And Monday was the day of Dustin-y: Dustin Pedroia steamrolled over the competition (OK, there really was no competition) to pick up the 2007 Rookie of the Year Award. The voting wasn't even close: Dustin had 132 points, the second-place finisher Delmon Young had just 56 points. (and fellow Sox teammates Daisuke Matsuzaka (12 points) and Hideki Okajima (3) came in fourth and sixth place, respectively)

Dustin held two press conferences to discuss the win- one over the phone from his home in Chandler, AZ with the Baseball Writers of America who voted him the winner, and one later in the afternoon from the campus of Arizona State where he played college ball. And just like a Josh Beckett press conference has at least 3 cusswords, every Dustin Pedroia press conference has at least 3 references to people or things that suck or stink. I love this guy (even if I most decidedly do NOT love the fashion choices he made- the fugly cap he stole off Fidel Castro, and the fuglier shirt that is clearly a Big Papi reject that he shrunk in the dryer).

And if there's a madlibs/fill-in-the-blank reporting template on Mike Lowell, there's an even more predictable one for Dustin- because every single Dustin Pedroia article must make mention of:

- his height
- the fact that his listed height is not accurate
- preconceived notions about his height
- how big his attitude is in comparison to his height
- David Eckstein
- "scrappy"
- "gritty"
- some variation on the "little guy, big heart" theme

Are they giving all the reporters this list and telling them that if they work in mentions of all of those things, they get a prize or something?

His college coach is sitting just off-camera during the press conference, and mentions at one point a text message Dustin sent him back in April when Dustin was slumping- and how Dustin never lost confidence in his abilities. Here's the exact text of that message Dustin sent his coach, at 4:17 p.m. on April 19:

Book it

i am going to hit 300 even after the horrible start i'm having right now

you taught me how to deal with this

1 for my last 26 no biggie

an explosion is going to happen soon

Seriously- did I mention how much I love this guy? He is made of awesome.

Other highlights from the ASU press conference--

On gaining acceptance in Boston:

"It took some time. That first month was obviously tough. It helped out at the end- I got some big hits, and the fans kinda took note that you don't have to be the biggest guy to help your team win the World Series."

On the media constantly harping about his height:

"They do a lot. But I think it's to the point now where I don't think there's anything much more to say. Yeah, I'm... 5'7" or 5'8" or whatever the heck they list me at. And we won the World Series and I was a part of that, so there's nothin' else you can say."

On being underestimated:

"I've been the underdog my whole life. If I'm walking down the street, and (somebody tells you) I'm a baseball player, you'd probably start laughing. I got to try and prove everybody wrong every day. I still have to. I won Rookie of the Year, but guess what? Next year they're going to doubt me again because I had a bad April. I gotta hit higher than .182 next April."

But the funniest part was at the end, when the questions turn to Pac-10 rivals of his alma mater, Oregon State, USC and in-state hated rival Arizona.

On Jacoby Ellsbury- with a deadpan delivery:

"He gave us a boost [when he came up], we needed it. He was phenomenal. But I still let him know that when we played against Oregon State when I was here that he never even got on base."

On ASU's upcoming football game with Arizona and USC:

"What's UofA's record?" [4-6.] "Wow. They stink. I mean, I hope ASU's gonna win. Who do they play this next week? They play USC, right? Let's talk about USC first." [question: Does USC stink?] "No. No they do not stink."

On Tito Francona being an Arizona alum:

"When we went to UofA - [to his coach] you remember, they have (Francona's) jersey retired in a baseball (painted on the outfield wall) - we used to pepper balls off it. They had to end up repainting it after the series, I used to tell him." [question: you used to tell Francona?] "Oh, every day. The truth kind of hurts sometimes."

Here's the first video clip- I've broken up the complete, 11 minute conference into two clips (because no one should have to live with an edited, 5 minute chunk of video when there's 11 minutes of great footage):

video courtesy of WBZ

I've got the second video clip, plus a whole bunch of pictures from the day, all after the jump...

video courtesy of WBZ

Photos courtesy of: Associated Press, Reuters, Boston Herald, Boston Globe, Getty Images and CSTV.