For those who believe they’re too small to be a good athlete, Dustin Pedroia’s American League MVP award should dispel any further such thinking.

The Providence Journal / Bob Breidenbach

All over New England yesterday, the little guy pumped his fist in victory.

The kid who was too small to make the team, the one who was told he didn’t have the arm, or was too slow, now has a reason to go into the backyard and take some more groundballs.

Yesterday, Dustin Pedroia, the biggest little guy in New England, won the American League MVP award and gave an entire generation of those too small, too slow, not-going-to-make-it guys a reason to believe.

Generously listed at 5-foot-9 in the media guide, Boston’s second baseman has been proving his doubters wrong his whole life. After yesterday, he’ll never have to prove anything ever again.

“I’m not the biggest guy in the world, I don’t have that many tools. Looking at me, if I’m walking down the street, you wouldn’t think I’m a baseball player,” Pedroia said after winning. “That’s been the biggest thing in my life — that I have to overcome everything to prove people wrong. And so far I’ve been doing that.”

Pedroia, 25, becomes the third player to win the MVP the year after winning Rookie of the Year, joining Cal Ripken Jr. and Ryan Howard — two of the largest players ever to play their positions. Pedroia hit .326 with 17 home runs and 83 RBI, but his real specialty came in getting to second base and scoring. He led the league with 54 doubles and 118 runs scored.

He also won the Gold Glove for his defense, and the Silver Slugger for being the best offensive player at his position. Pedroia is the first Red Sox MVP since Mo Vaughn won the award in 1995.

“He’s such a good player, but when the game’s on the line, he’s an even better player. And that’s such a compliment to him,” said manager Terry Francona.

Pedroia easily won the MVP honors, with 16 of the 28 total first place votes, and 317 total points. Twins’ first baseman Justin Morneau was second with seven first place votes and 257 points. Red Sox’ first baseman Kevin Youkilis came in third. Pedroia garnered six second-place votes, four third-place votes, and one fourth-place vote. One voter, the Dallas Morning News’ Evan Grant, did not list Pedroia in his top 10.

Heading into August, Youkilis was seen as the team’s most valuable player, and his name was bandied around as a possible league MVP, while Pedroia struggled through the spring. Then Pedroia got hot, taking his trademark massive hacks all through August on the way to six home runs and a .374 average for the month. Pedroia ended up tying Seattle’s Ichiro Suzuki for the league lead with 213 hits. He also stole 20 bases, and was caught stealing only once.

Francona was particularly impressed with the improvements Pedroia made to his baserunning, and was confident that he could have put up grander totals if his role on the team had been different.

Pedroia and Youkilis, along with Jon Lester, Jonathan Papelbon, and Jacoby Ellsbury, are part of the Sox young core, players drafted and developed by the team who now play pivotal roles. Sox management has said that it would like to lock up some of these players to long-term deals this offseason, and talks on a long-term contract with Pedroia were under way at times during the regular season. Pedroia earned $457,000 this year.

Pedroia’s price undoubtedly went up yesterday, but General Manager Theo Epstein said yesterday that he was keeping details on all negotiations private. He did say that having players finish first and third in the balloting was a great day for the organization, and that the team’s scouts should walk around “with their chests puffed out a little bit” for drafting two players who could blossom so well at such a young age.

“You spend time around him you get to understand his passion, drive, his hunger, the things that make him good,” Epstein said, adding later, “the things that might traditionally be held against him don’t matter because of what’s in his heart and what’s in his head.”

Pedroia said he wasn’t banking on winning, and had originally planned to be on vacation in Mexico when the award was announced. But he and his wife changed their vacation plans after it became clear he might win. He was in Arizona, on his way to work out with the Dodgers’ André Ethier when he got the call telling him he was the 2008 AL MVP.

“I smiled, I was driving, I couldn’t believe this was happening. … I didn’t know what to say,” Pedroia said.

With a mantle full of hardware now, some may wonder whether Pedroia will play with the same chip on his shoulder — the one that makes him so good. They’d be forgetting that the cocky, aggressive personality forged by a lifetime as “the little guy” isn’t going to go away overnight.

“That’s just who I am. I have to try to find a way to have that edge. I’ll always have it, that’s never going to go away for me,” Pedroia said.

dbarbari@projo.com