01:00 AM EDT on Sunday, September 28, 2003

Things could have been a lot different for Kevin Millar.

He could have been eating sushi every day and drinking a lot of sake this season.

Instead, he became a T-shirt hawker and a video star in Boston, quite often providing comic relief in the Red Sox' clubhouse in an effort to keep everybody loose.

Millar had a "Cowboy Up" message printed on various styles and designs of T-shirts over the season, a theme that he thought exemplified the team's blue-collar work ethic.

And a video of Millar when he was skinny and in junior college, lip-synching to Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the U.S.A," became a mini-legend at Fenway Park when it was shown on the message board, turning him into the "Rally Karaoke Guy."

Somehow, all of that seemed in character for Millar, who had been the focal point in a six-week soap opera featuring the Florida Marlins, the Chunichi Dragons of the Japanese Central League and the Red Sox before deciding not to go to Japan and to sign with Boston.

The messy three-cornered, two-continent saga turned out just fine for the Red Sox.

Millar, who played some left field and served as the designated hitter early on, settled in as the regular first baseman in the second half of the season. And Millar, whose professional career began on an Independent League team in St. Paul, Minn., in 1993, was another one of the Sox who posted career highs in homers and RBI.

Though he at one point criticized the media for "negativity," Millar was a positive influence in the clubhouse and on the field for Boston.

"Kevin Millar is the same every day, whether he's hitting the ball or whether he's in a slump," said manager Grady Little.

-- STEVEN KRASNER