More than five months after he retired, Dustin Pedroia will finally be honored by the Red Sox during pregame ceremonies leading up to the opening game of a three-game weekend series against the Yankees at Fenway Park on Friday, June 25.
First pitch of that game is scheduled for 7:10 p.m. eastern time.
Pedroia, who announced his retirement from baseball back on February 1, spent all 14 years of his major-league career and all 17 years of his professional career with the Red Sox organization.
Boston selected the second baseman in the second round of the 2004 amateur draft out of Arizona State University. He went on to play 1,512 games in a Red Sox uniform, which ranks 11th all-time in franchise history.
Over those 1,512 games from 2006-2019, Pedroia recorded 1,805 hits, scored 922 runs, hit 140 home runs, collected 725 RBI, and stole 138 bases while slashing .299/.365/.439.
In that same time frame, the 37-year-old won three World Series titles, four Gold Glove awards, and one Silver Slugger award. He was also selected to four American League All-Star teams and earned AL Rookie of the Year honors in 2007 and AL Most Valuable Player honors in 2008.
With that sort of resume to his name, Pedroia was undoubtedly on a Hall of Fame track while establisihing himself as one of — if not the best second baseman in Red Sox history.
Unfortunately, injuries ultimately did the California native in during the latter stages of his career.
As noted by MassLive.com’s Christopher Smith, Pedroia was forced to call it a career on account of playing just nine total games from 2018-2020 due to a recurring left knee injury that required a partial knee replacement in December 2020.
That procedure, Pedroia’s fifth knee surgery since October 2017 and sixth in all, resulted in him not being able to continue to play the game he was extremely passionate about.
“I don’t have any regrets. And that’s what I’m proud of,” Pedroia said during his retirement Zoom call. “Could it have ended better and I finished my career the right way? Yeah, of course. But there was a reason why I was the first one dressed at 5:30 for a 7 o’clock game. … The biggest thing in my mind was, ‘This could be my last game. You don’t know.’ And that’s the way I approached it from Little League on. I played every game like it was my last one. I had the best time playing.”
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