Quiet Mueller speaks with bat and glove for Sox

FORT MYERS, Fla. – Bill Mueller couldn’t be more of a contrast to the rest of the self-professed “idiots” in the Boston clubhouse if he were actively trying.

The thing is, he’s not even trying.

The Red Sox third baseman isn’t boring, but he makes vanilla look dynamic by comparison. That’s fine with him. He’s not looking to get his own radio or TV gig anytime soon.

“My job is to go out there and [work hard] at the park, not to talk. I’m just doing my job. I’m here to play and when it’s over, I go home,” the quiet, unassuming switch-hitter said. “I don’t get all wrapped up in too many details of being an individual.”

Their names may be pronounced similarly, but no one will ever confuse Mueller with Millar, as in high-spirited teammate Kevin Millar – the undisputed class clown and comic leader of a clubhouse that feels and sounds more like a frat house much of the time. Meanwhile, Mueller is an outpost of tranquility in a lively landscape of high jinks, banter and jocularity.

“It’s just like in a business sense where people all have different personalities in an office and those still work,” the 34-year-old Mueller said. “There’s nothing wrong with being outspoken and nothing wrong with going about your business either.”

Mueller didn’t even attend the team’s massive victory celebration and parade that drew 3.2 million people to Boston, but he had a very good excuse.

“I didn’t get into any of that. I was at home because we had our second child in November,” Mueller said. “That’s what I got into. I was happy to be at home. It’s really a blessing. No doubt about it.”

Mueller and his wife Amy have two children: son Ashton and daughter Alexis. Now entering his 10th big league season, Mueller has the balance between the game and life firmly in perspective.

“It’s very difficult. Especially now with children because it’s not all about you, it’s about them and trying to spend some time to be around them,” Mueller said of the demands placed on him by his job and his family. “Sometimes it is difficult being away 15 days out of the month, but you do it and try to be the best father you can be in those 15 days you are home.”

As much as he loves to talk about his family, Mueller is loathe to stray too far from the subject of baseball.

“I’m more than willing to talk about baseball, but it seems like a lot of times, people get caught up in asking a lot of other different questions not even about the game, which are most of the time not appropriate,” he said with an air of increased gravity.

The former San Francisco Giant and Chicago Cub was a question mark coming into spring training after having had on Feb. 7 the second arthroscopic surgery on his right knee in eight months, but he has shown no signs of discomfort or favoring the knee during drills, batting practices or games.

“If I did, then I shouldn’t be out there. Everything’s great,” he said simply. “If there are any question marks, you shouldn’t be out there playing because if you are, you’re being selfish and you’re not giving 100 percent to your team. Why would you want to do that? That’s the way I look at it.”

Mueller, who was hitting .233 with a home run and five RBIs in 12 games before last Thursday’s spring training split squad games, batted .283 with 12 homers and 57 RBIs in 110 regular season games last year. He got even better in the postseason, starting all 14 games and batting .321 with three doubles, three RBIs and 10 runs.

Although he skipped the parade, Mueller doesn’t downplay his team’s rally from the dead to win the World Series last season and end an 86-year drought for the franchise.

“If you want to compare it to baseball, that’s what you shoot for every season and it’s as special a feeling and experience as I’ve ever had,” he said. ” It’s one of the greatest times that I’ve ever played the game to be a part of that. That’s what I want to feel again.”

He might never have gotten a chance to feel that way in the first place had it not been for his status as a free agent and a keen interest in him shown by rookie Sox general manager Theo Epstein in 2003. A lifelong National Leaguer, Mueller found the allure of Boston and a switch to the American League too strong to resist.

“I kind of took myself out of the equation,” Mueller explained. “Boston was offering me a two-year deal and nobody else was doing that, and I wanted a little stability for my family so I came here to back up [Todd] Walker and Shea [Hillenbrand]. It was a guaranteed thing with the ability for a third year and it was really a fair deal as far as money.

“The icing on the cake for that is this is a great organization, a winning organization, and it had a great plan in place for the season, so I went for it.”

His first year in Boston, he hit .326 and won the A.L. batting title. He also produced 19 homers and 85 RBIs.

A year and two months after signing his name on the dotted line, he was part of the most memorable on-field celebration in Red Sox team history.

What did he do after the last out was made?

“I was trying to jump on the pile… and screaming,” Mueller said. “It was really exciting.”

Exciting?!?! Well, that’s saying something when you’re as subterraneanly low-key as this major leaguer.