Big winnings, but no change

"Nothing's changed," Pedroia said. "I'm a normal guy. I don't need anything. I signed that contract. It's not like I need anything. I still live in my same house. I still work out even harder because I'm motivated by winning, so nothing changes me."

Impressive. A lesser man would walk around throwing stuff back in the faces of those who doubted him. There's got to be a temptation to flip off the legion of critics who thought he'd never make the grade. Pedroia chooses to take the high road. From down low.

"I'll remember, obviously, who doubted me," he said with a smile. "But it's not like I'm out to whack them and then cross them off the list, you know what I mean? I let 'em know. That's what's good about our business. You guys get to write whatever you want and crush people, and then when we do good, we get to crush you for writing stupid [expletive]."

Pedroia was asked about Rocco Baldelli, John Smoltz, the Yankee spending spree, the Jason Varitek radio silence, the crushing Game 7 against the Rays, and the Red Sox' place in the AL East. He handled all the questions with grace and dignity.

"I think we had those blinders on before Game 7," he said. "We were down, three games to one, and made that big comeback and won that game, so when you get to Game 7, you kind of feel like you're in the same shoes. You've got to win; otherwise, they move on. It was just one of those things where we didn't hit that game. Matt Garza threw the ball great. You definitely think about it pretty much every day of the offseason."

And the Yankees' almost half-billion-dollar spending spree?

"They got better," Pedroia acknowledged. "They went out and got great, quality players. But the core guys that we had won a World Series and came one game away from a World Series with a ton of injuries. With the tweaks we did, we definitely made ourselves better, and hopefully, that will put us over the hump."