SERVICE WITH A SMILE

Standing on the grass around home plate at Dodger Stadium, Freddy Sanchez isn’t hard to spot; he’s the player with the biggest smile.

The former Burbank High and Glendale Community College standout appears uncharacteristically relaxed as he waits to take his hacks in the batting cage before a recent game between his Pittsburgh Pirates and the Dodgers. He jokes with teammates, talks with onlookers and even takes time to waive to some friends in the stands.

He is a player at ease, comfortable in his role as a Major League Baseball player and confident in his ability to put the bat on the ball with remarkable consistency.

One would never know that Sanchez is in the midst of a battle for a National League batting championship. The 28-year-old refuses to succumb to the pressure of the chase and is uneasy reveling in his own personal triumphs. Instead, he chooses to relish the team’s recent success.

“I’m just having fun this season,” said Sanchez, a third baseman, who can also play second base and shortstop. “Because I have been able to get a lot of at-bats, I’m more comfortable at the plate, and maybe that’s why I’ve been successful.

“But as far as the batting championship is concerned, it really doesn’t matter to me if I win it. What is more important to me is that I have been able to help this team and we have been playing better baseball since the All-Star break. That’s what I’m proud of.”

Be assured that Sanchez doesn’t engage in false modesty, that’s just not a component of his personality. Since his beginnings in baseball, playing catch with his father, Fred, and uncle, Steve, in the front yard of his Burbank house, it’s never been about Freddy.

“I have never been a person who is concerned with how many awards I can win,” he said. “That’s just not what I’m about.

“But I know guys who are like that, and there’s nothing wrong with that. I know there are probably players who I’m competing against who are focused on winning the batting title. But that’s just not me.”

With less than a week remaining in the season, Sanchez is sitting atop the National League with a .342 average (190 for 556) heading into Tuesday’s game. .

He held a lead on the Florida Marlins’ Miguel Cabrera (.336) by six points and the Colorado Rockies’ Matt Holliday (.332) by 10 points.

Pittsburgh has five games left — all at home — with a three-game series that began Tuesday against the Houston Astros, before finishing the year with a three-game set against the Cincinnati Reds.

Only 24 other Pirates have won a batting title, the last being Bill Madlock in 1983 when he hit .323.

A career .312 hitter in just his second full season in the big leagues, Sanchez also has driven in 83 runs and has six home runs. He has proven his prowess as a contact hitter, as well, striking out just 52 times.

Sanchez has hit over .300 every month of the season, but his longest hitting streak has been just 12 games.

One of the statistics Sanchez said he is most proud of is one he set Sept 16. With 50 doubles, he has hit more two-baggers in a season than any player in Pirates’ history. The previous record was 47 by Adam Comorosky in 1930.

“That doubles record means a great deal to me,” Sanchez said. “To think of all the great players who have played for this organization over the years, Roberto Clemente, Bill Mazeroski and Honus Wagner, and to think that I have a record like this … it’s just unbelievable. I’m just really honored.”

From Burbank to Pittsburgh, there are throngs of fans who are rooting for the mild-mannered Sanchez to etch his name among the all-time great hitters in National League history.

It’s because of his selflessness, his easy-going persona and his impeccable work ethic that Sanchez has endeared himself to many in the game.

Perhaps his biggest supporter is Pittsburgh Manager Jim Tracy.

Sanchez’s dedication to the team, along with his unwillingness to toot his own horn, is not lost on the skipper.

“Being unselfish is just exactly who Freddy Sanchez is,” Tracy said. “That’s why everyone in this club house is rooting like hell for this kid to win the batting championship.

“There have been two or three different situations [recently] where he’s trying to win a batting championship, but we have a situation where we have a runner at second with no outs and we need him to move the runner over. And [Sanchez] hits the ball on the right side and grounds out, but he moves our guy to third. That’s unselfish.

“You have to be blind not to see what his kid has been doing this season. He has the uncanny ability of getting the barrel of the bat on the same plane as the ball. He’s just a terrific offensive player. Period.”

Winning a batting championship would be the frosting on a cake layered with success this season for Sanchez.

In July, he was one of seven NL players added to the 77th Major League All-Star Baseball Game at PNC Park in Pittsburgh. Although he didn’t get a hit in the game, he made three fine plays on defense.

Sanchez proved popular with the public, as he led all Major League players with 856,685 write-in votes.

Making the All-Star team was an accomplishment for a player who wasn’t even penciled in as a starter at the beginning of the season. Sanchez was relegated to the bench after the Pirates acquired free agent Joe Randa, and had to accept his role as a utility player. He became a full-time starter only after Randa went down with an injury in late-April.

“As a player, all I really wanted was the opportunity to play every day,” Sanchez said. “Although I wanted to be a starter, I would have done anything they wanted me to do to help the team.”

Although his wild success this season might have come as a surprise to those unfamiliar with Sanchez, he has a long history of fine accomplishments in baseball. In fact, he has enjoyed success at every level he has played.

After being named the Foothill League Player of the Year at Burbank his senior season, Sanchez was taken in the 30th round of the 1996 first-year player draft by the Atlanta Braves. However, he chose instead to attend Glendale College and played for two National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics colleges before being drafted by the Boston Red Sox in the 11th round in 2000.

He helped lead the Vaqueros to a share of the Western State Conference title and was named WSC Southern Division Player of the Year in 1998, batting .407 with 10 home runs and 33 runs batted in.

He transferred to Dallas Baptist University as a junior, where he played in the National Assn. of Intercollegiate Athletics World Series and was selected as the all-tournament shortstop.

As a senior, he attended Oklahoma City College in 2000 and hit .434 with 13 home runs and 59 RBI, earning him NAIA All-American honors.

After seeing limited time with the Red Sox, he was traded to the Pirates in July of 2003.

Sanchez finally made his way to the majors with the Pirates in 2005 after toiling in the minors for almost the entire 2004 season. Battling back from offseason surgery on his right ankle that year, he played in 132 games and had 453 at bats for a .291 average.

Now, firmly embedded in the Pittsburgh starting lineup, Sanchez wants to end the season strongly, and if all goes right, the hits will come.

“It’s been a long season, but it’s been great,” he said. “I have gotten so much support and I have so many people behind me. I’m so grateful.”

Before the Pirates — who are mired in fifth place in the NL Central Division — pack it in for the season and play their final game on Sunday, Sanchez is assured of at least one more honor. The team will salute him Saturday with Freddy Sanchez All-Star Bobblehead Night.

Although the makers of his bobblehead might have been a little off with his likeness, the doll does posses one of Freddy Sanchez’s unmistakable features — a beaming smile.