Buster Olney is picking the Red Sox in the AL East
FORT MYERS, Fla. - The volume might not be the same, but the images are.
Alex Bregman is seemingly in constant motion during these spring training days, going from hitting cage, to one side of the locker room, to the other, to somewhere else he can talk baseball. It is shades of another undersized Red Sox infielder.
It's Dustin Pedroia all over again ... minus the constant wave of trash talking.
This, as it turns out, isn't a coincidence.
For almost 20 years, Pedroia has helped Bregman mold his baseball-playing presence, starting with a seemingly innocuous collegiate blowout in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
"I was batboying for the New Mexico Lobos when he was playing for Arizona State," Bregman remembered. "They were up about 15 runs and he sprinted down the line and the throw was a little bit up the line and he went in headfirst into first base winning by 15 and got up fired up. It was like, ‘I want to play like that, that hard.’
"He gave me somebody to look up to. Somebody who was my size, my build. Obviously, I got to play against him in the big leagues, which was really cool."
More than a decade after being struck with Pedroia's headfirst slide, Bregman got to share a baseball field with Pedroia. To this day, he carries a photo in his phone of the former second baseman turning a double play while the Sox' current third baseman is sliding into the bag.
Throughout the years - up until Pedroia's final season in 2019 - there would be casual conversations, and more first-hand visuals when it came to the blueprint of how to go about carrying one self on a baseball field.
"He was cool. He was awesome. I just loves how he goes about it," Bregman said. "I love it. I just think he is the ultimate competitor and he has the ultimate self-confidence. I feel like a big part of being successful is believing in yourself. He has that ultimate belief in himself and I strive to be like that."
It was a relationship that built to the point where Pedroia's contact found its way into Bregman's phone. It was a useful addition come this offseason when the Arizona area code popped up on the free agent's screen.
Pedroia was calling, not only to offer his two cents regarding why he thought Bregman and the Red Sox would be a good fit, but also just to do one of both of their favorite things - talk baseball.
"It was really cool, honestly," Bregman recalled. "We not only talked about that, but we talked about baseball and life and how he’s coaching up his kids now. He told me to come down whenever and hit workout and hit. I think he’s like 30 minutes away.
"How he goes about it and the confidence he has in himself and his team is infectious. I feel like winning teams have that confidence and that togetherness, and that confidence brings on that togetherness. Everybody becoming confidence and doing it together. It’s important. I feel like it’s why he was such a great leader. He was not only confident in his abilities but he went out and backed it up every day."