BOSTON — Work gets done in the shadows. Long before the spotlight found him in the American League Championship Series and well before the bright lights will shine on him this week as the Boston Red Sox play in their fourth World Series in 14 years, Jackie Bradley Jr.'s grunts and groans led him to this moment.
It was May, and his hitting was stinking worse than a campground outhouse.
So around 2 p.m. before every night game, Bradley had a standing appointment with hitting coach Tim Hyers in the indoor batting cage of whatever ballpark they were at.