Cabrera is worthy of attention

You play in Montreal, you're inclined to go to extremes to get some attention, which may explain why Orlando Cabrera had hair that made Johnny Damon's look tame by comparison. Or perhaps you missed the time he showed up with a braided 'do in alternating blue and red, the colors of the Expos, or went 13 months between haircuts.

But that wasn't the scouting report the Red Sox relied on when they decided Cabrera would be an ideal fit in Boston. They knew the elements of his game -- the smooth-as-cocoa butter glove, the quick bat, the speed -- would be sufficient to entrance an entire six-state region. Maybe not enough to make people forget Nomar Garciaparra -- you remember him, don't you? -- but enough to make folks clamor that the Sox don't let this guy go as a free agent this winter.

Those folks will be pleased to hear that in the upper chambers of Sox management, plans are being made to retain the 29-year-old Cabrera, who now has taken his game global in the 100th World Series, a featured attraction in Colombia, home to both shortstops in this ultimate tournament, Edgar Renteria of the Cardinals being the other.

Not that Cabrera is fielding a ton of calls from home on his cellphone, even after a game like last night, when he delivered a two-run, Wall-ball single in the sixth inning, the game-breaking hit in a 6-2 Sox win that gave the Olde Towne Team a two-games-to-none lead in this series.

"I don't have a cellphone," he said.

Pick yourselves up off the floor. You heard right.

"I think I'm the only big leaguer without a cellphone," he repeated. "I reach myself to people. I don't let people reach me. I don't have too many friends."

These days, of course, he has happy millions who count themselves as close acquaintances, not to mention a clubhouse full of guys mighty glad he came over to their side in the four-team deal that jettisoned Garciaparra and brought a different kind of persona into the Sox clubhouse. That story has already been oft-told.

Less well known is this: Cabrera owes his baseball pedigree in good part to his father, Jolbert. (Cabrera has an older brother who plays for the Mariners.) "He never played professionally," Orlando said of his father. "But he managed our teams in Colombia in winter ball. He started to scout for the Mariners in 1984, and later scouted for the Expos and Marlins."

His father is no longer around to see him play -- he died, Cabrera said, of a lung infection at age 50 four years ago -- but Cabrera, a native of Cartagena, has seen what it's like when an entire country embraces a sport that isn't exactly indigenous to the culture. He was playing in the Arizona Fall League in 1997 when Renteria, then 21, delivered the hit that made the Marlins World Series winners.

"The entire country is watching," he said. "People in the south don't know much about baseball, but they're all getting the game on TV live. But with two shortstops in the World Series, it's really big right now."

Cabrera has his own personal talisman -- a radio reporter from Colombia that he had as his house guest for Games 1 and 2 in Boston. "He's going on our plane to St. Louis, too," Cabrera said. "He's friends to both Edgar and me. Edgar's not happy that he's with me. Edgar told him, `I know which team you're shorting.' "

The Sox have yet to see Cabrera short them in any way.

"Being on a team with better players in a winning atmosphere has given him a chance to have his talents really come out," said Brad Mills, who first knew Cabrera as Montreal's bench coach last season. "Up in Montreal, not many people saw him. People saw his numbers, so they said he was a good player, but now he's come to a winning team and it brings out his skills.

"It was a struggle at first. Those were awfully big shoes he was being asked to fill, and hitting a home run in his first at-bat might not have been the best thing. It was a struggle for a while."

No more. "The ultimate compliment I can give a guy," said Dave Roberts, "is that he is a ballplayer. And Orlando Cabrera is not only a good fielding shortstop, he's a ballplayer."