Already under control

First, about the number. He isn't planning to ask for the one he was wearing for the Florida Marlins. In his mind, No. 21 on the back of a Red Sox uniform is still reserved for another Texas righthander with a signature fastball and major league swagger.

Yes, it's an easy comparison to make, Josh Beckett with Roger Clemens.

''That's another reason I don't know that I want the number," Beckett said yesterday afternoon before the 67th annual Boston Baseball Writers Dinner. ''Because, you know, I want to build my own legacy. I don't want to try and fill some shoes that, quite frankly, probably will never be filled."

Embrace the comparison?

''I don't know, I think there are some similarities," he said. ''But I think we're different in our own craft. He's basically fastball-split now. He throws that slider to get ahead of guys, just to keep them off that split. I use my breaking ball a lot more.

''There are some comparisons there, but if I ever get to that stage where I really think I'm compared to him, I'll be doing all right."

Beckett, whose baseball card collection runs in the thousands, has the better part of two decades ahead of him before the back of his card will be filled with as many columns as those that bear Rocket's picture. But at age 25, Beckett comes to the Red Sox with a World Series ring already on his finger, one he engraved with a personal signature moment, a clinching complete-game three-hitter against the Yankees in the Bronx in 2003, and the weight of great expectations on his shoulders.

He doesn't need the number on his back, too.

''I wore 19 in high school and 19 in the minors," he said. ''When I got to the big leagues, [Mike] Lowell had it, so Wally [Mike Wallace], the clubhouse guy, gave me 61, That was fun for a while, but then it was kind of like riding-a-scooter-fun, but you don't want anyone to see you doing it. Twenty-one seemed like a good fit, but I'm not married to it at all."

What he is committed to is rubbing some Stan's Rodeo into his hands and going to work.

Stan's Rodeo? That's the same ointment used on the rodeo circuit to toughen up riders' hands. Beckett uses it with sporadic success to try to control the blister problem that has bedeviled him the last few years. Yes, he's as mystified as everyone else why the problem has persisted.

''I have no clue," he said. ''I don't know, I guess I got my mom's hands and not my dad's hands. My dad has calluses on top of his hands, it's really unbelievable.

''I don't know, maybe getting out of the humidity will help me and that's definitely something I'm trying to be optimistic about. The training staff here has some ideas of some stuff I've been doing and some stuff I haven't been doing. We're going to give them all a shot and see if we can shake this thing.

''Every game I ever had a blister come up, it seemed like I either had a shutout or had given up less than two runs.

''We had our own little chemistry lab down there in Florida trying to figure this out. Al Leiter was real helpful. He had me throwing my bullpen with a Band-Aid on."

Just as Beckett is determined not to be preoccupied with Clemens, he does not want to be drawn into a competition with Curt Schilling for the role of staff ace. He will not fuel the discussion of whether the new, young gun should displace the lion in winter at the top of the rotation.

''I think he's working pretty hard this offseason," Beckett said while acknowledging he hadn't heard from Schilling this winter. ''He went back to Arizona and is working with the trainer he's been using."

Supplant Schilling as the ace?

''I don't think he's worried about me doing that," he said. ''I remember having a start against him in Arizona, back when I was a little kid -- I think I was 19 or 20, right when I got called up -- I had him beat, until I gave up back-to-back-to-back home runs to Mark Grace, Damian Miller, and Steve Finley.

''And then he had some quotes in the paper about how prepared he was. It sticks out in my mind. I was like, 'Man, I got Curt Schilling beat.' I was thinking that in the dugout, too. 'I'm going to win this game. I'm going to win this game.' It was one of those years he won 20, too. But I ended up giving up those home runs in the seventh inning."

Yes, he said, he assumed Schilling was implying that Beckett hadn't been prepared.

''From the people I talk to he's probably the most prepared pitcher in baseball," Beckett said, ''as far as that stuff goes. I'm not saying I'm going to be the guy who follows him and has a notebook in the deal because I don't think that's me. If I did that, it would be more of a callous thing.

''I'm not really like that. I respect him. I'm looking forward to learning from him. I know what I learned in half a season from Al Leiter and I'm looking forward to working a full season with someone of that caliber.

''I'm not too worried about that [the No. 1 issue]. These things find a way of ironing themselves out. If you start thinking about those extra things, they're distractions and they're going to end up being a mess for you. I try to think about things I can control.

''One thing I know I can control is executing pitches, and that's what I want to do."