Rookies lived a dream in 1967, too

DENVER - They appear together on their Topps rookie card, the second baseman and the center fielder who started together in the World Series.

Before there was Dustin Pedroia and Jacoby Ellsbury, there were Mike Andrews and Reggie Smith, who played for the Sox Impossible Dreamers in 1967.

"It's funny, but I'd never related it before to Reggie and myself," Andrews said yesterday from his home, where he'd just finished watching the Patriots crush the Washington Redskins. "Maybe because Reggie was around all season and Jacoby just came up.

"But I think Dustin, coming up for a World Series contender, there was this expectation of being good right out of the chute. Here you are, on a contender with only a few holes, and you're one of them. The pressure on him was a lot more than on me. We were 100-to-1 shots, and with me, it was 'Let's see how this develops.'

"Dustin, with all the media and TV, his face is in front of us every night. Back then, we had maybe one game a week on TV. He's in a whole different world, on stage all the time. The pressure is a lot greater.

"He's a cocky little son of a gun. You can just see it. I enjoy watching him. Pound for pound, he gets more out of his ability than any player around. Everything I hear about him, he seems like a workaholic."

In Boston's 10-5 win in Game 3 Saturday night, Pedroia and Ellsbury became the first rookies in Series history to bat in the Nos. 1 and 2 slots in the lineup. Ellsbury had four hits, including three doubles, scored twice and drove in two runs. Pedroia had three hits, including a double, scored a run and knocked in two. Ellsbury cranked it up again in Game 4 when he opened the game by slashing an opposite-field double, took third on Pedroia's infield out, and scored on David Ortiz's base hit.

"It's amazing," Andrews said. "With all due respect to Dustin, it's maybe more so for Ellsbury, because he was put in a real tough situation, replacing the everyday center fielder [Coco Crisp]. Terry [Francona] made that tough decision, and now you're in there. I can only imagine the feelings, a lot of mixed ones."

Count the Japanese pitchers, Daisuke Matsuzaka (winner of Game 3) and Hideki Okajima (who got seven big outs in Game 2), and the Sox have four rookies in this Series, 19 in Series history that appeared in a game. Kevin Youkilis was the last Sox rookie to appear on a Series roster, in 2004, and he did not play. Before that, Mike Greenwell was the last, going 0 for 3 as a pinch hitter in 1986.

The Impossible Dream team had five rookies: Andrews, Smith, pitcher Gary Waslewski (who started Game 6), 19-year-old reliever Ken Brett, who appeared in two games, pitching 1 1/3 scoreless innings, and backup catcher Russ Gibson.

"But it was an entirely different situation," said Andrews, who (reminiscent of Ellsbury in the AL Championship Series) was inserted into the lineup late in the Series, starting the last three games after Jerry Adair went 2 for 16.

Andrews went 3 for 11, including two hits with a run and an RBI in a Game 6 win. Smith, meanwhile, started all seven games and batted .250 (6 for 24), hitting home runs in Games 3 and 6.

"When we went to the World Series it was anticlimactic," Andrews said. "We had to win the pennant on the last day, listening to the radio to hear Detroit lose, and we had been in the greatest pennant race in American League history. Just to get there we didn't have a chance to breathe.

"I never really thought we got to enjoy the World Series. By the time we woke up, we were already down 3 to 1 before we made it a fight. It just wasn't the same. There was no buildup. It was like you went from the clubhouse to the playing field and there you are. The Cardinals, meanwhile, ran away with their league and set up to do anything. I never felt it was like everything I thought it would be."

But there was an even bigger difference between the Series experience, circa 1967, and now, Andrews said.

"We didn't need to win the World Series," he said. "We tried our best, but we were already revered, for bringing baseball back to life. We were heroes, no matter what happened.

"With this Red Sox team, it's not the same because they're expected to win. For us getting in the World Series was what mattered. Winning it was icing on the cake. This team, they've got to win.

"But both guys, they're performing. They're not knocking the cover off the ball, they've had a little luck, but they're getting on, they're getting their hits."

An added bonus: Andrews, the longtime chairman of the Jimmy Fund at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, notes that Pedroia's wife, Kelli, a melanoma survivor, is a volunteer at the clinic. "She commits to one day a week, and the kids expect to see the same people every week," he said.

He chuckled. "She did call this week," he said, "and said she had to go to Colorado. Everybody understood."