"He got me in a nice choke hold," he says, curling an arm around his own neck to demonstrate. "So I threw him against the wall."

A flying ball of athletic tape interrupts the re-enactment. Chambers, the Londonderry High product who shares the back corner of the Lowell Spinners clubhouse with Farrell, is eaves-dropping.

"Come on man," Farrell says, as Chambers lets out a high-pitched laugh.

It's a fitting introduction to the strange world of Single-A baseball. "You're around these guys all the time," Farrell says, "so you have to joke around a little bit."

Chambers plans to make a name for himself here over the next few years.

The 22-year-old second baseman has grown accustomed to the wrestling, the ribbing, the slumps and the streaks over the past three months. Now with just a week left in his first minor-league season, the 32nd-round pick of the Red Sox admits he's not quite ready for the best summer of his life to end.

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The right-handed Chambers rocks the bat slightly, pulls in his front foot from his slightly open stance and cracks a line drive to left field. At 6 feet, 175 pounds, he has quick wrists but hasn't shown much power so far.

As of yesterday, he's hitting .252 with 40 hits, 20 RBIs and a team-leading 28 runs scored. Just four months after shattering his own single-season doubles record (26) at Division 2 power Franklin Pierce, Chambers is still learning to become a contact hitter.

His approach at the plate, Lowell hitting coach Alan Mauthe says, has been erratic this season.

"When he controls the bat head and stays in control of his body and tries to hit like a hitter his size, he's very effective," he says. "Him, like a lot of young hitters, they try and get more and hit the ball harder and farther. That's when he gets himself in trouble."

Chambers struggled early, going 3 for his first 32 minor-league at-bats. That was back in June and early July, when frustration led to chronic over-swinging. Chambers credits Mauthe with helping him break out.

"I learned I need to trust my hands all the time," says Chambers, who hit .308 in July. "Sometimes I try to hit home runs or I try to hit the ball a long way, when really all I can do is relax and let my hands do the work and the ball will hit the gaps."

After a 2-for-29 slide last month, Chambers made the proper adjustments, going 4 for 5 with a grand slam and seven RBIs in an 8-2 win over Tri-City on Aug. 24. He followed that up with a 2-for-2 performance at the Fenway Futures event last Saturday.

His teammates were calling themselves the Lowell Chambers for a few days. He's still beaming.

"Oh, God," Mauthe says. "Who wouldn't be?"

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The smile Chambers often flashes at LeLacheur Park doesn't mean he's exempt from stress. While he embraces the fact that he's a hometown boy playing for his hometown organization, the "gee-whiz, I-can't-believe-I-got-drafted-by-the Red Sox" euphoria has faded just like the major-league club this season.

That first slump, he admits, cost him nights of sleep.

"I didn't even know what to do," he says. "I was down, and I was wondering if I was going to play anymore. I didn't trust myself."

He worried about being released. He needed feedback, reassurance that he belonged here. He sought hitting tips after every at-bat. He worked with Mauthe. He constantly asked him what was going right or wrong.

"I'm someone who needs to be talked to all the time," Chambers says. "I want something said after almost every swing. I like to be bothered."

The base hits eventually came in July. But even then his confidence level fluctuated. Players new to pro baseball go through manic cycles, Red Sox Northeast Regional Scout Ray Fagnant says. You're high one day, then low the next.

"You have to be even-keeled," he says. "Not too many ups, not too many downs. That's the toughest thing to instill in these kids their first year."

Chambers admits he hasn't done a good enough job of leveling out his emotions this season. He's still learning not to let an 0-for-5 night affect him at the plate the next day. He's realized that even on days he's not playing, he must stick to a routine of working out, taking BP and fielding ground balls.

After most games, Chambers calls former major league pitcher and Concord, N.H., resident Bob Tewskbury, now employed by the Red Sox as a sports psychology coach. The topic of their discussions is usually Chambers' focus, which has strayed at times this season.

"I'm good enough to be here, but mentally I want to be good enough to be here too," Chambers says. "Sometimes you enjoy it, you love it. Sometimes you're upset, but I want to be even-keeled."

The three-month grind of the season can take its toll on family members as well. At 51, Michael Chambers Sr. feels powerless when he watches his son in person or listens to the Spinners broadcast on Internet radio. Both father and son are shaken by slumps.

"The roller coaster is tough," Sr. says. "When he's up, you're up. (When) he's down, you're down. I can't handle that at my age. And I can't help him. My hands are tied."

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Every athlete has feared failure at some point in his or her career. Fringe players even more so. But Single-A baseball isn't the NFL. First- and second-year players, even those picked in the low rounds, are rarely released. Fagnant expects Chambers to be around in the immediate future.

"He certainly should be," the scout says. "We don't sign players to just play for one year. It's a big investment. And I don't necessarily mean financially. It's a time investment."

Low-round picks benefit from organizational patience. But the feeling rarely trickles down to eager players with major-league dreams. As Chambers says, it's easy to get discouraged during a slump. Few remember that Hall-of-Fame third baseman Wade Boggs spent six seasons in the minors before breaking in with the Red Sox in 1982.

Realistically, the odds of Chambers making it that far are low. Since 1996, five 32nd-round draft picks have found spots on major league rosters. Kansas City's Joey Gathright (2001) and Tampa Bay's Nick Green (1999) are the only ones still in the big leagues.

In the not-so-distant past, a player like Chambers would be considered a "senior sign." In other words, a four-year college throwaway who didn't have the talent to be drafted as an underclassman. That stigma has changed recently, as college players are often more seasoned and cheaper than their high school counterparts.

Chambers may have played Division 2 college ball, but he learned how to handle a wooden bat in the Northeast-10 Conference. He's also a college graduate. (Traditionally, remaining tuition costs factor into negotiations).

Chambers may not be a bonus baby (his was $1,000), but all the draft hype (or lack there of) means nothing to coaches when the season starts.

"You don't have a sign on your back that says what round you got taken in," Fagnant says.

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Although Chambers claims he's not familiar with Lowell's hot spots yet, he has spent hours honing his video game skills. After games, he and his teammates play Guitar Hero, an addictive Play Station 2 game.

Occasionally, the players venture out when they have time. They're in their 20s after all.

"When you play every day, if you don't go out the night before a game," Farrell says, "you're not going to go out."

Chambers has stocked up on all sorts of electronic devices to get him through long bus rides. He has a portable Play Station to keep him busy and an iPod. And he has finally caught up on the sleep that often eluded him this season.

He hasn't been able to see his girlfriend, a student at Keene State, as much as he'd like. And he isn't a big fan of some of the other New York-Penn League parks he plays in, especially in Oneonta, N.Y., where he says the field is uneven and the locker room smells.

Chambers knows the life of a minor leaguer isn't glamorous. But as he cracks line drive after line drive during batting practice, it's clear the positives heavily outweigh the negatives.

"It'll never get old," Chambers says.

He hopes the Red Sox organization agrees.

Chambers by the month

June: 3 for 24, .125 average

7 - Selected in the 32nd round of the amateur draft

20 - Makes minor-league debut

22 - Notches first minor-league hit in a 9-3 win over Vermont

July: 20 for 65, .308 average, 6 RBIs

7 - Hits first minor-league home run in a 3-2 loss to Vermont

13-22 - Seven-game hit streak raises average to a season-high .294

August: 17 for 70, .243 average, 14 RBIs

11-23 - Falls into a 2-for-29 slump; season average dips to .215

24 - Breaks out of slump, going 4 for 5 with a grand slam and seven RBIs in an 8-2 win over Tri-City

26 - Goes 2 for 2 during a Red Sox minor-league showcase at Fenway Park, raising season average to .252