(The cause of Pedroia's antipathy isn't clear, but his brother Brett, who lives in Woodland, was charged in January with child molestation, and it's possible Pedey's upset about that.)

The Sox star hasn't apologized for his remarks, but he did tell the Sacramento Bee that the comments were taken out of context. ``I was laughing when I said all that,'' he said. ``I wasn't serious. I regret that this happened. I learned that I need to be more careful.''

That's too little, too late for some residents. Over the weekend, a 47-year-old man named Kenneth Samuels was arrested for making death threats to Pedroia's parents, who own Valley Tire Center in Woodland. According to cops, Samuels made multiple phone calls to the business and allegedly threatened to shoot the male members of the Pedroia family.

Mark Bachman, meanwhile, the owner of Bachman's Custom Cycles, put up a banner bearing a decidedly anti-Pedroia message. Bachman says the ballplayer picked a bad time to knock his hometown.

``In this recession, the last thing we want to do is drive revenue out of the community,'' Bachman told us yesterday. ``We don't need to put a black eye on Woodland. That kid's been supported from day one by this community, and then he does this. It's a big slap in the face of the community.''

Bachman said he received dozens of calls of support for the banner, and just one negative response, before finally taking it down.

``I got a call from Pedroia's mom,'' he said. ``She said `How dare you' and then hung up on me.''