Pedroia Finds Interesting Way To Test Foot

Traveling back from vacation with his family, along with the family of Dodgers' outfielder Andre Ethier, Pedroia was having a difficult time getting his entire group through customs, making it difficult to make its flight on time.

"They wanted me, who just got cleared to job, to sprint to the gate, which is on the other side of the airport, to hold the plane up," Pedroia said. "So I'm sprinting, testing out my foot with my shoelaces untied, holding my 30-pound son -- by the way, my foot felt phenomenal -- sprinting through the airport, and I get to the gate, and I'm like, 'Ma'am, did the flight leave?' She said, 'I'm going to give you three minutes.' I'm like, 'There's no way.' Andre's kid is a little bigger than [Pedroia's son] Dylan and he's running everywhere. Two seconds later, the pilot comes off the plane and goes, 'We've got a situation.' I thought, 'Jeez, now we're definitely staying here.'

"She pulls off this couple. Some woman was beating the [expletive] out of her husband on the plane. They pull those two off. This guy has a bloody face. He must have smarted off or something. The flight was delayed 30 minutes, and we got to get on the flight. I almost high-fived everybody. It was awesome."

"It was out of control. We ended up getting on. I was more pumped my foot felt good from sprinting with a 30-pound kid on me. We got on the flight. I was pumped. It was a good day."

Asked how the foot felt after the unexpected exercise, Pedroia came away optimistic.

"I woke up and wanted to go run more, but I've got to kind of take it easy," he said. "But it was fun (WEEI)."

Sorry for the long copy there, but it's a pretty funny story. Anyways, it's good that he felt no pain that his foot, and that he feels like he will be ready for spring training. Pedroia went on to say that he has talked to Carl Crawford and Jacoby Ellsbury, and he has said that they all agreed that they don't care where they hit.

"I actually texted Tito [Francona]," he said. "I said, ‘Tito, I’ve been with the Red Sox four years now, and this might be the first time you have to manage. You might have to think about the lineup you’re going to throw out there."

Hilarious. I buy it that Crawford and Pedroia don't care, but Ellsbury has thrown a hissy fit in the past when his position has been changed, and I would imagine that he'd get pissy they took him off of the leadoff spot. Then again, what do I know? Hopefully this is true. I just can't wait for Spring!