It was a Crisp outing

ARLINGTON, Texas -- Don't be fooled by the easy smile or the one-liners tossed so casually by Coco Crisp, like the one when he was asked how he would rate the degree of difficulty of the over-the-head catch he made in the ninth inning of yesterday's 7-3 win over the Texas Rangers.

''Not that difficult," he said, ''because I closed my eyes at the last minute."

But even Crisp conceded that replacing Johnny Damon as the Red Sox center fielder may not be quite as effortless as he has made it look all spring.

Standing in the on-deck circle before his first regular-season at-bat, Crisp had an onset of nerves like he hadn't experienced in some time, maybe not since he'd broken into the big leagues with the Indians four years ago. It got worse when he got up to the plate for the first time as Sox leadoff man.

''When I got into the batter's box and got two strikes on me, my legs were shaking," he said. ''I was like, 'Oh my goodness, what's going on?' I was going, 'OK, come on, breathe, do something.'

''As the innings progressed, I was fine, I calmed down a little bit. Maybe it was excitement, I don't know what it was. I just say nerves, because my legs don't really shake like that. Oh, buddy, I was trying to move my hips a little so nobody would notice my legs."

Crisp took a third strike in each of his first two at-bats, belying his reputation as a free swinger. Kevin Millwood, his teammate with the Indians last season, caught the outside corner on Crisp's first at-bat, then busted him inside with a two-strike fastball the next. But Crisp reached on a fielder's choice and scored in the fifth, singled and scored in the seventh, then gave them something to talk about back home in the ninth. He rescued shaky closer Keith Foulke by running down Laynce Nix's bid for extra bases -- a line drive hit directly overhead -- and spearing the ball at the wall with a last-second backhand grab.

''An unbelievable catch," said Jed Hoyer, the Sox assistant general manager who was watching the game from field-level seats. ''He put his glove up so late, after running so long, I thought he'd given up on it. An incredible play."

Sox owner John W. Henry was standing with chairman Tom Werner when Crisp strolled back into the clubhouse.

''Great catch," Henry said.

Werner, introducing himself, said the same, then added: ''We ought to talk about television sometime."

Crisp probably won't have to be asked twice. Back home in southern California, he has his own production company developing a reality dating show.

But show business can wait for the offseason, he said. There's plenty to do in his current line of work.

''Offensively, scoring a couple of runs was big for me," said Crisp, who was supplanted last season as Cleveland's leadoff man by wonderboy Grady Sizemore and never has scored more than 86 runs in a season (well below the 117 scored by Damon in 2005). Of course, Crisp never has hit in front of sluggers like Manny Ramírez and David Ortiz before.

''That's what I'm here for," he said. ''And hopefully I can continue that."