Red Sox's Ellsbury is on the fast track to stardom

FORT MYERS, FLA. - Funny thing about Jacoby Ellsbury, he can't buy a meal in Boston.

"Every time I'm in a restaurant and I go to pay the bill they tell me someone has already paid it," said Ellsbury, who not only stole Boston's heart but is a heartthrob as well.

He can't run onto the practice fields in spring training without hundreds of Red Sox fans shouting his name. The women seem to shout the loudest.

During Boston's post-World Series parade, signs lined the parade route for Ellsbury.

"I Love You Jacoby."

"Marry Me, Jacoby."

"Jacoby, I want to be Your Baby-Momma."

"They were everywhere, and some of them were really creative and pretty funny," Ellsbury said with a smile. "It was crazy."

So was Ellsbury's rise.

It seemed one minute he was playing for the Portland Sea Dogs, and the next he was bathing in the limelight of the World Series. The only thing faster than Ellsbury's rise to stardom is Ellsbury going from first to second.

"What amazes people about him is the speed factor," said Boston third baseman and former Marlin Mike Lowell. "That speed translates into a soft groundball to short, and it's a hit. Then he steals second. He can create a lot of things without executing perfectly at the plate. And he can run down balls in the outfield."

Instant success

Speed helps, but how can anyone explain a player who had never been in the big leagues showing up in Boston and becoming an immediate success?

"What's impressive is that he comes in here, big market with all those expectations, and he fits in from Day 1," Lowell said.

"He wasn't fazed by everything, and he goes about his business with confidence. He has belief in his own ability."

Ellsbury didn't just succeed. He landed in the middle of a heated drive for the playoffs and hit .353 in September while going 9-for-9 in stolen bases.

Then, when he replaced Coco Crisp in center field in the postseason, Ellsbury hit .438 in the Series, slapping three doubles in Game 3 after stealing a Taco for America in Game 2.

Taco Bell's bizarre promotion of promising a taco for everyone in America if someone stole a base landed Ellsbury in market-heaven when he swiped second in the fourth inning of Game 2. Ellsbury even showed up at a Taco Bell on the Boston University campus the next week when the tacos were distributed.

Hundreds of fans waited outside more than an hour, including women screaming, "I love you." Ellsbury was there with his girlfriend.

It has been a hectic and surreal offseason, and Ellsbury, who even did a photo spread for Vogue, said it was the first time in his life that "I needed a calendar to know where I was."

When Ellsbury got back to tiny Madras, Ore., where he was born and raised, he was welcomed with a parade and ceremony at the high school, where more people showed up than the population of Madras.

Madras is east of Mount Hood, a few miles from the Warm Springs Indian Reservation, where Jacoby's roots run deep. He is the first Native American of Navajo descent to reach the majors. His mother, Margie, can trace her roots to a 19th-century Navajo chief. His father, Jim Ellsbury, is a non-Native American who works as a surveyor for the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

"It's very important to me," said Ellsbury of his heritage. "I try to do the right thing on and off the field to represent Native Americans and Navajos. It's pretty special."

Versatile athlete

Back in Madras, Ellsbury was a two-way star in football, an all-state basketball player and a phenom in baseball.

"I begged them for years to let me run track, and they wouldn't because it was the same time as baseball," said the speedster.

Instead, he ran the bases, hit the ball everywhere at Oregon State and became a first-round pick of the Red Sox, who quickly dubbed him the best prospect in their system. He was a nonroster invitee last spring and had just 12 at-bats before making the climb from Class AA Portland, where he hit .452, to Class AAA Pawtucket before getting the call to join the Sox on Sept. 1.

A year ago Ellsbury couldn't imagine being a World Series hero.

"Last year I came to spring training with the goal of getting ready to play in the minor leagues." he said. "It was a dream season. I dream pretty big, but it was beyond my dreams."

« What's impressive is that he comes in here, big market with all those expectations, and he fits in from Day 1. »

Mike Lowell on teammate Jacoby Ellsbury