"I'm not a rah-rah guy and never have been. That's not who I am. I've never been [a] show boat, or thrown my helmet or my bat or tried to upstage anyone. Maybe sometimes those types of players get the attention and I don't. I'm not going to try to be something I'm not. I try to lead by example."
He sounds a lot like Peyton Manning, with a bit of a Southern drawl, but very sure of what he's saying.
"I grew up in church all my life," he said. "My parents were very deep in their faith and that's the way our family was raised and that's the way I'm raising my family. I've always given 100 percent and been a team player. I love playing baseball. I understand the gift I've been given and I've never taken that gift for granted. Baseball is very important to me but my faith and my family come first."
Drew said he was disappointed by comments made by former manager Tony La Russa in the best-selling book "Three Nights in August," in which Drew is portrayed as an underachieving player with no fire to realize his potential.
La Russa said of Drew, "A lot of young players fall into the trap where it's uncomfortable to push yourself on a daily basis. They settle for some percent under their max. In the case of J.D., if you have the chance to be a $12 to $15 million-per-year player, you settle for 75 percent of that."
"Tony made those comments and he knew that I was playing in terrible pain with a severe case of patellar tendinitis in my knee for three years," recalled Drew, who played for La Russa in St. Louis from 1998-2003. "I came back from the injury when I was 50 percent. It was a terrible injury. I felt I gave them everything I had.
"I know it's a disappointment when a player gets injured and he can't perform. It's disappointing for everyone. But what I had was the same injury that Mark McGwire had and he just went home. For three years I was in pain. They told me that even if I had surgery I would still be only 75 percent pain-free. It's been a long road back and because I've changed my workout routines and changed some things, I've been able to manage it very well."
