The Chronicles of Reddick

By Jon in Featured, Red Sox ⋅ August 3, 2009 at 6:50pm ⋅ Post a comment

Josh Reddick drank of the dirty water and found it good. The first time he made the Red Sox starting lineup, he smoked two doubles and acted like he was a veteran, who’d been here for years. The next time, he hit his first big league home run, and conspicuously failed to act like a pumped-up rookie. He even took the pie in the face during his NESN interview with the aplomb of a diplomat.

With no apologies whatsoever to Satan Manning, Reddick has a laser rocket arm, great range, and — going by the fact that he’s started two games and not gotten injured — is less injury-prone than J.D. Drew. Who wants to play right field for the Red Sox?

For a team that occasionally wallows in its devotion to tradition and loyalty, it’s really exciting to see some new players who look like they’ll more than cut the mustard. V-Mart, as he’s already known, picked up five hits Sunday night and is versatile — if not particularly outstanding — in the field. That versatility, in turn, eases the strain on Jason Varitek, whose current back-up hasn’t been too inspiring at the plate.

However, I must take issue with the guy’s nickname, as I’ve now been sitting here for 10 damn minutes trying to think of a joke along the lines of “Shop Smart! Shop S-Mart!” Curse you, letter v! You’re always the Victor at V-Mart? Oh, screw it, I need a drink…