Pedroia shrugs off signal scandal
Dustin Pedroia is shocked — shocked — to hear the Red Sox are involved in a sign-stealing kerfuffle.
“It’s baseball, it’s part of the game. It’s been around a long time. I mean, we were doing that at Douglas Junior High School where I played, so I don’t think this should be news to everybody,” Pedroia said before last night’s game against the Blue Jays.
Pedroia pleaded ignorance about the fact the Sox are accused of a clear violation for stealing signs from the Yankees because they did it with the aid of Apple Watches in the dugout.
“I don’t really know what the rule book says on that. I know we have iPads in the dugout,” Pedroia said. “Are we not supposed to have iPads in there?”
Plus he downplayed being named as one of the participants in the cabal in Tuesday’s New York Times article that broke the story.
“So obviously I’ve played against the Yankees for 11 years,” Pedroia said. “It’s part of the game, so our adjustment to that stuff is to go out to the mound and change the signs. So we just keep it at that.”
Pedroia took a jab at the photographs he saw accompanying the article as well as one used with a ComcastSports New England report that said the Yankees thought the mouth guard Sox pitcher Doug Fister had around his ear was a listening device.
“They had a good picture of me, Brock (Holt) and (Chris Young) hanging out, though, I do know that. And I was talking to the trainer about what time I’m rehabbing the next day because I’m on the DL,” Pedroia said. “And they had a nice one of Doug with an ear piece in. It was his mouth guard. So I mean, it’s baseball, man. We already played them 19 times. They beat us how many, 11?
“I’m not going to cry to anybody about it. That’s baseball. Right now we’re playing the Blue Jays, we’re focused on that ,and whatever is talked about is talked about. You can’t control that. We’re just going to try to play the game we love and play to win, and that’s what our organization does.”
The flap is not getting under the dense skin of Pedroia.
“No, nothing bothers me, man,” said Pedroia. “Like you know, playing in this environment, you kind of have to have thick skin and turn the page on whatever is being said because a lot of it is just talk and that’s it. I mean, you just go play. It’s baseball.
“We’re here to play baseball games. We’ve got a 3.5game lead in our division. Other than that, nobody gives a (expletive). We’re trying to win baseball games.”
The matter, which includes a complaint from the Red Sox to the commissioner about the Yankees stealing signs, is under investigation by Major League Baseball.
Manager John Farrell, who said he was unaware of the electronic side to the team’s effort to steal signs, added the team is conducting its internal investigation as well as to how and why this plan was hatched.
“It’s ongoing,” Farrell said. “I get the question, certainly, and yet to give you details or specifics, we’re not there yet because it is still ongoing, both at our level and the league level, and (we) understand some of the perception that’s out there because of it. That’s as much as I can comment on right now.”
In an email to the Herald, Red Sox president and CEO Sam Kennedy praised the way both Farrell and president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski have dealt with the matter.
“Dave and John handled this clubhouse matter swiftly and appropriately when it was brought to their attention a few weeks ago,” Kennedy said. “Typically, these things are handled between general managers. Since this has become a league matter, we are cooperating fully with MLB as they investigate both complaints.”