FORT MYERS, Fla. -- The road to perdition that night began as grass, then turned to a mixture of dirt and clay. As Mark Bellhorn walked from home plate to the Red Sox dugout late in Game 3 of the American League Championship Series last October, having struck out for the fourth time in four at-bats, the fans' criticism and anger flowed. His average had reached a stultifying .087 (2 for 23) in the playoffs.
He'll never forget, he said, one voice amid the masses.
"Some guy said, `Take yourself out of the lineup,' " Bellhorn said this week. "I'll always remember that."
It was a point that most fans and media in Boston thought or voiced that week. About that time, Terry Francona pulled Bellhorn aside. The Sox manager, sensing his second baseman had the self-confidence of Eeyore, passed along a simple, reassuring message.
"I said, `Bell, you're going to play,' " Francona relayed yesterday. " `The only thing I might do is move you out of the two-hole. You're going to play. So go play good.'
"He goes, `OK.' "
A painfully quiet individual, that response is the essence of Bellhorn. Why express in more words what can be conveyed with one? Or, what can be conveyed with one swing of the bat?
You know the tale of the tape. A three-run blast in a 4-2 Game 6 win at Yankee Stadium. A solo homer to lead off the eighth inning of Game 7 against Tom Gordon. And that two-run, game-winning drive in Game 1 of the World Series that rattled the miked-up Pesky's Pole.
Numerous fans approached Bellhorn during the offseason to ask: "Was it really that loud on the field?"
The answer was no. But on televisions across New England, that blast resonated in the night. Bellhorn, who acknowledges to being the softest-spoken member of the Sox, had chirped up in his own way.
"He's quiet," said Johnny Damon. "He's a gentleman. The rest of us aren't."
Little seems to have changed this spring about Bellhorn. He still doesn't say boo, though Kevin Millar, who brought Manny Ramirez out of his shell last season, is working to do the same with the placid Bellhorn.
"Millar wants me to be a little louder," Bellhorn said. "I'm going to be a little tougher [than Manny]."
Perhaps job security will ease his mind. The starting second base job is his, and he'll make $2.75 million this season. Last year, he made $490,000 and came to camp as Pokey Reese's backup.
"That was a stimulant," Bellhorn, 30, said of having to compete for a job. "I need to find something else that drives me. Maybe trying to be one of the better guys in the league at the position."
That said, replicating 2004 would be impressive enough. His on-again, off-again seasons have befuddled even Bellhorn himself. He hit one home run in 2001 (in 38 games), 27 in 2002 (146 games), two in 2003 (99 games), then 17 last year (138 games).
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