NEW YORK – Some of the details are starting to turn sketchy for Josh Beckett. Standing inside the Spartan visitor’s clubhouse at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, he was pressed to recall which locker was his the fall night in 2003 when he became a World Series legend for the Marlins.

Was it the same cubicle where Boston Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell was camped out, pulling on his socks?

“No, I don’t think that’s it,” Beckett said, turning his head to take in a wider view. “I think it might have been back there in that corner.”

Where David “Big Papi” Ortiz was dressing?

“Yeah, that’s the one,” Beckett said. “I think.”

Beckett can be forgiven for his memory lapse. After all, it’s going on four years since he tagged Jorge Posada for the final out of the World Series.

On that October night, Beckett and the Marlins belonged to another world. Now Beckett is in his own, a new place that is vastly different to the one he belonged before.

The one-time ace of the Marlins is 5-0 for the Red Sox and bidding to become the majors’ first six-game winner on tonight when he takes on the Oakland A’s at Fenway Park. Babe Ruth and Pedro Martinez are the only other Boston pitchers to go 5-0 in April.

No longer does Beckett perform in front of tens of thousands of empty seats on a nightly basis, the way he did during his five seasons pitching for the Marlins. No longer can he go unrecognized in public, as he often did when he was living in South Florida.

“Not in Boston, no way,” he said. “There are still people who don’t notice you, but you will get noticed.”

And so Beckett has learned the little tricks the famous use to avoid eye contact with strangers, such as constantly staring at a cell phone or Blackberry to reduce the chance of discussion.

He didn’t have to do that in Miami.

“It’s definitely different there,” he said.

Changed man

Beckett said he is different, too. At 27, he has maintained his youthful look. His fastball still packs Texas heat, clocking in routinely at 95 mph. He remains cocksure and defiant, mostly toward himself, when things don’t go well for him on the mound.

But Beckett said he also has grown up since November 2005, when the Marlins traded him, Lowell and Guillermo Mota to the Red Sox for rookies Hanley Ramirez, Anibal Sanchez, Harvey Garcia and Jesus Delgado.

“I’m in a really good place right now, mentally and spiritually,” Beckett said. “My aura is different this year than it was last year.”

When Beckett arrived in Boston, he was forced to deal with a new league of hitters and a ballpark far less pitcher-friendly than the one he left behind in Florida.

Some of the results were glaring. Beckett went 16-11, but he gave up 36 home runs in 33 starts. His ERA ballooned from a career average of 3.45 to last season’s 5.01.

Beckett came under constant criticism because of his obsession with throwing fastballs when something gentler might have worked better.

“I had people convincing me out of spring training last year that my changeup was too hard and I couldn’t use that,” he said. “So I went away from that. I pitched fastball/changeup in the National League for four years, and I did pretty well with it.

“Last year, the only way I changed speeds was to throw my fastball harder. That was the only thing I had. I had my fastball. And, then, if I wanted to change speeds, I had to try to turn it up another notch.”

Hitters, sensing fastballs, teed off on Beckett.

“That was the thing I came in this spring to work on, and I did,” he said. “I wanted to go back to the way I pitched for the Marlins.”

Beckett also eliminated some of the outside influences – what he termed “exterior distractions” – that he said weighed on him last season.

“My parents went through a divorce after 27 years of marriage, and I was basically being the mediator for all their expletive stuff,” said Beckett, who continues to use profane language liberally, one of the few things that hasn’t changed about him.

TURNING TO DAD

Beckett also put his father in charge of his Texas ranch and hired others to deal with some of his personal affairs.

“I always tried to micromanage things that I owned,” he said. “But you’ve got to put people in charge of that stuff. I basically gave the ranch to my dad, said, “Here, you run it the best you can.’ It was a hard thing for me to do because I am hands-on. Now I feel like none of that stuff’s on my plate.”

Beckett said he only talks to the media twice a week, after games in which he pitches and the following day. He said he prefers to be left to his own thoughts, something that is difficult in the face of a demanding Boston media and a passionate Red Sox fan base.

“They come to talk to me and I tell “em, “I didn’t do anything. What the expletive you want to talk to me about,’ ” he said.

“I don’t feel like I deserve any of that spotlight. The other guys deserve the expletive. We’ve got a guy pitcher Curt Schilling who wears No. 38. He can have all the exposure he wants.”

Beckett is trying to slow it all down. His life. Baseball. Even his pitches. So far, it’s working.

“I’m in a really good place right now, mentally and spiritually,” Beckett said. “My aura is different.”

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(c) 2007, The Miami Herald.

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Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

AP-NY-05-01-07 2048EDT