On May 5, 2007, I sent an email to Crundy.  The entire contents of which were as follows

I think Dustin is finished.  Cora is playing too good to sit on bench

At the time, Dustin Pedroia was hitting something like .210.  This followed up a late 2006 callup performance where he showed …well, not too much actually.

But in a classic case of “This shows I don’t know shit about baseball and I should never manage”, Dustin Pedroia proceeded to go on a tear for the rest of 2007.  In the championship run of 07 it seemed like he was always on base.

This year, it seemed like he never missed a ball in the strike zone.  Not since the early years of Nomar, have I seen a guy who hit pretty much everything square on the barrel of the bat. 

He led the league in doubles and runs.

Tied for the lead in hits.

Stole 20 bases.  Was caught once.

Even batted cleanup for a few games and no one could get him out.

And so today, he was named AL MVP.  Less than 2 seasons after having folks like me make ill-informed, moronic statements that he should be benched in favor of playing Alex Cora on a daily basis.