It looks like The Muddy Chicken knows how to fly.
Proclaimed the "Heart of the Red Sox" by Tom Verducci, Dustin Pedroia appears to defy gravity as he tries to turn two against the New York Yankees on the cover of the Aug. 15 issue of Sports Illustrated.
Since 1988, the Red Sox are the only baseball team to have all nine positions be represented on the cover (11, if you include DH and separate starting pitchers from closers). Catcher Jason Varitek, starters Roger Clemens and Pedro Martinez, closer Jonathan Papelbon, first baseman Mo Vaughn, second basemen Pedrioa and Mark Bellhorn, shortstop Nomar Garciaparra, third baseman Wade Boggs, left fielder Manny Ramirez, center fielder Johnny Damon, right fielder Dwight Evans and DH David Ortiz are the Sox players that have been featured.
In the interview, Pedrioa gives some insight to his new nickname: "David [Ortiz] was eating this chicken from the Dominican Republic," he told SI. "I don't know who he got it from. But it was [bleeping] disgusting. So I said, 'I want to be called that.' … [Bleeping] Muddy Chicken…. They started laughing, so they started calling me that. And it was a 16-inning game, and I think there were some cocktails involved in some people's interviews. That's basically it. And then we got back home and, thanks to New Balance, there are boxes of Muddy Chicken T-shirts. I'm like, 'What's wrong with you guys?'"
Take a glimpse at the cover in the picture below.
Oh, and apparently Jay Cutler doesn't care what you think.
