Take a hike, Reggie Jackson--there's a new straw in town.

He's Alex Cabrera, who with his big wooden swizzle stick and dominating persona, has stirred the Seibu Lions into an NPB championship cocktail.

Without Alex, the Lions would have been like one of those drinks that leave one lightly touching tongue to lips and murmuring, ``mmmmm, not bad--but it's missing a little something.''.

With Cabrera added to the mix, the tasty concoction results in the satisfied ``ahhhhhhh'' of a Japan Series title.

Early this year, when Alex broke his wrist--which would cause him to miss half of the season, Seibu found out just how essential their straw was. The Lions would fall from first place and almost out of Pacific League pennant contention.

But when Cabrera returned to the lineup in August, the Lions rallied and almost caught the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks in the regular season standings before toppling them in the playoffs.

Then, in the Japan Series against Chunichi, Seibu rode Cabrera's swirling presence to its first NPB title in 12 years.

How could one man have such a piece de resistance effect, you ask? Well, let MAS count the ways.

1. Prodigious Swizzle-swats-In just 64 games and 250 at-bats Cabrera hammered 25 homers and drove in 64 runs.

In the Japan Series, he won Game 3 with a monstrous grand salami that first skimmed the roof and then cleared the left field seating area of Seibu Dome. He clinched the seventh and deciding game with a two-run bomb.

And he did it all with an eight inch titanium plate in his wrist. Hmmmm, titanium ... titanic shots.

2. Cabrera Sandwich Effect--With Alex batting cleanup, Jose Fernandez, the third batter and Kazuhiro Wada, who mans the five hole, see more strikes and get better pitches to hit. They both had fabulous years as a result.

Opposing hurlers don't want to walk Fernandez and pitch to Cabrera with a man on. And if they pitch around Alex, they don't want to walk Wada as well.

Plus, Cabrera takes the power pressure off the pair. ``When Alex was out, I tried to do too much,'' Fernandez recounted, ``and my home runs and batting average dropped off.''

3. Pitcher's Pal--Alex was not above offering advice to staff ace Daisuke Matsuzaka. Says Cabrera, ``I told him, `You throw a 95 mph fastball--if you throw it at the knees on the outside and inside corners, Japanese batters will hit ground balls 100 percent of the time.'''

Matsuzaka must have listened to Alex's, ahem, lowdown. He won two playoff games and a Series contest, often eschewing high, swing-and-miss fastballs for ground ball inducing, knee-high heat.

4. The Mucho Macho Man Thing--Cabrera exhibited tons of contagious bravado.

He glowered at hurlers who walked him rather than take him on mano-a-mano. And Alex brazenly raised his bat high in celebration before flipping it away grandly whenever he put one of his majestic homers into orbit like a T-shirt shot out of one of those launchers.

His antics ticked off foes and their fans alike. But his teammates seemed to feed off it and Seibu fans loved him in a ``He-may-be-a-butthead-but he's-our-butthead'' kinda way.

If a baseball game was angry talk before a gang fight, Alex's mates would be the guys behind him--standing on tippy-toes, peering over his shoulder--adding ,``that goes for us, too!''(before ducking behind his broad back).

Yep, Alex Cabrera is a man's man, all right. He could probably even convince James Bond to give up the ``shaken, not stirred'' thing.

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E-mail the Man About Sports at dwigmas@hpo.net(IHT/Asahi: November 1,2004)