Jorge Luis Guzman Cantu...is a citizen of both the United States and Mexico...was born in Texas but moved to Mexico when he was one week old...remained in Mexico until he signed his first professional contract at age 16...finished high school in Texas following the summer baseball season...spends the off-season working on his family's 8,645-acre cattle ranch in Reynosa, Mexico...on November 20, 2005, had breakfast with Mexican President Vicente Fox and was later presented the Premio Nacional de Deportes (Mexico's national sports award) as the country's baseball player of the year.

Set a club record for RBI in a season with 117, tied with St. Louis' Albert Pujols and Philadelphia's Pat Burrell for 8th in the majors....Only 10 players since 1961 have driven in more runs in a season before the age of 24...It is the most by a player before the age of 24 since Pujols had 124 in 2003 and the most by an AL player at that age since Alex Rodriguez with Seattle in 1998...Also led the club in home runs (28), extra-base hits (69), doubles (40), sac flies (7) and batting with runners in scoring position (.325, 53-163)...His 28 home runs equaled the 5th most in club history...Also had a club-record 37 game-tying or go-ahead RBI...Only 5 players all-time have reached Cantu's numbers in doubles (40), home runs (28) and RBI (117) before the age of 24: Hal Trosky (Cle, 1934 and 1936), Ted Williams (Bos, 1939), Albert Pujols (StL, 2001-03), Joe DiMaggio (NYY, 1936) and Alex Rodriguez (Sea, 1996)...Of the 422 runners on base when he came to the plate, he drove in 89, or 21.1%, the highest pct. in the majors...Went to spring training slated to back-up Roberto Alomar at 2B...Alomar retired on March 19....Cantu ended up leading the Rays in hitting in spring training (.342) and opened the season as the Rays 2B...Hit safely in the first 11 games of the season, a career-high and the 2nd longest hit streak to open the season in Rays history behind Rocco Baldelli's 13-game streak in 2003...Also hit safely in 19 of his first 20...Shifted between 2B and 3B in May, June and July filling in for slumping Alex Gonzalez with Nick Green taking 2B duties...moved back solely to 2B in mid-August...made 76 starts at 2B, 58 at 3B and 13 at DH...Made 9 errors in 308 TC at 2B (.971) and 12 errors in 136 chances at 3B (.912)...Now has 60 doubles in 200 major league career games...among active players with 50 or more career doubles, he has the highest doubles per game mark (.300), just ahead of Colorado's Todd Helton (.292)...Had four multi-homer games, a club record...His first came June 17 at Tropicana Field with both blasts coming off St. Louis lefty Mark Mulder...his last came on Sep 16 at BAL, after missing one game (left elbow bruise) returned to hit a pair of home runs...was hit by a pitch by the Yankees' Aaron Small on Sep 14 causing him to miss one game...During the Rays' 27-15 run between July 14 and Aug 28, he batted .325 (55-169) with 7 home runs and 34 RBI...Had a club record 19 HR as a 2nd baseman...The previous record was five...Drove in 91 runs in his last 100 games starting June 9...Had 28 RBI in August, a club record for that month...Batted .336 (38-113) vs. the AL West Division with 30 RBI in 29 games...Included was a career-high 5 RBI game vs. Los Angeles on Aug 27...Batted 40 points higher against right-handers than lefties (.296 to .256)...His home run on June 9 off the Reds' Luke Hudson was only the 15th ball hit off the black centerfield batter's eye pavilion at Great American Ball Park (424 feet)...Got RBI #100 at Yankee Stadium on Sep 8, a first-inning double off Chien-Ming Wang...Grounded into a club-record 24 double plays, 3rd most in the AL...His "walk-off" home run on May 10 off Shingo Takatsu gave the Rays a 7-6 win and assured the Rays of winning the 3-game series from Chicago, their first winning series against the World Champs since 2003...On June 23, he homered twice and doubled to lead the Rays to a 9-4 win at New York and a win of the 4-game series, only their 2nd winning series ever at Yankee Stadium...The next day he hit a 3-run homer off the Marlins' Al Leiter...In an 8-6 win at Cleveland on Aug 13 he hit two of the Rays' five home runs as Tampa Bay clinched its first series win ever at Jacobs Field...The Rays went on to sweep the series at Cleveland and he was 8-for-14 with four runs, two doubles, three HRs and 6 RBI...One week later on Aug 20 he drove in all 4 of Tampa Bay's runs as the Rays won 4-2 to clinch their first-ever winning season against Texas.