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'I thought one of my buddies was playing a prank on me': How Chris Sale began grooming young Jason Groome

FORT MYERS, Fla. -- Chris Sale had reached the iron-pumping portion of his offseason workout. So, the Boston Red Sox ace figured he would get started by reaching for one of the heaviest weights at his feet.

"Oh, no," said Rick Lademann, Sale's longtime strength coach, "that one goes on Big Boy's bar."

Well, at least that's the way Jason Groome -- undeniably a big boy -- remembers it going down.

At first blush, Sale and Groome were an odd couple this winter. Sale, 28 and built like a pipe cleaner, is a six-time All-Star with five consecutive top-five finishes in the American League Cy Young voting.