Names in the sports news worth mentioning on this third day of February, 2021:
DUSTIN PEDROIA deserved a better ending to his baseball career than a Zoom farewell with reporters. The Red Sox starting second baseman from 2007 to 2017 announced his retirement Monday, never having recovered from being spiked behind his left knee by a sliding Manny Machado, then of the Baltimore Orioles, on a force play at second base.
Pedroia deserved to go out running, not limping, off the field. He deserved a Dustin Pedroia Day at Fenway Park so Red Sox fans who watched him play his heart out for a decade could pour their hearts out to show their appreciation for his grit and determination.
Rookie of the year in 2007 and American League MVP in 2008, an All-Star and Gold Glove winner during his big-league career, Pedroia played only nine games the last three seasons. He spent more time rehabbing at home in Arizona than he did in Boston. We hoped he would return but as every comeback attempt failed, we knew the end was near, right? He finally realized it a year ago, when one January morning he woke up with a badly swollen knee and could not walk. Because of the coronavirus pandemic he had to wait until December for a partial knee replacement. The surgery was successful, and he can walk now, play with his three kids, coach them. But he can’t run, he said. If you can’t run, you can’t play second base in the big leagues.
Don’t weep for this 5-foot 9-inch infielder. He exceeded expectations at the highest level. His legacy includes three World Series rings in addition to his individual awards. He made a lot of money, the Red Sox paid him for the three years he was out, and will pay his $12 million salary this season. He is 37 and walking, not limping, away from baseball.
Good luck with the rest of your life, Pedey.
TOM BRADY will have more written and said about him this week than any athlete on the planet. How much more? Let me count the words. Never mind; I can’t count that high. What is left to say or write about TB12? We have watched him for two decades! Remember, historians are still finding things to write about Abraham Lincoln.
Brady will start his 10th Super Bowl in search of his seventh championship ring Sunday evening when his New England, sorry, Tampa Bay Buccaneers — old habits die hard — play the Kansas City Chiefs, the reigning NFL champions, at Raymond James Stadium in Tampa. Nineteen years have passed since Brady’s first Super Bowl against the St. Louis Rams in New Orleans.
Brady, 43, the great old quarterback, versus Patrick Mahomes, 25, the great young quarterback. I can only imagine the millions of words that await us.
HANK AARON, the man who broke Babe Ruth’s career home run record of 714, died on Jan. 22, two weeks shy of his 87th birthday. His drive to left-center off Al Downing of the Dodgers on April 8, 1974, sparked a wild celebration at Atlanta’s Fulton County Stadium as the dignified Aaron circled the bases, much as he on 714 previous occasions. He retired in 1976 with 755 home runs, a record that stood until 2007, when Barry Bonds of the Giants hit his 756th.
I met Hank Aaron four years later during the Triple A Governor’s Cup Finals between the Pawtucket Red Sox and Richmond Braves. He was working in the Braves front office at the time. The Braves took a 3-2 lead in the best-of-seven series back to Richmond for Game 6 on Sept. 15. The Providence Journal sent me down to cover it. I hoped for a Richmond victory so I could return home on the 16th for my sixth wedding anniversary. No such luck. Pawtucket won, 4-3, forcing the seventh game, which Richmond won, 8-5.
Aaron sat in the press box for those games, and we chatted a bit. After typing my Game 7 story and the box score, and having it faxed to the Journal sports desk, I knew I would probably not be in the presence of Hank Aaron, the home run king, again. So I broke a cardinal rule in the sportswriting world and asked for his autograph. He was kind and signed the box score. I still have it.
JACK HAYES ends his nine-year run as athletics director at Brown on Friday to “pursue new opportunities,” according to the announcement released by Brown last Friday. Hayes will become a senior advisor at Bruin Sports Capital, “an investment and operating company that specializes in building global sports, media, entertainment and technologies companies,” according to the release. George Pyne, a 1988 Brown alum and Bears football player, is the CEO.
Hayes will be remembered for raising $50 million to improve facilities for soccer and lacrosse, baseball and softball, and football. He also brought back alums Mike Martin and James Perry to coach basketball and football, respectively.
Hayes will also be remembered for playing a part in the 2020 rollout of the Excellence in Brown Athletics Initiative, a plan to cut varsity sports and redistribute their resources to make remaining Brown teams more competitive. The initiative resulted in stiff pushback by various constituencies and legal action by athletes, resulting in adjustments to the plan.
Also on Hayes’s watch last year, a consent agreement that stemmed from the Cohen v. Brown Title IX case in the early 1990s was finally and permanently settled to the satisfaction of both sides.
The timing of Hayes’s departure at the start of the semester may seem odd, but the Ivy League shut down sports last spring because of the pandemic and has yet to re-open. Whatever the reason and the timing, best of luck to Hayes and his family.
