Dustin Pedroia's body won't let him play professional baseball anymore -- but he hasn't lost his competitive fire.
The former Boston Red Sox second baseman told WEEI's Rob Bradford he watched the first installment of "The Captain," ESPN's multi-part documentary on New York Yankees star Derek Jeter, earlier this week.
And after seeing scenes of a young Jeter rise to prominence in New York, Pedroia had to scratch his baseball itch.
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"The other night I watched that Jeter thing and I’m like ‘Man, I miss playing,’” Pedroia told Bradford on "The Bradfo Sho" podcast. "I got a cage in my house. I went in the cage for a little bit and was hitting missiles."
Does that mean Pedroia is eyeing a major league comeback? Not quite, said the 38-year-old, who retired in February 2021 after undergoing knee replacement surgery in 2020.
"That’s the problem I have," Pedroia said. "After I got done hitting, I’m like, ‘It’s a damn shame, because now that I got my partial (knee) replacement, I can do everything now except run.
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"If I could run, I’d probably be leading the league in hitting. So it pisses me off."
Pedroia's brash confidence and grit helped him become one of the best second basemen in Red Sox history, with a .299 career batting average, four All-Star nods, four Gold Gloves, two World Series titles and an American League MVP award over 14 seasons.
But the "Laser Show" is also realistic, and after he appeared in just nine games total over the 2018 and 2019 seasons, Pedroia knows his time as a big leaguer is over.
That won't stop Pedey from occasionally hitting "missiles" in his home batting cage, however. And if the Jeter documentary delves into the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, we'd imagine Pedroia will have some strong opinions.