Former Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia and former New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter both spent the entirety of their careers in their respective organizations.
The 2008 American League MVP spoke with WEEI’s Rob Bradford on Audacy’s “The Bradfo Sho” on Wednesday — primarily discussing Red Sox legend David Ortiz prior to his Major League Baseball Hall of Fame induction.
However, aside from the Big Papi Hall of Fame talk, it would appear as though Pedroia was lured to pick up the bat again.
“The other night I watched the Jeter thing and I’m like ‘Man, I miss playing,'” Pedroia said. “I got a cage in my house. I went in the cage for a little bit and was hitting missiles.”
Unfortunately, Pedroia’s career was an ongoing battle with a knee injury recovery that led the four-time Gold Glove Award winner to play just nine total games between the 2018 and 2019 seasons.
Pedroia added: “That’s the problem I have. After I got done hitting, I’m like ‘It’s a damn shame, because now that I got my partial (knee) replacement, I can do everything now except run,” he continued. “So if I could run, I’d probably be leading the league in hitting.”
Pedroia becomes the second ex-Red Sox to voice his reaction to the new ESPN documentary. On Tuesday, a former teammate and fellow 2007 World Series champion Jonathan Papelbon called ESPN out on Twitter — daring the Worldwide Leader in Sports to instead produce a documentary on “the real captain,” Jason Varitek.
Spending the entirety of his 14-year MLB career with the Red Sox, Pedroia hit .299 with 140 home runs, 725 RBIs, and 1,805 hits in 1,512 games played.
Pedroia, Papelbon, and Varitek shared the field together in 2007 — defeating the Colorado Rockies in a four-game sweep in the World Series to seize the franchise’s seventh title.
