Updated 22:37, June the 24th, 2008
Brothers in baseball
The motto of Hahira, Ga., — the hometown of the baseball-playing Drew family — is “a great place to work, live and play.”
Sox right fielder J.D. Drew, Arizona shortstop Stephen Drew and 1997 first-round pick Tim Drew appropriately enough grew up playing every sport under the sun in the front yard of their Hahira home.
Thirty-three-year-old J.D. was the oldest brother and carried the loftiest reputation as a Georgia prep standout and later as a college baseball superstar at Florida State.
Stephen followed in J.D.’s footsteps at Lowndes County High School and then later on at FSU. No wonder he circled the current three-game series at Fenway on his schedule prior to the season.
“It’s always fun when you get to hang out with your brother, because the season is kind of hectic and you don’t get to spend that much time together,” said the younger Drew, who entered last night hitting .264 with 10 home runs and 27 RBIs for Arizona. “We don’t really talk too much about baseball, or talk too much shop. It’s more about our family and what’s going on around the house.”
The laid-back Drew boys have consistently maintained a steady priority list through their respective careers of God, baseball and fishing — in that order — and Stephen is a 25-year-old variation on that Southern theme. Both brothers have sugary-sweet left-handed swings and bring a great deal of athleticism to the table — a set of baseball skills that made both players first-round draft picks despite hailing from a tiny town of 2,500 people.
“It’s really fun watching them play each other and it’s exciting for this area because it’s such a unique situation,” said Lowndes baseball coach Danny Redshaw, who coached both J.D. and Stephen. “They’ve never been the kind of athletes that were showboats or ‘Look at me’ kinds of guys. There’s no doubt that J.D. might be having his best season ever, and he’s no different now than when the people were saying two years ago that he didn’t care; that he’s going through the motions. It’s the wrong impression to have of those guys.”