Such level-headedness helped this winter when his name surfaced — around the same time he hired arch-agent Scott Boras — in a potential trade for Minnesota Twins ace Johan Santana. "I'd definitely like to stay in Boston," says Ellsbury. "But you hear about players just finding out from the radio, or they're watching ESPN, and they're like, 'What? I got traded?'"

Along for the whole wild ride has been his girlfriend of one and a half years, Kelsey Hawkins, a 23-year-old Pendleton, Ore., native who works in New York for the charter educational company Edison Schools. The two were friends at Oregon State, but it wasn't until she was nannying on a trip to Maine, where he was playing Double A, that Ellsbury tried to get to first base. "We went to dinner, started talking, having a good time," he recalls. "If I had started using any corny lines on her, we'd still be friends." I ask him how she feels about the thousands of women in Boston who held up signs during the victory parade, offering their services as babymama. "After about 20 minutes into it, I don't think she thought it was funny anymore," he replies.

Filling out Ellsbury's entourage are a handful of up-and-coming ballers he's known since his Pac-10 days as a Beaver: Cole Gillespie, Andy Jenkins, Ty Graham. Whether it's Blazers games, dinners out, or watching Oregon–OSU football showdowns, they only have one rule: "We never really talk about baseball," says Ellsbury. "That's a time to just relax....One night might be cool for karaoke, the next night might be just chillin'. Each night kind of flows." (Under duress, he reluctantly confesses that his clutch karaoke tune is "You've Lost that Lovin' Feelin'.") Within the Sox clubhouse, Ellsbury has a jauntily competitive relationship with Dustin Pedroia, a 2007 Rookie of the Year. "He says we never beat him when he was at Arizona State, and I'll remind him that he never made it to the College World Series," says Ellsbury.

This season, Ellsbury insists that his goals are more qualitative than quantitative, but he's aware of how much he still has to prove. "I don't want to get lackadaisical," he says. "I'm going to continue to get better, and the awards and the individual aspects will take care of themselves." He's so clearly the Natural that you think he'd be lost on any other path— but you'd be wrong. I ask what he would have done with his life if not play baseball and Ellsbury doesn't even blink. "The NFL," he says. "Wide receiver."

"Seriously?" I ask.

He thinks for a moment. "Or the NBA."

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