That was night Dustin Pedroia came to the defense of Boston Red Sox teammate David Ortiz, who was off to a brutal start that season.
“A couple of years ago, I had 60 at-bats, I was hitting .170, and everyone was ready to kill me, too,” Pedroia said after that game. “And what happened? Laser show. So, relax.”
Pedroia’s quote immediately became a hit and cemented its place in Red Sox folklore. Yet apparently Pedroia came up with the money line well before he reached the bigs.
Jeff Evans currently is the the assistant director of baseball information for the Seattle Mariners, but he was Arizona State’s sports information director when Pedroia began his tenure as a Sun Devil.