GEORGE CASTLE: Guillen reunited with kindred soul Pierre

CHICAGO | Good thing Ozzie Guillen was in the trenches with Juan Pierre back with the 2003 world champion Marlins.

You know, the same underrated team that jumped the Cubs in the Bartman Game to overcome a 3-2 deficit in the NLCS, then knocked off the Yankees with relative ease in the World Series.

Pierre led off for the Fighting Fish while Guillen -- then the third-base coach in his previous job before being hired as White Sox manager -- waved him around for the 100 runs he scored. Guillen, forced to play the little man's game himself as a shortstop two decades ago, found a baseball soulmate in Pierre.

At SoxFest, which wrapped up Sunday, Guillen was reunited with Pierre in person and started planning how his new leadoff man will help manufacture runs in a manner not often seen on the South Side.

"I think it helps me out a lot," Pierre said of his rapport with Guillen. "He knows I like to run. He knows I bunt probably in times you don't think so, like a two-strike bunt. He won't be, "What is he thinking?' It's good for me because a lot of times a new manager has to get adjusted to my style of play.

"It's not that pretty. But being a guy who didn't hit for power, it helps out a lot."

Guillen knows some fans will nit and pick. At the manager's first public forum Friday, one fan wondered about Pierre's on-base percentage, which is perhaps 20-25 points lower than the ideal leadoff man. Pierre never has walked much, with 55 his career-high in 2003. But general manager Kenny Williams immediately put aside sabermetric analysis, insisting he'd take the lower OBP for the stolen-base potential Pierre provides.

"Juan can bring a lot of things to the game," Guillen said. "He's a true leadoff hitter. He's worked very hard. He's got to go (steal) when he's got to go. That's why we got him here. I'm going to let Juan play his game."

Pierre is the third key to Sox success this year after Jake Peavy and Alex Rios. Peavy having a typical season perfectly sets up the rest of the rotation. But if Rios slumps a la 2009 and is bumped out of the lineup, the Sox will be an RBI bat short. Plus, Pierre might have to shift from left to center -- putting more mileage on 32-year-old legs better saved for steals -- in Rios' place so another hitter could slide into the outfield. The Sox don't want to think about such a negative domino effect.

A quick study and hard worker, Pierre will undergo a crash course in American League pitchers' moves. But he's beyond the point where he'll predict how many steals he'll add to his 459 career total.

"In '06 I used to talk like that when I was out there every day," Pierre said. "But the last two years you sit on that bench, you don't think about numbers.

"If you're out there, the numbers will be where they're supposed to be. I don't get caught up on the numbers at all."

Feel free, Sox fans, to chant "go...go...go!" when he gets on first as your fathers and grandfathers did in the late 1950s and early 1960s for Luis Aparicio. Playing for an old friend, Pierre aims to please.

This column solely represents the writer's opinion. Reach him at DGemsNet@aol.com.