Baldelli Says He'll Keep Ties Here Despite Joining Sox

As he drove home to Rhode Island from Boston on Friday afternoon, about 24 hours after officially joining the Red Sox, Rocco Baldelli estimated he had heard from "almost everyone" he counts among his friends in the Rays organization. And it's a long list.

After nearly a decade with Tampa Bay, the time has come for Baldelli to move on.

"I think it's beginning to sink in," he said. "In a way, it's sad because, obviously I'm from Rhode Island, but I also consider St. Pete my home. One way or another, the last nine years of my life have been spent mostly down there. I have a lot of good friends there, a lot of people who I'm going to miss. It's a great place. I loved my time there and I'll cherish it always."

Not that the 27-year-old will be going far. He plans to keep his place in St. Pete Beach, purchased a few years back, and of course he'll have plenty of chances to catch up with his old friends from the opposite dugout.

Signing with a team in the AL East ensured that, and even though the Rays' fan base might not be as enthusiastic about it as he is, Baldelli is pleased to have ended up with Boston rather than some far-flung National League team.

"I think it's good, I think it's cool," he said. "I get to go back to St. Pete and see everyone a couple times a year."

Of course, now he'll be tasked with helping his new team reclaim division supremacy from the Rays, but that's the nature of the business. At least Baldelli can now claim firsthand experience in playing winning baseball at the highest level - a daily expectation in Boston.

Whatever happens in 2009 and the years to come, Baldelli will be able to look back fondly on the role he played in elevating the Rays to respectability.

"I can honestly say it was probably the most satisfying thing that I've ever been able to do as far as anything in my life," he said. "When you go through so many difficult times like we did down there, you get beat down and it's hard to get back up. We didn't understand what it took to be a good baseball team, because we never were."

They certainly get it now, and they'll attempt to maintain their newfound status without a player who had been considered one of the faces of the franchise. A run of health problems kept Baldelli from maximizing his potential in recent years, but he believes he has turned the corner in dealing with the energy-sapping disorder that kept him out most of 2008.

If that is the case, the best of Baldelli's career may be yet to come. And even if some of his future success comes at the home team's expense, Baldelli undoubtedly will maintain a solid fan base in Tampa Bay. As he made clear Friday, he may be gone but he won't forget.

"I definitely had a lot of people that were rooting for me the entire time, which I definitely appreciate," Baldelli said. "There's no way I'd be able to thank everybody. I wish there was a forum for me to do that. I'd like everyone to know that I did appreciate everything."