The Slanch Report

From the Boston Globe’s Red Sox blog today:

“The answer is: Carlos Baerga, 2002.

The question: Who was the last Sox second baseman to bat cleanup?

Dustin Pedroia gets the honor tonight. The reason? Terry Francona indicated with Kevin Youkilis suffering from the flu to go along with Coco Crisp and Josh Beckett on the team sick bed, that he wanted to create a lineup that would be tough for the White Sox bullpen to counter. Francona said he’s taking a lot of grief from both Pedroia and David Ortiz over the lineup, Pedroia who keeps saying, “It’s about time” and Ortiz, who jokingly said he will retire.

Francona said he won’t make a habit of batting his little second baseman cleanup, but White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen did indicate after an 8-0 loss to the Sox that Pedroia was currently a tougher hitter to get out than Ortiz.”

Pedroia, who is the exact same size and weight as me, gives me hope that MY major league playing career is not a lost cause.