The festivities were fast approaching on Halloween night, and Jacoby Ellsbury was a college kid without a costume - until his friend, a diehard Red Sox fan, opened up his closet.

Then there was no doubt how Ellsbury would dress. He already had the strong face, the easy smile, the fitting physique and the dark brown hair, so when his buddy presented him the final piece in the form of a jersey, the decision was easy. Ellsbury would dress up as Johnny Damon.

"It was an easy costume," he said. "I just needed to go out and get a beard."

He did, making his outfit a hit across the Oregon State campus. But a few years later, and thousands of miles away, it's another impersonation of the Sox iconic outfielder that has a Nation abuzz.

With the same athleticism, plate approach, and infectiously positive personality - as well as the fact he's a leadoff hitter who plays center field - Ellsbury has drawn close comparisons to Damon while shooting through the Sox's minor-league system. The club's first-round pick in the 2005 draft, Baseball America already regards him as the organization's best hitter for

average, best athlete, fastest baserunner and best defensive outfielder, and in his first full year on the farm he was honored as the organization's best minor leaguer.

Now he plays for Double-A Portland - with whom he'll face the Fisher Cats in a four-game set starting tonight in Manchester - but Boston's baseball fans already have designs on him occupying Damon's as-yet-unfilled cleats in front of Fenway Park's triangle in the near future. With Coco Crisp's struggles to start this season, the clamoring for Ellsbury has already begun - and if the organization should agree at any point, even later this summer, the 22-year-old is confident he can answer the call.

"I think about it all the time: If I got called up tomorrow, would I be ready?" Ellsbury said yesterday from Portland. "When I feel like I've done my homework on a pitcher, I feel confident. I think that's how it would be for me if I got called up. If I go in there knowing the pitcher, knowing what's expected of me, I think I would be ready.

"When they feel I'm ready, I know I'll be ready."

His manager agrees, even after only a brief six-game sample. The start to Arnie Beyeler's first season as Sea Dogs manager has been marred by eight rainouts in two weeks, but it's still given him enough of a glimpse to see the gleaming future the scouts have forecast for Ellsbury.

"From all of our standpoints, he's a big-league player," Beyeler said. "It's just a matter of time, and when the need arises. But he's definitely a guy that right now is on the right track, and shows the tools and the abilities to be a big-league player. No doubt."

'Going to be a pro'

It took a similarly small window for Ellsbury's high school coach to recognize his talent. "His freshman year, when we were trying out," said Bruce Reece, former manager at the high school in Madras, Ore., "I looked at him and said not only is he going to be a varsity player but someday he's going to be a pro."

And that's what he always wanted to be. His parents encouraged him to play football and basketball to balance his athletic curriculum - he excelled in both of those games, too - but becoming a pro baseball player was always the top priority.

That's why he nearly signed with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays after they drafted him out of high school, but he still had some things to work on, and sought at least a little bit of the college experience, so he opted to become a Beaver and enroll at Oregon State.

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