LAST RAPS?
Former ASU star Pedroia plotting big comeback
CHANDLER, Ariz. – Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia, sitting on the weight bench in the gym of his palatial home, is restless, rubbing his hands together, chugging another bottled water, keeping an eye on the latest baseball news on his bigscreen TV.
He has played only three baseball games in the last 493 days entering this week, undergoing more knee surgeries than games played the last two years, but still was eagerly looking forward to another White House visit to celebrate their latest World Series championship.
Only for that trip to be postponed because of the government shutdown.
So, once again he improvises, and now has a flight Feb. 15 from Sky Harbor International Airport, arriving in Fort Myers, Fla., where every move he makes during the Red Sox’s springtraining camp will be meticulously monitored and evaluated.
There won’t be a day that goes where someone won’t ask him four simple words: “How are you feeling?”
When that time stops, only then will Pedroia know that he has convinced everyone he’s truly back from his fourth knee surgery in the last 28 months, including the complicated and extensive microfracture surgery on his left knee in October 2017, that included cartilage restoration.
“If I come back, and play the entire year,” Pedroia tells USA TODAY Sports, “it will be proudest I’ve been of anything I’ve ever done in baseball.
My teammates have seen what I’ve been through. They saw me having to fly to Vail (Colo.) during the World Series just to see another doctor. They saw all my ups and downs.
“There were a lot of tough times.”
It was the first summer that Pedroia, the former MVP and three-time World Series champion, has ever been away from baseball. He got to hang with his wife, Kelli, and their three young sons, taking them to soccer practice, while watching the Red Sox games on his cell phone. He also got to experience what a 115-degree summer day feels like in Phoenix. Now, at the age of 35, the Red Sox’s oldest-tenured player, and considered one of the greatest second basemen in franchise history, Pedroia vows to prove everyone wrong. Once again.
“This is one baseball’s greatest stories, man,” says Milwaukee Brewers bench coach Pat Murphy, who has known Pedroia since he was 17 and was his collegiate coach at Arizona State. “This is a guy who set the standard of how the Boston Red Sox play. He’s a throwback. He’s like a modern-day Pete Rose.
“I don’t think it’s even an option for him that he’s coming. He’s coming back. And he’s going to impact the game as its highest level. Every kid in America should be watching his story because it’s as pure and genuine as anything you’ll see.”
Pedroia realizes there’s no guarantee he’ll return to being the same player who was a fourtime All-Star and fourtime Gold Glove winner. He has had four left knee surgeries since October 2016 and never recovered after suffering cartilage damage in his left tibia and femur on April 21, 2017, when former Baltimore Orioles third baseman Manny Machado’s slide spiked the side of his surgically-repaired knee.
“It’s unfortunate it happened, but it’s baseball, man,” says Pedroia, who insists he doesn’t carry a grudge.
He still played 105 games in 2017 and underwent extensive knee surgery after picking the doctor who promised his quickest return, only to last just three games last season.
“He felt so bad,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said. “He kept saying, “I have to be here. I have to be playing. It’s on me if we don’t win the World Series.’ He takes everything so personal. It was like he was ready to blame himself.”’
Pedroia realized in August he couldn’t make it back after months of rehab and another surgery, but it didn’t stop him from sitting in on every advance scouting meeting before each series, providing input in every session with the coaching staff, and being everything from a coach to a psychologist to a guidance counselor during the Red Sox’s playoff run.