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Bartlett an unassuming star for Rays

Tribune photo by CHRIS URSO

Other Rays get more headlines than Jason Bartlett, but those who close follow the team appreciate his many contributions.

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By MARTIN FENNELLY | The Tampa Tribune

Published: July 11, 2009

Updated: 07/11/2009 01:08 am

ST. PETERSBURG - There was this one night this wonderful Jason Bartlett season. He'd just driven in a career-high five runs. The mellow Rays shortstop - and third-best hitter in the majors this season - had also scored all the way from second base on a passed ball, using the instant, instinctive baseball smarts that teammates love about him.

Now came the hard part.

Media waited at Jason Bartlett's locker.

"I don't need to be in the spotlight," Bartlett said softly, politely. "My goal was never to be the superstar, the main guy on the team. I'm not going to go out there and look for the light. If it comes, it comes."

It came. Bartlett, 29, is going to his first All-Star Game. He finished second in fan voting at shortstop behind Derek Jeter. Then the players voted him on the team. His .354 average would rank third in the bigs if he had a few more plate appearances. Kelly Bartlett cried when her husband told her that he was an All-Star. Bartlett's older brother, Jeff, also shed tears.

"Now I can tell my kids that," Jason Bartlett said. "They'll be watching TV one day and they'll have a dream to become a baseball player, a big-leaguer, and they can say Daddy was an All-Star."

The lights finally found him.

Heading into Friday night, Bartlett had already powered up for a career-high eight home runs. His .414 average with runners in scoring position was third-best in the majors. He set a Rays record with a 19-game hit streak. He has stolen 18 bases.

So what if he doesn't begin to lead the league in quotes?

"I'm not the vocal kind of guy," Bartlett said.

It's like Rays third baseman Evan Longoria said earlier this season:

"He doesn't need to say a lot. He's raking. He's raking, flat out."

Throw in generally the same fluid fielding as last season, when Bartlett was only the glue of the Rays' defense, so much so that local writers named him team MVP.

"That meant a lot to me," he said. "People noticed the little things I did without me flaunting it."

Now, about the limelight ...

"That's just not his bag, baby," Rays manager Joe Maddon said.

Bartlett's bag is his routine. He gets to the park early, gets treatment, stretches, hits the hitting cage, then the weight room. He'll listen to reggae music.

"It relaxes me," he said.

After the game, he'll decompress, even turning off the lights in the clubhouse shower.

"The lights off relaxes me, too," he said.

His teammates admire his quiet professionalism, his right way of doing things.

"He so deserves to be an All-Star," first baseman Carlos Pena said.

Bartlett was part of the deal that landed the Rays former first-round draft pick Matt Garza from Minnesota for former No. 1 draft pick Delmon Young. Bartlett was a 13th-rounder in 2001.

"I didn't even start my junior year in high school," he said. "I'm not supposed to be here."

Now comes Bam-Bam Bartlett, hitting wonder.

"I worked hard this offseason," Bartlett said. "I put on some weight, about 15 pounds. I've kept most of it. I've been eating right, working with our strength coach, drinking shakes, trying to keep that weight on."

And he added new wood for batting practice.

He asked for one from his former Twins teammate, Justin Morneau. The Morneau bat weighed 35 ounces. After BP, Bartlett would pick up his game stick, which weighs 311/2 ounces. It felt like a twig.

Only some dastardly teammate - and fellow All-Star - broke Bartlett's Morneau bat in BP three weeks ago. Rays second baseman Ben Zobrist cannot tell a lie.

"It was me," Zobrist said.

But it's really not the bat.

"From last year to this year, his approach, the way he's going after pitchers, his plan has been impeccable," Longoria said.

"When I was in Minnesota, I learned this from Joe Mauer, one of the best hitters in the league," Bartlett said. "He has a plan, not just for every at-bat, but for every pitch. I know at the beginning of last year, there were so many at-bats I just went up and had no clue what I was doing. It's just having an approach, a focus, being committed to it. I've hit on that."

He's hitting at the top of his lungs - talk enough.

Jason Bartlett can't wait to get home after games. Family and faith, that's his ticket. His wife will be waiting with their son Jayden, who turned 1 late last month.

"He makes me so happy no matter what happens," Bartlett said.

That's his bag, baby.

Lights are totally optional.

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