"But I wouldn't change anything. I loved the way I grew up. But I've got a lot of respect for the farmers of America. That's a hard, hard lifestyle."
Drew is from Hahira, Ga., a small town of 1,800 near the Florida border. The nearest big town is Valdosta, about 11 miles away, and the Moody Air Force Base is nearby.
There are 14 churches in Hahira, according to the town's website. A big event each year is the honeybee festival, in which elected officials offer themselves as targets in the dunking booth and which ends Sunday afternoon with a gospel sing.
The median household income, according to the city's website, is just over $27,000. "Everyone in Hahira is a neighbor," the site proclaims.
Drew straddles two worlds. He and his wife, Sheigh (a pastor's daughter), and their 13-month-old son, Jack David, still have a home in Hahira. But when he goes to work now, it's in the big city -- St. Louis first, then Atlanta, Los Angeles, and now Boston, where the Red Sox have given him $70 million over the next five years to play the outfield. No tractor duty required.
"That's the unique thing about playing baseball," he said. "You've got a bunch of different nationalities, different geared teammates raised differently, it's a very unique situation. It's definitely different from growing up in South Georgia, where everyone is geared to grow up the same way."
If you were a Drew boy, you grew up playing baseball. J.D. and his younger brother, Tim, both were drafted in the first round in 1997, J.D. out of Florida State by the Phillies, Tim out of high school by the Indians. Little brother Stephen was the top draft pick of the Arizona Diamondbacks in 2004, also out of Florida State. No family has ever turned out three brothers who were all drafted on the first round; all three made it to the big leagues.
"I didn't get to see him play a lot in college," J.D., 31, says of his little brother, who just turned 24. "I tried to mentor him as a little kid with his swing, stuff like that. Mine and his relationship was much better than mine and Tim's. We were 2 1/2 years apart. It was more competitive, fighting a lot.
