Vote for Pedroia...

...and vote they did.

I don't know when I was last so shocked. I got the news while I was calling a friend. I was waiting for her to pick up when I opened my email, clicked the first message, and saw the news. I almost shouted, "OHMYGOD."

...about a second after my friend picked up. "Oh I'm so sorry Gracie," she said, thinking I was talking about her.

"No, not you!" I said. "Dustin Pedroia!"

Well, needless to say, the name was lost on her. As it is on most people over here in the Netherlands.

Of course, being the loyalist type of fan that I am, I will happily agree that Pedroia deserves it. I question very little, as long as it goes in the Sox' favor. (Just about everything except the DH rule, but even that took me years.)

Later I spoke with a friend of mine whose mom is from Boston and therefore a Red Sox fan. My friend knows nothing about the Sox. (During the 2007 ALCS she asked her Mom what the Green Monster was.) So I told her, "Call your mom and tell her Dustin Pedroia won the MVP."

"Who? Dustin Petroya?"
"PeDROIa," I said slowly and loudly.
When she got off the phone, my friend thanked me for giving her the rare opportunity to know something about the Red Sox that her mom hadn't.

Ah, life is sweet, isn't it? The Gold Glove, the Silver Slugger, and now the MVP? All for Dustin? Let me put it bluntly: He is Amazing. The third player to win the MVP the year after taking Rookie of the Year honors, and the first second basemen to win it in the AL since 1959? Amazing might be an understatement. Now, if only Jacoby had won the Rookie of the Year. (That Evan Longoria is really asking for it.)

Ah well, you can't have everything. I'm just looking forward to seeing what will happen in 2009.