How Tall is Dustin Pedroia Anyway?

The media does seem to love to talk about how tall Dustin Pedroia is not. I generally don't mind it - I'm 5' 8" myself, so references to Dustin's diminutive height give me the type of joy that parents who live their dreams vicariously through their talented if unwilling children must feel - but I'm a bit confused: how tell is our young second baseman anyway? The official record says 5' 9", but I've heard 5' 8" on many occasions, and just now the venerable Peter Gammons called him 5' 6", with "tiny hands," which makes me think that Pedroia is some sort of species of baseball elf. Maybe Pedroia's height is a moving target; a daily changing figure that represents Dustin's ever-changing figure the way a snapshot of electrons circling an atom represents one moment in their ever-changing orbits. Or maybe people are getting lazy with their scouting reports.