COMMENTARY

Sean Deveney

Sean Deveney

Go on, flip around. Start when Juan Pierre was a 7-year-old, playing T-ball in Alexandria, La. Watch him eschew the high and mighty blasts that so tempt other kids and instead whack the ball into the ground and sprint. Inglorious? Sure, but Pierre, young and speedy, almost always winds up on first base.

Skip ahead to his freshman year at Alexandria High. He stands 5-9, weighs about as much as a box of Wheat Thins and draws chuckles from teammates when he declares his intention is to play in the big leagues. But get up at dawn and check out Pierre on the baseball field, before school, working on his throwing, his running and his swing.

Head down to the University of South Alabama in 1998 and arrive to work early with baseball coach Steve Kittrell. Hear that steady thumping? That's the batting cage near Kittrell's office. Pierre, now a Jaguars center fielder, has a class at 8 a.m. Care to guess who's in the batting cage at 7 making that thumping noise?

"We have had some good major league players come through this school," Kittrell says. "But I've never seen a harder, more dedicated worker than Juan Pierre."

Pierre is a monkish figure, a man with a message who is off to a new location this season: Wrigley Field, home of the Cubs. Pierre's calling long has been to be a major league leadoff man, and he has chosen to follow that calling with dedication to an austere existence. Up at dawn, constant work, to bed by 9. That's how he has spent the past few weeks at spring training in Arizona, and that's how he spent the offseason. Sure, he's 28, has been in the big leagues for five-plus years and will make $5 million this season, but Pierre still spent the winter in Alexandria, making daily trips to his high school ballfield, practicing his throwing, his running and his swing. Such is the life of a leadoff man, baseball's holiest vocation.

A truly enlightened leadoff man must dedicate himself to being different, a slender morsel in a locker room packed with muscle. A leadoff man must give of himself generously, taking drool-inducing fastballs so his teammates can get a good look at the opposing pitcher -- even if it means digging an 0-2 hole. The beauty of the bunt, the Zen of the grounder, the blessing that comes from sacrificing oneself for someone else's RBI -- this is a lineup's most pious position.

"When you're in that spot, you've got to look at things different," Pierre says. "Part of it is giving up yourself. You have to take pitches and make the pitcher work, then get settled in to hit with two strikes. That's different than what other players do."

To be sure, Pierre's job is not to bring peace to all - in fact, bringing harmony to his team means imposing disharmony on opponents. "The main thing is getting on base," Pierre says. "Whether you bunt and get on or roll a grounder through a hole. Hit, walk, hit by pitch, whatever. You have to get on base because that is when you can create havoc. And when I get on, I want to create as much havoc as I can."

Havoc comes easily to Pierre. Though he had a down season in 2005 - his .276 average and .326 on-base percentage were career lows - Pierre remains a premier leadoff man because he does everything expected of a top-of-the-order player:

He hits. Pierre's 978 base hits since the start of 2001 rank third in the majors. He's behind only Mariners leadoff man Ichiro Suzuki and Cardinals slugger Albert Pujols.

He runs. Pierre stole 57 bases with the Marlins last season and over the past five years has averaged 52 steals, most in the majors. He also has had 25 triples in the past two seasons.

He does not strike out much. Pierre has fanned just 211 times in 3,411 career at-bats, a ratio of one to every 16.2 at-bats.

He scores. Pierre has scored 100-plus runs in a season three times, and, says Cubs teammate Derrek Lee, who played with Pierre in Florida, "He knows his job better than just about anybody."

That's good news for the Cubs, an organization that apparently was napping the day the baseball gods delivered their sermon on the virtues of a leadoff man. The Cubs don't just struggle to find a consistent leadoff hitter from year to year, they struggle to have one make it through a season.

CONTINUED: Pierre happy with deal

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