Pedroia Says He Was Joking

Hmmmm:

Dustin Pedroia said in a lengthy interview with The Bee this morning that he was only joking when he called his hometown of Woodland "a dump" and that his comments were taken out of context.

..."I'm totally crushed by this, devastated, because I didn't mean it that way at all," Pedroia said. "The (Boston Magazine) writer doesn't know my personality. I kid around a lot, and that's what I was doing when I was talking about Woodland.

"That town raised me. I grew up there. I rode my bike there. I played high school ball there. Loved all of it. My family and best friends are still there. I love going home. This article made me seem like a jerk, and I'm not."

...Pedroia also denied that he called Alex Rodriguez "a dork," as he was quoted in the story.

"Come on, dude," Pedroia said. "I never said that."

It all sounds fishy to me. Since I don't know Pedroia personally I can't really say anything about his sense of humor. But there shouldn't be any question by now that there are certain classes of people with whom you don't joke: TSA agents, for one; Newspaper Reporters, for another.