It has been over a month since I posted in this space- a fact that I’m sure was noticed by literally dozens. Part of the reason for this was, of course, due to utter sloth. Part of the reason for this was due to an unnatural phenomenon at my new job- the work I was assigned to do actually took up the lion’s share of my workday. I was shocked, shocked, to discover what a day job in the real world was like (it’s sometimes also know as the “private sector” by those of my compatriots still comfortably numb in the employ of some level of government). Mostly, however, my absence from this site had to do with the Bull Durham exhortation to not, well, mess with a winning streak.

The month of May had been very good for the Red Sox. I spent it enjoying the rise of the Sox to the majors’ best record and a double-digit lead in the AL East. Not only were the Sox hovering around 20 games above .500, but everyone else in the division had a losing record. The Yankees weren’t even the best of the bad teams. In past blogs, I’d demonstrated the remarkable ability to screw things up for the Sox. Basically, a week after I started my blog “Outskirts of Red Sox Nation” last July, the Sox season went completely off the rails. This time, I did what I could to stay out of the way- and I think I showed remarkable restraint. But enough about me.

So here we are in early June. The Sox have just lost four of five (well, after winning five in a row) and have lost two consecutive games in late innings. Last night was a terrible indignity- an extra-inning loss on the West Coast, after a draining Yankees series. There’s no good time to lose a game, but MLB has seen fit to schedule some of these games to minimize the chances that anyone anywhere might possibly care about watching the entirety of these contests. I wrote a post last July about a better way to play these games against the A’s, Mariners, and Angels. To summarize it for you, it made much more sense to me to let the more devoted, populous fan base see the games at the more convenient time. The ad revenue and viewership difference between a 7:00 and a 10:00 start on the East Coast means much more, fiscally, than the local attendance (and viewership) between a 4:00 and a 7:00 start on the West Coast. Even a compromise- an 8:00 eastern/5:00 pacific start would allow people to work a full day and get to the park (do Californians ever actually work until 5 anyway?).

All of that aside, I’d just like to bring some notice to the fact that our second baseman, Mr. Dustin Pedroia, has just been named AL Rookie of the Month for May. He succeeds Mr. Hideki Okajima in that role. Entering the month hitting around .175 and having all of the nonbelievers wondering why we ever let Mark Loretta walk away (or why we don’t let Alex Cora play every day or why Jose Offerman ever had to leave- or whatever these losers complain about), Pedroia’s hits started falling in, finding gaps, and he seemed to adjust his approach at the plate, particularly with two strikes. For one reason or several, Pedroia was on fire in May, hitting over .400, and now stands with an average of .331. Pedroia’s OBP is over .400, and his OPS is second in the AL among second-sackers (behind BJ Upton, whose location at second base must be surprising to Mr. Upton himself). Pedroia leads, among others, Brian Roberts, Placido Polanco, Luis Castillo, Ian Kinsler, Howie Kendrick, and someone named Cano playing for the Yankees in OPS. This kid belongs in the majors. He deserves to start. He can play. I couldn’t be happier for him.