This Devil is Just Plain Sick

And as a diehard Yankees fan, I still must say that I'm totally head over heels proud of what Dustin Pedroia is doing for the Boston Red Sox.

His lead-off home run tonight in the Sox 13-1 thumping of Colorado in Game 1 of the 2007 World Series is only extending this kid's newfound propensity for coming through in the clutch. The dinger followed up what was an unbelievable ALCS in which he went 7-for-15 including racking up five key RBI in Game 7.

Check out a story I'm working on for Cronkite Newswatch tomorrow night at 6:00 PM on Tempe 11. I'll be interviewing former ASU players (and teammates of Pedroia) including Pat Bresnehan, Tuffy Gosewisch and Jeff Larish. Hopefully they'll bring some insight into just how Pedro is getting it done. I'll post the video up here next week as well.

Pat Murphy had some kind words for the guy whom he called a "balding midget" during his time in Tempe. These are from a story in a New Hampshire newspaper:

"(Pedroia) laid a foundation, an expectation of this program that it's not OK to be in the Top 10. It's only OK to win the national championship. In the '05 World Series, I had his name printed out on my hat. Everybody thought that he was sick or something, or that he had an injury. But really it was just because I thought that he got us there. ... We took on his identity. That's what pushed us over the top."

All his hard work and all his perseverance and all his overcoming came together in one moment. That's the beauty of sports."