David Ortiz and Dustin Pedroia are the team leaders of the Boston Red Sox and, with Pedroia holding a news conference to announce his contract extension with the team, you knew Ortiz had to get involved somehow.
The Red Sox DH walked out behind where Pedroia, GM Ben Cherington, and manager John Farrell were seated by the first base line for the press conference on Wednesday, picked up second base, and delivered it to Pedroia as some sort of gift. After giving his teammate a hug and the base, Ortiz leaned in to the microphone and reminded the media that Pedroia, a notoriously hard worker, shows up to the ballpark at noon for night games.
Ortiz is no stranger to interrupting press conferences. You may remember that he did it to Terry Francona two years ago. I’m actually surprised that Ortiz was nice to Pedroia this time considering it would have been a perfect time to get Pedey back for the huge prank in 2011.
As for Pedroia’s contract, it’s an eight-year, $110 million extension that runs from 2014-2021. Pedroia, 29, is now under contract through his age 38 season. Pedroia may have signed for a little below market value, and the Sox might not have much to gain by locking him up for the later years of his career, but my guess is they wanted to get him signed before Robinson Cano signs his free agent deal, which will probably be for a lot more money.
