June 5 , 2007

Pedroia isn't small-town news

By Gordon Edes, Globe Staff

OAKLAND, Calif. -- When Brett Pedroia, Dustin's older brother, was a kid, and people asked him where he lived, he used to surprise them with his answer.

"At Valley Tire."

The kid's confusion was understandable. When the shop opened at 6 in the morning, and until it closed at 9 at night, his father, Guy, and mother, Debbie, were there, working, little Brett in tow. Guy Pedroia had made a deal, see, and was making good on his promise.

Valley Tire is where he'd begun working at 14, changing and repairing tires and such, and made quite an impression on the owner, who had four daughters, none of whom were particularly interested in tires. How'd you like to buy the business, the owner one day asked Guy, who by then had married Debbie.

How do you take advantage of such an offer when you have no money? "Can you put me on a payment plan?" Guy Pedroia asked.

The owner agreed. Guy and Debbie Pedroia worked enough 15-hour days that they now own Valley Tire, and a couple of other tire shops.

"That's why it's so special for them to see me doing this," Dustin Pedroia said yesterday afternoon, just after learning he'd been named the American League Rookie of the Month, making it two in a row for Sox players (Hideki Okajima earned the honor in April). "I think about how hard they worked, and my brother worked."

Dustin grew up in Woodland, Calif., a town of about 55,000 20 miles northwest of Sacramento. "Just over the river, as we like to say," said Jim Smith, the longtime editor of the Woodland Daily Democrat, referring to the Sacramento River.

Woodland, the county seat of Yolo County, is prime farm country, a place where when the paper runs a headline like, "Yolo's Nuts Rake It in Big," the locals understand it's a story about a larger-than-expected almond crop. It's also birthplace to Charles Schwab, the stockbroker, and a place that takes special pride in the rookie second baseman for the Red Sox

. ("A-Rod Spoils Dustin's Day" was the Daily Democrat's headline yesterday morning after the Sox' loss to the Yankees Sunday night.)
The No. 1 farm product here is processed tomatoes (you can't just say "tomatoes," it's "processed tomatoes"). If you use Heinz ketchup, Smith said, you're probably eating processed tomatoes from Yolo County.

Pedroia didn't work the fields like many schoolmates, though he did his time at Valley Tire. "They had me sweeping out the damn warehouses," he said, grinning.

But most of the time he played baseball. Brett, a catcher, played, too, making it as far as Shasta Junior College, one of the state's better JC s, even though he had shattered his ankle in high school. Brett now runs Valley Tire with his parents

He starred for Rob Rinaldi at Woodland High, though he wasn't heavily recruited until he went to one of the high school showcases, the Area Code Games, and shined. That's when the big-time colleges began recruiting him in earnest. The big league scouts? They still had their reservations about a kid who weighed 130 pounds when he enrolled at Arizona State.

It was at Arizona State that Pedroia came into his own as a player. Three years in a row he was All-Pac 10 and as a sophomore was Pac-10 Co-Player of the Year. As a junior, he was one of five finalists for the Golden Spikes Award, given to the nation's best college player. He didn't miss one of ASU's 185 games while in college, batting .384 overall.

But here's what else they remember about Pedroia at ASU. After his freshman year, he gave his scholarship back.
Say what?
"There was a pitcher transferring from Winthrop named Ben Thurmond," Pedroia said. "I knew him from Team USA. We didn't have any scholarships left to offer him. I told the coaches, 'If we can get this guy, he can have my scholarship. I wanted to win the [College] World Series."

Pedroia said he called and talked it over with his parents before surrendering his scholarship. "Here's what happened," said Debbie Pedroia, who was at McAfee Coliseum with the family and a dozen or so friends last night, with half of Woodland coming later in the week. "Dustin called and said, 'Mom, I really want to get to the World Series. I gave my scholarship back, but I knew you wouldn't mind.' "

Debbie Pedroia, who was a highly competitive college tennis player ("When I lost, I couldn't sleep for four days"), laughed at her son's spur-of-the-moment judgment. "He wanted to win," she said, to which Guy Pedroia added, "What's a few extra tires?"

The Sun Devils didn't make it to the World Series. They lost to Chad Cordero and Cal-State Fullerton in the regionals. "But it was the right thing to do," Pedroia said. "Ben was a great teammate and a great friend."

No, he laughed, Thurmond didn't ask for a piece of his signing bonus after he was drafted by the Red Sox.
"I know it sounds like a cliché," he said, "but I really don't play for money. I play because I love the game, and because I want to make an impact. I hope to play for the Red Sox a long time."

Debbie Pedroia, who boasts that she was Dustin's first coach, said she always knew this day would come. She bristled at some of the criticism her son heard when he was struggling in April. "Tell Jerry Remy to ease up, would you?" she said.

Guy Pedroia, who got away enough from the tire shop to play baseball and elite softball, took a more philosophical view.

"You go through this thing as a parent," he said. "We went through the whole deal with the college recruiting. We were fortunate to go through that.

"You know, when he got to Arizona State, I kept trying to prepare Deb, you keep going up the funnel, at some point, you can't play anymore. I don't know where that point is. I'm telling Deb, 'Man, what a great college career, but is he strong enough to swing a wooden bat ?' Then he gets called up last September, he struggles a little bit.
"But mentally, he's tough, man. We are as a family. But in the back of my mind, I'm thinking, is he at the top? But he won't stop working. He gets after it."

Run in the family? A few seats away, Deb meets a man who lives in the vicinity of one of their stores. She hands him a card, suggests he call in the morning. "Hey, he might need some tires," she said.