He walked through the Fenway Park crowd like he was back in the Red Sox clubhouse.
"Hey, if you're going to wear that t-shirt you better start lifting!"
"How's my family? My 8-year-old is already going oppo!"
"You weren't weren't even born when Daddy was raking."
"Hey, take that off. We traded him!"
Owners of tank-tops. Concerned well-wishers. Unsuspecting young fans. And wearers of uniforms with names not brandishing the "Pedroia" moniker. They were all caught in Hurricane Pedroia on Fenway's Level 3.
Dustin Pedroia wasn't in rare form during the Red Sox' game with the Yankees Friday night at Fenway Park. He was in his form.
But part of the package has nothing to do with trash talk or comic relief. There has been and always will be the side of Pedroia that is driven by the passion that playing baseball for the Red Sox, his family and his friends will always bring out.
In this case, in between the pomp and circumstance that was Dustin Pedroia Night there was that one moment that punctuated the entire package. A single minute. A single memory.
The page was turned at approximately 6:50 p.m. on June 25, 2021.
"Right immediately when I walked out, the reception, how loud it was. Just seeing everybody. It hit me like I didn't expect," Pedroia told WEEI.com. "It was hard. It was hard the way I couldn't play. I went from being in my prime to being injured. That was it. It hit me that it was finally over. I had known I couldn't play, but ... This is still home."
You have to understand that it wasn't as if Pedroia's official entrance to a new life (appropriately accompanied by flames on either side of the former second baseman) had just happened. There was a build-up.
There was the 11 seasons before that Manny Machado derailed what was trending to becoming a Hall of Fame career. The phone full of MRI images displaying pictures of a knee so many doctors had so many opinions on. And the recent months of watching baseball from afar while integrating himself into life as a full-time parent/kiddie coach. That was all part of it.
But then there had been the last 48 hours.
With the proximity of Fenway Park to his Kenmore Square hotel, the Pedroias decided to spend a good chunk of Thursday reliving an old routine. Kelli and the three boys were going to join her husband and their dad in a game of Wiffleball at the old office.
"We just hung out," he said. "I mean, that's what we did when I was here. We love baseball."
That led to dinner with Mike Lowell and a myriad of other friends and former teammates. (The Red Sox paid. It was a good night.)
Then came the unexpected.
Sure, ultimately there were plenty of surprises such as legendary wrestler Ric Flair making an appearance. "Woooooooooo!" Or the gifts. Or the Red Sox Hall of Fame announcement. Or even the presence of Jacoby Ellsbury.
But it was the 1 1/2 hours he spent with David Ortiz in the hospital -- where the former slugger had just undergone surgery -- that truly accelerated all the feels for Pedroia.
"He had texted me and said he wasn't able to come, so I knew something was wrong," Pedroia said. "That's job is to be there for all my guys. I needed to see him and see how he was going and try and pick him up.
"It was just like we were playing tonight. Normal. We're always on the same page. I know we can look completely different. He's huge and I look like I have no business being here, but our minds are on the same page. We talked to about a lot of things. It was fun."
When was the last time he actually saw Ortiz?
"It's been a couple of years. ... Shoot, I've been in Arizona not being able to walk," Pedroia responded in his usual fashion. "I'm not coming here not being able to walk."
But he was able to walk.
Out of the Fenway Park stands and onto the field where a ballpark full of appreciation and a few minutes of unexpected emotions were waiting.
Dustin Pedroia got his night, but more importantly, Dustin Pedroia got his closure.
'It was fun. I needed to come back and be at peace with not being able to play," he said. "I've been through a lot the last few years. The way the fans have treated me. Everybody here. It's been special.
"Everything was perfect."