Juan of the Good Guys

I took my oldest son to a Chicago White Sox game in the middle of June. We got their plenty early so we could watch batting practice and loiter around the dugout. For days leading up to the game my son kept telling me his favorite player was Juan Pierre, the Sox left fielder and speedy lead-off man. I admit I was somewhat incredulous with my son's choice. I figured he would/should pick one of my favorite players, Paul Konerko or Mark Buehrle. Or maybe he'd pick a young player like Gordon Beckham. Or maybe a homerun hitter like Carlos Quentin or Adam Dunn. But he was adamant that Juan Pierre was the best.

Arriving early, all my son wanted to do was wait by the dugout and get Juan Pierre to sign his baseball. We waited and waited and waited–in a group of other kids, teenagers, and adults with sharpies. We waited a long time and–at least where we were at our time–we saw only two Sox players come out to sign anything: Chris Sale (the tall, lanky, hard throwing young left handed reliever) and…you guessed it… Juan Pierre.

Made my son's week.

And then I read this article on Monday about Pierre turning his season around. On May 18 he was batting .242 with a reputation for miscues in the field. Now he's batting .286, and I've seen him make some spectacular plays in left. During his slump, the Sox manager Ozzie Guillen stood by Pierre, saying his work ethic was so strong and his attitude so positive that he'd take a team full of Juan Pierres. But this is the part of the article that caught my attention.

Most impressive is that Pierre is the same unassuming, upbeat person now as he was in May. While he doesn't wear his faith on his sleeve, he is a deep believer.

"That's where I put all my faith and confidence," he said. "When God makes a promise, you can take it for word. As bad as it might go in baseball, it's temporary. … So I go out and play as hard as I can and I can look in the mirror and say I gave it my all, and if it doesn't work, I can live with it."

Notice, he doesn't expect that faith will make him a baseball success. But he believes that no matter what happens in baseball, it's not what's most important. Good word Juan.

I don't know the depth of Juan's faith (according to another article he's a lifelong Catholic). But today I'm thankful for him–thankful for his humility, thankful for his good example, and thankful he signed my son's baseball.

Oh, and I'm thankful he hit his second home run of the season last night and drove in the winning run in the 14th inning to beat the Indians.