OAKLAND -- Dustin Pedroia assumed his usual position in the Red Sox' dugout. It seemed like any other day in the life of the second baseman's routine: head out well before the rest of the team emerges and fill the park's stillness with a stream of baseball banter.
Monday, however, was different.
Pedroia stood on the dugout's top step relatively subdued. What awaited was on his mind.
"I've never been through anything like this," he said.
His concerns at that moment had little to do with the Red Sox' 2-4 start, or the .162 start the team's No. 2 hitter brought into the series with the A's. Pedroia was wondering exactly what the next piece of his recent nightmare was going to be.
First came the quote in a Boston Magazine feature story that had Pedroia calling his hometown of nearby Woodland a "dump." And then last Thursday he was told a man had started to call his parents with death threats. (That person was arrested over the weekend).
"I'm sure people in my hometown look at me different, but obviously the people who know me know how I am and how my personality is," said Pedroia, who left 13 tickets for friends and family Monday night. "But this is tough."
Some boos did come Pedroia's way each time he stepped up to bat, but more importantly, by the end of the night he was able to take one more step towards putting the entire incident in the rear-view mirror. What it -- and a series of events since winning the American League MVP (both good and bad) -- has left is a slightly more hardened 25-year-old.
"A little bit," said Pedroia regarding whether or not the incidents have changed him. "I know now not to ... I think all the beat writers (who cover the Red Sox) know how I am and what my personality is, but some people don't and that's where I need to be careful. I have to be guarded toward them, but still be a normal guy. I have to be myself. I am who I am. If you don't like me than you can like somebody else. My biggest thing is just being who I am.
"Obviously you don't want anything like (the death threats) to happen, but it did. I'm just going to move forward in a positive way and it's going to make me a better person. I'm still happy to be here. I want the people from my hometown to come and watch me play. There are people who have rooted for me my whole life and they deserve to watch me play. I work as hard as I can, just like they do. I just do it in a bigger spotlight."
Major League Baseball was obviously aware of the animosity shown toward Pedroia, and was cognizant of the steps needed to offer a safe environment throughout Oakland Coliseum. Still, Pedroia understood that his life has changed, and continues to do so. So sometimes new precautions have to be observed.
"I've learned that everyone wants to know you kind of personally and I'm kind of a private guy. I'm shy talking about my personal life," Pedroia said. "The biggest thing for me is that it's OK to be like that, but people need to know how I am and how I go about every day.
"That's why I was kind of surprised at all of this. People know what kind of guy I am and they know how I feel about them and that place. It's upsetting."
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