Jose Bautista tells everyone not to worry. He will let people know when all the attention and interview requests become too much.
In the meantime, feel free to vote him into the All-Star Game. The Home Run Derby? You know, the marquee event of workout day at the All-Star Game? Just go ahead and mark him down for that right now. He's up for it. All that stuff about the derby mucking up a hitter's swing, that weird baseball science and superstition? Forget it: Joey Bats - Bautista's personae adopted for an MLB network promotional item - is your man.
About the only thing this season that has surprised the American League's leading vote-getter through the first round of fan balloting for the July 12 All-Star Game at Phoenix's Chase Field is the way teams employ a defensive shift against him and still insist on pitching him away. It's one thing to concede the opposite field to a hitter; quite another to all but concede the base hit.
"Which," Bautista said Wednesday night, "is something I don't get. The Yankees were the first to put it on me, I think. There was a man on first and Robinson [Cano]was to my left of the pitcher. Especially early in the game, you want to get base runners on."
The Blue Jays marketing department used the first day of American League ballot results - Bautista received 1,261,659 votes in a bid to become the first Blue Jays player to finish as the top overall vote-getter, fewer than 100,000 votes ahead of Cano, the New York Yankees second baseman - to unveil a campaign to push the slugger's candidacy. Marnie Starkman, the director of game entertainment and promotions, and Rob Jack, the director of social marketing, unveiled VOTE JOSE T-shirts.
In addition, 10,000 Vote Jose campaign buttons are about to make the scene, and 100 Vote Jose lawn signs have been manufactured, with an eye toward placing them at landmarks throughout the city and maybe even sneaking a few onto landmarks in visiting cities.
The last Blue Jays player to be elected as a starter in fan balloting was Carlos Delgado in 2003. The last Blue Jays outfielder to be so chosen was Joe Carter in 1994. And the last time a player has led the AL in homers for five consecutive months the way Bautista has done, it was Hall of Famer Jimmie Foxx (June, 1933 to April, 1934).
There's a little bit of star quality to this Blue Jays team. Ricky Romero is dating Miss USA 2010, Rima Fakih. Not bad.
But Bautista's the biggest deal. ESPN, the MLB Network and Sports Illustrated have all come a calling, and former Dream Syndicate front man Steve Wynn, who is now spearheading The Baseball Project along with the likes of Mike Mills and Peter Buck of REM and Scott McCaughey and Linda Pitmon, muses about "possibly" doing some kind of Ballad of Jose Bautista number on a future album. This from a group that does punk-pop, alt-country numbers and has laid down tracks such as Ichiro Goes To The Moon and Ted (Expletive Deleted) Williams.
There was an alt vibe to the Boston Red Sox when they finally got rid of the Curse of the Bambino (think the Dropkick Murphys, Jimmy Fallon and Drew Barrymore and Fever Pitch,) and while it isn't Derek Jeter squiring Minka Kelly around Manhattan or Alex Rodriguez working his way through a Murmurer's Row of A-list actresses, what do you want from a mid-market like Toronto?
Bautista admitted that he is helped by playing in the AL East ("especially when I play well") and appears to have had little problem handling the media crush. The key, he says, is "keeping your priorities straight - keep doing what makes you successful."
Bautista had a busy day. The Jim Rome Show was doing a hit and as the cameras rolled the Rogers Centre roof opened. Bautista smiled when it was suggested he should have said: "See how I'm rolling? I can even make the sun come out!" Folks would buy it, because these days, Jose Bautista is the Man Who Makes All Things Possible.