Leading Man

If there were no major league baseball, says Jason Kendall, he would probably be running in slow motion on a Southern California beach, a flotation device on one arm and Yasmine Bleeth on the other, soaking up the sun and saving lives. "I'd be Mitch Buchannon," says Kendall, referring to the main character on Baywatch. "I'd probably spend my whole life on a beach."

To that, all Kendall's friends and Pittsburgh Pirates teammates can say is, Thank god for baseball. Former major league catcher Fred Kendall raised his boy to play the game hard and take it seriously, and thus there's still one thing in life that means more to Jason than his custom-made Frohoff surfboard. "If not for baseball, he'd be a bum," says Al Martin, Pittsburgh's leftfielder and Kendall's close friend.

As it stands now, Kendall, a 24-year-old catcher, spends half the year in the sand and the other half in the dirt. He makes a miraculous transformation each time he pulls his Pirates jersey over one of his many tattered pro wrestling T-shirts. Suddenly he goes from Mountain Dew to Iron City, from carefree California beach rat to the charismatic cornerstone of a proud franchise. There's no surfing in the Monongahela, which is fine with Kendall. When he's in Pittsburgh, he's not there to work on his tan. "You've got to understand: I'm the most laid-back guy in the world most of the time, but when I'm playing, I'm all business," he says. "I don't give a f—- who you are. I don't give a f—- how much money you make. I want to beat your ass. I'm going to do anything I can to beat you."

Kendall, twice a National League All-Star in his three seasons with the Pirates, provides more ways to beat you than do most catchers. To the toughness and intensity that are typical in a good backstop, he adds the unusual attributes of speed and an uncanny ability to get on base. Last season Kendall was fifth in the league in hitting (.327) and seventh in on-base percentage (.411). He was hit by pitches a major league-leading 31 times, and he set a league record for catchers with 26 stolen bases (chart, page 61). "Every base he stole meant something," says Pittsburgh manager Gene Lamont. "I don't think he cared about the record at all."

One former National League scout has timed Kendall, a righthanded hitter, at 4.0 seconds down the first base line, quite a clip for a guy who spends half his night in a crouch. Despite the arduousness of catching, Kendall believes that being a receiver enhances his ability to steal. When he reaches base, he says, "I think about what I would have our pitchers throw and try to guess if that's going to be thrown by the other team's pitcher. Then," he adds, "I just take off."

This season Kendall has picked up where he left off. Or rather, he has led off where he left off. When the Pirates dealt second baseman Tony Womack to the Arizona Diamondbacks early in spring training, Lamont went in search of a new leadoff man and found him in the last place a manager usually looks: behind the plate. "I'm not saying he'll stay at leadoff forever," says Lamont, "but it makes the most sense for this club. Jason takes a lot of pitches, makes good contact and runs well."

At week's end, Kendall was in the throes of a 3-for-24 slump that had dropped his average to .279. But he had scored 15 runs (tied for fifth in the league) and was tied for third in stolen bases with seven. His offensive prowess was well demonstrated on April 19 during a 3-0 win over the San Diego Padres. He went 2 for 3 with three stolen bases (two less than his father swiped in 877 big league games). The first theft, coming after a single, set up the winning run, which Kendall scored on a passed ball. With Kendall as the spark, the Pirates, who have the majors' fourth-lowest payroll ($22.2 million), were playing respectably until late last week, when a four-game losing streak dropped them to 8-9 and fourth place in the National League Central.

Kendall says he accepted the leadoff assignment, his first since Little League, because "I had no choice." He still views himself as more of a number 3 guy, a gap hitter with some power who can drive in runs. Last year, while hitting second (40 games) or third (103), he had 75 RBIs, the most for a Pittsburgh catcher in 14 years, but hit only 12 homers. Coming into this season he had a mere 23 home runs in 1,435 career at bats. The homers, however, are likely to increase as the six-foot, 193-pound Kendall creeps toward 200 pounds. "They made a big deal out of me hitting leadoff in spring training, but it's really no big deal," says Kendall. "I told Geno I wasn't going to change my style. If the count is 2 and 0, I'm still hacking. Hey, I'm happy as long as I'm not hitting ninth."

And as long as he's behind the plate. Kendall is a solid defensive catcher with an inconsistent arm; last season he threw out 31% of runners attempting to steal, around the major league average. He already hears the same warning that the New York Mets' Mike Piazza and the Texas Rangers' Pudge Rodriguez have heard for years: If he wants to stay productive over the long haul, sooner or later he'll have to get out from behind the plate. "He's a fair defensive catcher," says Cincinnati Reds manager Jack McKeon, "but if you're hitting .400, as he always seems to be doing, no one looks at your defense."

Kendall has also been compared with the Houston Astros' Craig Biggio, who started out as a catcher but was shifted to second base and blossomed into an All-Star at that position. "It sounds funny, but I don't think Jason would want to play second because he doesn't want to be viewed as the next Craig Biggio," says Keith Osik, Kendall's backup and best friend on the Pirates. "He doesn't want to be the next anyone. He just wants to be Jason Kendall."