sox. He is the only player ever to earn Rookie of the Year, Gold Glove and MVP awards along with a World Series championship in his first two full seasons; only nine other players have accomplished those feats in their entire career.

“I asked myself one day, ‘Who would be a player that you would buy a ticket to see, because it was worth it to watch him play for nine innings?’ And my answer was Dustin Pedroia,” longtime Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz said. “He played with a little chip on his shoulder.