As Bobby Dalbec attempted to break into the big leagues, a shared interest with some more established players helped the first baseman ingratiate himself with the Boston Red Sox.
Dalbec knows the drill of Major League spring training now, especially now that he’s about to enter his second full big league season. But the first few times he was invited to camp with Boston, he found some common ground with Dustin Pedroia, J.D. Martinez and Andrew Benintendi.
Video games.
Indeed, an interest in gaming – “Call of Duty: War Zone” specifically – allowed Dalbec to get comfortable being among some of Boston’s everyday players.
“I was more comfortable than maybe most rookies because my first couple years in Major League camp I had Pedey, J.D. and Benintendi playing video games with them every single day," Dalbec explained on the "Bradfo Sho". Like, after the games every single day. I’d be backing up the games and I’d have a text in the third inning from Pedey saying where are you at, why aren’t you on yet? And he’s just trying to play Call of Duty: War Zone and I’m like dude f-----g I’m backing you up. What do you think? You’re getting two and out and I’m f-----g grinding and sweating my ass off still. J.D. too.
“So us four would just play Zombies all day for like six, seven hours a day after games. So I got comfortable with them and I think that kind of helped me out. Because Pedey was definitely the most polarizing character in the clubhouse where if he likes you he likes you, if you don’t you don’t. But he probably likes everybody, he just f—s with people all the time. He made me comfortable and at home from the start.”
Now Dalbec is at the point in his career where he’s the one who gets to start the spring training games then bow out early. But not without first terrorizing Grapefruit League pitching, which he’s done often this March.
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