CENTER FIELD :: With Both Arms Tied Behind Their Back

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With Both Arms Tied Behind Their Back

No Josh Beckett.
No Jason Varitek.
No Mike Lowell.
No Alex Cora.
No Manny Delcarmen.
No Curt Schilling. (remember him?)
No problem.

Half of the team is barfing up their guts with flu, or hobbling around on the DL, or is Javier Lopez, and the Sox were still able to come up trumps last night over the Angels -- pulling yet another come-from-behind win out of their (collective) sleeve.

Of course, it helps to have Jacoby "Boy Wonder" Ellsbury and Dustin "Pleats In Cleats" Pedroia smacking the heck out of the ball in the 1-2 spots. And by "helps", I mean "kicks a lot of serious ass". And Dusty P was his normal humble self after the game:

"I'm definitely showing that I'm a lot faster than some of these slugs around here," Pedroia beamed in jest.

My only regret about the win is that there was no need to substitute in at the catcher's position, so all of America was deprived of seeing something an awful lot like this behind the plate at Fenway.

Sadly, we all missed possibly our one opportunity to see Pedroia strap on the gear, crouch down behind the plate, and attempt to throw someone out at second. Or catch a 98 mph Papelbon fastball. Or get in a brawl with some random Angel who dared try to slide into home.

Comments (14)

[ Anonymous ] says:
on April 23, 2008 2:20 PM

or is Javier Lopez

HA HA....sad but true. Poor guy. Makes me nervous like Gag-me did.

Hopefully they will be rid of the sickness and all start feeling better soon. But it's nice to see our team is so well rounded that they can kick ass at any time.

[ jules ] says:
on April 23, 2008 2:47 PM

few things:

1. Absolutely adorable photo

2. I would've LOOOOOVED seeing Pleats behind the plate. Loved.

3. Pleats' quote. Hysterical.

4. Excellent writing, TG. Excellent.

We call Jacoby "The Kid" in our house. Well, my husband and I call him The Kid, our daughter just drools. The problem is this...with all these Baby Sox coming up, we have too many "The Kids". Nice problem to have, tho. I've been impressed with our prospects.

[ Kara ] says:
on April 23, 2008 3:04 PM

So my brother calls Jacoby "Taco" and we can't get him to stop. Clearly, he really loved that free taco last year.

[ joyosity ] says:
on April 23, 2008 3:18 PM

Hahaha, love the photo. It's exactly how I imagined Dusty would've looked like.

[ Abby ] says:
on April 23, 2008 4:07 PM

If Tek's still out tonight, we could potentially still see DP catch.

[ 1863_project ] says:
on April 23, 2008 4:28 PM

Tek's healthy enough, because instead of calling up Dusty Brown the Sox have requested the services of Craig Hansen.

And that picture...that just pretty much nails it on the head. I heard that Dustin said he caught in high school, but that's pretty much it...

[ Piney61 ] says:
on April 23, 2008 5:21 PM

Half of the team is barfing up their guts with flu, or hobbling around on the DL, or is Javier Lopez,

This made me burst out laughing. I love Lopez and all, but he hasn't earned my trust....yet

[ shark ] says:
on April 23, 2008 5:56 PM

Looks like you need to add Dice K to that ever growing list!!

[ choco ] says:
on April 23, 2008 7:55 PM

Hang on, I don't get the "Pleats in Cleats" thing. It seems really funny though, so someone care to explain it to me?

[ jules ] says:
on April 23, 2008 7:59 PM

choco, Dustin Pedroia is in a Sullivan Tire commercial wearing pleated pants--not the best fashion choice. TG called him Pleats in Cleats and it stuck. Pleats also works ;-)

[ choco ] says:
on April 23, 2008 8:06 PM

Thank you, Jules! I'm a new reader and love this site. I just started getting all the nicknames and stuff. Thanks for the info!!

[ Lindsay ] says:
on April 23, 2008 11:19 PM

Dont get me wrong, i like Cash-- but when i heard that if anything happened that Dusty would catch, i kinda sorta hoped that something would happen, because seeings Dusty catching is most likely a once in a life time experience, and since i was at the game-- it would have been even better!

[ Lindsay ] says:
on April 23, 2008 11:20 PM

By the way- the pic is priceless!!!

[ Lyndsay ] says:
on April 24, 2008 9:11 AM

GREAT picture!

how could a guy who hasn't played catcher since high school POSSIBLY play it now? If I were Kevin Cash, I think I'd be more than a little insulted.

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