FORT MYERS, Fla. — J.D. Drew sat at the far reaches of the Red Sox clubhouse, an open book filled with SAT-style hieroglyphics perched on his lap. He was studying, not quite engrossed in, the glossy blue book that held not questions for high schoolers but for those who want to take to the air. For a flight test, an idea Drew has been kicking around in his head.

He has a friend, a doctor, who flies him to his farm in Georgia, a far easier way to get there than the 3Æ-hour drive from his house in Hahira, Ga. With the approval of his wife, Sheigh, Drew has been looking over the giant book of questions, "playing around" with an idea that would cut his commute to 39 minutes in the air.

It was a welcome break, despite the hundreds of questions in front of him, not long before Tuesday's spring training game against the Pirates, in which Drew had a hit and a walk in his two plate appearances, driving in one run and scoring another. Though he was sitting alone at that moment, just his presence in the clubhouse was something new for Drew.

Instead of the slumping phantom, rarely seen in the clubhouse, Drew has spent more time interacting with his teammates, more time in front of his locker, this spring. Still not quite David Ortiz, but it's progress for him.

"I was walking through the clubhouse and he was in there just crushing ((Dustin)) Pedroia," manager Terry Francona said, not long after the position players had reported. "I remember thinking, 'This wouldn't have been this way last year.' He was just wearing him out. I remember thinking, 'Good. He's a little more comfortable."'

He wasn't comfortable last year. Not in the clubhouse. Not on the field. Though he finished the season at .270, with 11 home runs and 64 RBIs, that was partially a product of a rebound in September (.393 from Sept. 7 on, with 4 home runs and 15 RBIs), and yet, it still didn't measure up to his billing or his contract. A career .284 hitter with 20- to 30-home run power, Drew was signed to take care of right field, both defensively and as a key hitter in the lineup, in the No. 5 spot, where he would protect Manny Ramírez.

He didn't. Until Game 6 of the American League Championship Series. With the bases loaded in the first inning, both Ramírez and Lowell made outs. That brought up Drew, who had doubled and walked in his two plate appearances in Game 5.

"I came in late in that game and hit a big double for me, just to get me going," Drew said. "Then the very next at-bat was the at-bat I hit the grand slam. I contributed so little during the year in big situations that that was the one that I felt like kind of helped turn my season around and really pick guys up.

"Because Manny and Mike had been so successful in big clutch situations, for them to have the bases loaded and then all of a sudden you have two outs, it was a huge lift for me to be able to pick them up. They'd done that for me all year."

So, yes, he noticed. No, he doesn't have the fire of Julio Lugo or Kevin Youkilis. But still, he got frustrated at his seeming inability to play the way he had in other cities - though there were certainly struggles there, as well.

"There are definitely times when you're bummed out," Drew said. "You feel like it's going to take forever to get it figured out and turned around. Your whole career you'll go through that. You go through slumps - I mean, I started off a season in LA 0 for 25. That's just an awful feeling. You've got to keep plugging along. This game will chew you up and spit you out."

It seemed it did that to him last season. Chewed him up and spit him out. Laid waste to any plans he had for a triumphant first season in Boston, though the World Series title didn't hurt. But he thinks he has changed his ways, gotten rid of the tendencies that he fell into, the ones that left him unable to hit offspeed pitches. Or, sometimes, anything at all.

Things are different now. His wife had their second child, Ella, six days after Drew got home from the Series, on Nov. 7. His son, Jack, is doing better after having surgery last year. He has his flight questions to study at his locker in the off moments, sitting out in the open, rather than disappearing.

"Last year I had the ups and downs and tried to change things," Drew said. "It's hard to stay consistent as far as good at-bats when you really can't find what you're looking for. I was pressing, pressing, pressing. I had my mind set: I was .240, I was .250, and I really couldn't get going. Right at the end ((of the season)), I just really wanted to get to .270 - .270 just seemed good to me.

"To finish down the stretch and actually achieve that number was a big lift because I'd worked so hard at being .252 and .251 and .248. I'd get up to .263 and then it'd go back down. Just one of those things I set my sights on and was able to hit some home runs down the stretch and start kind of finding a rhythm. Hopefully, I can pick up where I left off."

Amalie Benjamin can be reached at abenjaminglobe.com