...for him to continue to get the green light... [H]opefully Jacoby is picking [them] up and will continue to learn to make him an even more impact base stealer.”
Ellsbury is half Navajo. His mother is full Navajo. He lived on a reservation in Oregon until he went to kindergarten. He has focused on his Native American heritage and found a new role for himself in Arizona, visiting reservations and speaking to kids.
“[The kids] asked a bunch of questions. A lot of them were Native American. They asked if I spoke Navajo -- I understand Navajo a little bit. My mom can speak it fluently but I haven’t really been around it enough, and it’s such a tough language, not many people speak it. I definitely want to keep on learning it. What clan I was from. What age I started playing baseball at. How long have I wanted to play pro baseball.”
“They see you’re a professional athlete and that just gives you that much more power to help someone else in their situation, whether it’s sports or grades or what it might be, if you can help them out in any way, you feel like you’ve done your part.”
Ellsbury returned to Oregon for the off-season, where he trades in baseball stardom for life with his family. He is the oldest of four brothers.
In January, he’ll come back to Arizona to prepare for spring training at the Athletes’ Performance Institute, and plans to be in Fort Myers early, “so I can get familiar with the coaches again and what they want me to do.”
As for next season?
“I go into this off-season with a plan not only to get better as a baseball player but to get stronger, work on the little things,” Ellsbury said. “The little things are now what’s going to get me there.”
His Fall League appearance should serve as a wakeup call to the Red Sox Nation who will be making their pilgrimage down to Spring ball in the next few weeks. While the Sox are reluctant to give him star billing, they are definitely leaving the door open for him to make his case for a full-time major league career.
“We don’t necessarily have where he’s going to be playing mapped out right now,” Hazen said. “What we see is for him to kind of pick right up where he left off this year and continue to build on that and put himself in a position to be in the big leagues here. I hate to put a timeframe on it because we don’t like to put a timeframe on any player. But, he has an opportunity to impact the big league club at some point in the near future.”
“Speed kills, even in cars,” said Alicea. “The more speed you got, the more money your car’s worth. That’s just how it goes.”
The better that Ellsbury gets using his talent on the basepaths, the more he will be worth to the Red Sox. In time, if he continues healthy and with the same level of determination, Beantown fans may soon be unfairly comparing Johnny Damon to him.
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