Time to Make a Purchase

A couple guys I work with are big sports fans who are always making things up and telling each other lies to make the other laugh. Things like, “No Garnett tonight…missed his flight back home yesterday” or, “Hear about Manny? Says he wants to come back to the Sox” and of course, “Tito called…said he wants you to start tonight over Wakefield” (As a side note, I can’t imagine Garnett ever missing the team flight, but can’t you just see Scalabrine standing alone in the airport, holding his luggage and looking around with the same dumbfound look he has on the floor? I can).

It took me a good month before these comments finally stopped giving me brief heart attacks, and I stopped saying, “WHAT?! NO WAY!!” every freakin’ time. Eventually it became funny, and it wasn’t long before I started cracking them off on my own. My personal favorite: On a Red Sox off day, while their in the middle of a losing skid, “Well, they can’t lose tonight!”

So yesterday when I passed one of these guys at the vending machine, and he told me the Sox had just signed Pedroia to a six year deal, I laughed in his face. I didn’t believe him. It didn’t seem like something the Sox would do right now and was completely out of the blue, just like it didn’t seem accurate that Francona would want one of my middle-aged co-office-workers to take the mound over Wake (although on some nights it doesn’t seem THAT crazy). It took me until I looked it up for myself to believe him, and once I did: “WHAT?! NO WAY!!”

I’m not quite sure why I got so excited. I guess it was sort of inevitable in retrospect. The guy did just win an MVP, and for $800,000 over the last two years he did give the team over 300 hits, around a .310 batting average, and the best glove up the center the Sox have had since...well, I have no idea – a hell-of-a long time that’s for sure. All I know is (as my buddy Bear would say), “the guy’s a stud”. He’s one of those raw dogs you can imagine eating a bowl of nails every morning after taking a shower in cold water – deliberately – then running 35 miles to the ballpark in a loin clothe and no shoes. Yeah - the guy’s definitely a stud.

I guess it’s almost like a security blanket now – knowing he’ll be around. Watching all these young guys grow up as ballplayers right before your eyes, and leaving their heart on the field while their doing is just so fun to watch, but all along I just keep dreading the day they’ll have to go. Between Youk, Pap, Lester, Ellsbury and Masterson, a few of them will inevitably be leaving soon. And that’s tough, especially when you're waiting to see which jersey to buy.

See, I refuse to spend money on a player’s jersey if they’re this young, no matter how nasty they play and no matter how tempting it can be. Not because I don’t love them, 'cause I do. And not because they’re not good enough, 'cause they are. It’s just that having their jersey makes you bias when it comes to trades. Like last year, if I had bought an Ellsbury jersey after his ridiculous World Series, I wouldn’t have been able to think as hard this year about possibly dangling him out for trade bait, (not that I am…although it’s not out of the question) because of my investment in the jersey. It just makes it more difficult to part with him.

I’m not exactly loaded (and by that, I mean I'm broke), so just going out and buying a new jersey isn’t really an option. Thought needs to be put into that purchase. Will they be remembered wearing a Sox jersey? Were they/are they one of your favorite players (regardless of stats)? Will it be one of those uniforms you wear and get, “Pedroia! Niice!” comments all the time? These all need to be accounted for, and jumping the gun on a rookie could turn into a detrimental mistake.

So maybe that’s what got me so excited about Pedey’s signing. Now I can go out and grab his jersey, knowing he’ll be here for a while and that (as of right now) he fits into all of those categories. I can wear it around the house, get Fenway ketchup and $8 dollar beer stains all over it, and absorb a bunch of great Red Sox memories.

He’s already got a ring here, an MVP, his Rookie of the Year and that throw away Gold Glove award - and who knows what the next six years will bring. What I do know is this guy is for real, and no matter what happens over the course of his contract, you know he’ll be out there earning every cent of it, making all of us out there wearing his #15 proud.