Patrice Bergeron was just 18 years old when he made his NHL debut for the Boston Bruins. So he had a sense of how 21-year-old Romany Anthony was feeling ahead of his MLB debut with the Boston Red Sox.
Bergeron went on to become a centerpiece for the Bruins over two decades. The future Hall of Fame center won a record six Selke Trophy’s in his career, a Stanley Cup in 2011 and captained Boston for three seasons while being a respected player throughout the NHL.
He did that by listening those around him, and he offered up that same advice to Anthony.
“Soak everything up as much as you can,” Bergeron said on NESN’s “Unobstructed Views” on Monday. “You gotta make sure you’re listening to your veterans, listening to your coaches and really trying to pick (up) as much information you can on the fly.”
Bergeron noted he was willing to not only ask questions during his early years, but also listen to what he was being told because he wanted to get better and knew he had so much to learn.
“Trust others, trust teammates and coaches that they’re there for you,” Bergeron said. “There’s always room to grow. If you wanna improve fast and quickly, I think it’s making sure you’re able to be very coachable.”
Anthony is MLB’s youngest player (21 years, 27 days) and made his big-league debut Monday night after being called up by Boston hours before first pitch. Even at his young age, WooSox manager Chad Tracy praised Anthony’s maturity and how he handles everything with grace — which should provide Red Sox fans optimism that he’ll have no problem listening to Bergeron’s advice.
“I thoroughly enjoy sitting in that chair and watching him play baseball. Watching him navigate all the extra extracurricular that is around him is equally as enjoyable because there’s so much surrounding him,” Tracy told MassLive’s Matt Vautour. “It’s fairly impressive to watch a guy at his age be able to do that. … He’s as equipped for it psychologically as anybody I’ve ever been around, and at his age, that is not common.”
