Want to win a bar bet? Ask someone to name the only National League Gold Glover to learn his baseball in Japan. It’s the rare fan who gets this one right: Derrek Lee. The son of beloved Gaijin Leon Lee, he spent his summers hanging around Japanese ballplayers, consuming Kobe beef, and enjoying a unique cross-cultural sports experience. The game he plays comes from a place of control and serenity, of balance and respect. Yes, Derrek speaks softly. But as Cubs fans are learning, he carries a big stick. This is his story…

GROWING UP

Derrek Leon Lee was born in Sacramento, California on September 6, 1975, to Pamela and Leon Lee. A brother, Bryan, and sister, IsRaya, came in the years that followed. Derrek’s father and uncle Leron ranked among the top all-around athletes in Northern California during the 1960s. Leron was the top draft choice of baseball's St. Louis Cardinals in 1966 and gave up a potential NFL career for a $50,000 signing bonus. He reached the big leagues in 1969, and hit .300 for the San Diego Padres in 1972. He would play his final game, for the Los Angeles Dodgers, in 1976 before taking his act to Japan.

Derrek’s dad never made it to the majors, playing as high as Class-AAA for the Cards. He had his best year in 1975, when he hit over .300 for Arkansas and Tulsa, but the September call-up never came. In 1978, Leon decided to join his brother on the Lotte Orions.

It turned out to be a great decision, as he spent 10 seasons with the Orions, Taiyo Whales and Yakult Swallows. Derrek enjoyed summers in Japan with his dad and uncle, and was welcomed by the other players as a sort of team mascot. Like his father, who learned Japanese and understood the country's culture of respect in baseball, Derrek was quiet and observant as he soaked up the knowledge around him. Leon was a popular player who retired after the 1987 season with a .308 lifetime average, 1,436 hits and 268 home runs. He continued working in Japan for the next 16 years, as a scout, coach and manager.

Derrek’s lifelong exposure to professional baseball combined with his inherited gifts helped him develop into a terrific hitter and fielder. In fact, he was pretty good at anything he tried in the athletic realm. In the summer of 1987, Derrek attended a baseball camp run by Dusty Baker in Sacramento. Baker had just finished his career in the Bay Area with the Giants and A’s, and was a year away from the start of his coaching career with San Francisco. Baker knew talent when he saw it and kept tabs on Derrek. They ran into each other again a couple of years later at college football game and renewed acquaintances.

Little did either suspect that one day Derrek would be Dusty’s best player.

At this point, Derrek had begun the growth spurt that would eventually take him to 6-5 by his senior year at El Camino High School in Sacramento. His long arms, quick hands, sharp eyes and great balance made him a terrific point guard, and for a while it was assumed he would go that route when he graduated. Among the schools that recruited Derrek was North Carolina, which agreed to let him play basketball and baseball. Derrek committed to the Tar Heels, with the understanding that he would turn pro if he was picked high in the June 1993 draft.

As draft day approached, it became increasingly clear that Derrek would be selected in the first round. Alex Rodriguez was the hottest property, but among the remaining high-school sluggers Derrek was part of a small blue-chip group that included Trot Nixon and Torii Hunter. All three went in the Top 20 picks, with Nixon going 7th to the Red Sox and Hunter 20th to the Twins. Derrek’s name was called by the Padres, who held the 14th selection. Saying thanks but no thanks to Dean Smith was one of the toughest decisions of Derrek’s young life, but in his heart he felt that baseball was his calling.

Derrek joined Peoria of the Arizona League in July. He played only 15 games for manager Ken Berry, but was impressive enough during that time to be voted the league’s top prospect. He quickly leap-frogged two levels to San Diego's high-A club in Rancho Cucamunga, and hit .274 for the Quakes in 20 games.

Derrek logged the entire 1994 season with the Quakes, and considering he was only 18, he had a great year. He batted .267 in a team-high 126 games, and was second on the club with 118 hits. The power wasn’t there yet, but Derrek was rarely overmatched, and by the end of the season he was ranked as San Diego's 5th-best prospect. The highlight of the campaign was Rancho Cucamunga’s amazing run to the California League championship. The Quakes beat Riverside three games to on in the playoffs and Modesto by the same margin in the title series. Both wins were big upsets—Modesto had the best winning percentage in all of professional baseball that year. The Quakes, by contrast, had secured a wild card berth with a win in their final game.

ON THE RISE

In 1995, Derrek began to come into his own. In his third year at Rancho Cucamunga, he had his average up around .350 at mid-season and ended up batting .301 with 23 homers. His 151 hits and 239 total bases were third in the pitcher-friendly California League. The Padres were understandbly ecstatic, honoring him as the organization’s Minor league Player of the Year.

Derrek was promoted to Memphis of the Southern League in the following spring. He responded with a league-leading 34 homers to go with 39 doubles and 104 RBIs. Voted league MVP, he was named Baseball America’s second-ranked prospect behind Greenville’s Andruw Jones. Once again, he was San Diego’s Minor League Player of the Year—the first time a Padre had earned that award in consecutive seasons. Derrek finished up the year in the Arizona Fall League, where he sharpened up his defense and hit .292 with 22 RBIs for the Sun City Solar Sox.

Derrek intensified his rigorous winter workouts, boosted his weight to 225, and came to spring training of 1997 looking like a major leaguer. He had an outside shot at making the Padres as a backup to veteran Wally Joyner. Despite impressing manager Bruce Bochy, however, he lost the job to Archi Cianfrocco, who could play multiple positions. But Derrek didn’t have to wait long to get a taste of big-league life. He was promoted to the Padres at the end of April, and his first hit was a ninth-inning single off Marlins’ closer Robb Nen.

Overall, Derrek struggled in his first test in the majors. He hit .200 and struck out seven straight times before returning to Las Vegas. Derrek returned to San Diego ain in September, and belted his first home run on the last day of the season against the Giants. In between, he scorched PCL pitching, batting .325 in 124 games.

With the left-handed Joyner ensconced at first base, Derrek expected to serve as a platoon player for the Padres in 1998. GM Kevin Towers had other ideas. Feeling the team was one stud starter away from contending for the Western Division crown, he made a bid for ace Kevin Brown during Florida's post-championship fire sale. The price? Derrek and a couple of B-level arms. Towers had to pull the trigger.

Derrek was in shock when he got the news. He was clearly being groomed by the club, and assumed he would be with them for many years. The Marlin situation, however, meant that he would have an opportunity to play right away. After jettisoning its high-priced talent, Florida was defending its championship with a starting lineup that averaged 25 years of age. Other up-and-comers getting a shot at regular time were Cliff Floyd and Mark Kotsay.

Not surprisingly, t he Marlins were horrible in 1998, losing 108 times. Without stars like Gary Sheffield, Bobby Bonilla and Moises Alou to anchor their lineup, young holdovers like Edgar Renteria and Luis Castillo floundered. Derek did what he could, starting the year like a house afire. During one nine-day span in April he clubbed five homers, including a pair of grand slams. He had another insane streak in July, but most of the spent was spent learning NL pitchers. Derrek finished with 17 homers and drove in 74 runs, which was second among junior circuit rookies.

Overall, the Marlins were encouraged by Derrek’s power and patience. Although he fanned a team-high 120 times, he was not afraid to go deep into counts. The team did have some concerns, however. Derrek endured a nightmarish September, looking lost at the plate. Pitchers were pounding him on the fists, getting him to swing at high pitches, and then putting him away with sliders down and away.

Coach Tony Perez tried to shorten Derrek’s swing, but nothing seemed to work. When this slump continued into 1999, he was beside himself. The Marlins did the only thing they could, sending him to Class-AAA Calgary, where he stayed until the end of the Pacific Coast League season. Derrek’s minor league numbers were good—19 homers and a .283 average—but his combined stats for the Marlins in April and September (five home runs and a .205 average) were not.

Derrek entered the 2000 campaign looking to clean the slate. He was too good and too smart to go through another year like that, but failed to prove it in spring training, when he lost the starting job to Kevin Millar. It took him six weeks to convince second-year manager John Boles that he had the stuff to be Florida’s everyday first sacker, but once Boles put him in he was money in the bank. Derrek finished second on the team with 28 homers and fourth with 70 RBIs. He hit a respectable .281 and slugged .507. He learned to turn on inside pitches, and began seeing more to hit when he worked the count in his favor. He also ended an almost two-year home run drought at Pro Player Stadium, with seven dingers.

The Marlins were now a passable team that included Floyd, Kotsay, Castillo, Preston Wilson and Mike Lowell. Ryan Dempster was the staff ace, and Antonio Alfonseca was one of the league’s most formidable closers. The team finished with 79 wins in '00, and hoped it was ready to turn the corner.

Though Derrek had another nice year in 2001, Florida failed to make progress and Boles was fired in May. Perez replaced him and brought the team home with 76 victories. The news wasn’t all bad, as young guns Brad Penny, Matt Clement and Josh Beckett all worked themselves into the starting mix. Derrek’s final numbers were 37 doubles, 21 homers, 75 RBIs and a .282 average. His 158 hits were second on the club. Once again, he started slowly, waiting until late June before he nudged his average into the .250 range. He did hit .317 in the second half, which he attributed to the more relaxed style of Perez.

Over the winter, the Marlins considered trading Derrick, partly because Millar was wrapped up at the bargain price of $900,000. When no reasonable offers came in, Derrek was reinserted at first. Jeff Torborg was now at the helm, the perfect guy to guide a team like Florida. He had built championship clubs in New York and Arizona, but was his controlling style had earned him early exits before those teams won their titles. In 2002, he rode his players to a disappointing 79-83 record, in part because of injuries to Penny and Beckett, as well as the trade of Clement.

After hitting three homers in his first three games, Derrek cooled off and was batting under .230 after two months. Once again, he turned it on in the final four months, ending up with 27 homers and a .270 average, and setting career highs with 95 runs, 86 RBIs and 98 walks. Torborg encouraged Derrek to be more adventurous on the bases. Though he only possessed average speed, he was observant and quick, and had long, flowing strides. If he suspected a pitcher was ignoring him, he was gone. He surprised many onlookers with 19 steals.

MAKING HIS MARK

Following the ’02 season, Derrek was invited to join a group of All-Stars on an exhibition tour of Japan. He met up with his father, who had just been hired by the Orix Blue Wave as a batting coach. The two hadn’t been together in the Far East for 16 years. Derrek’s dad was eventually made manager of the club the following spring, but was fired after the Blue Wave finished in the cellar for the second straight year.

In 2003, Derrek and the Marlins started slowly again. With the Atlanta Braves running away in the East and five other clubs looking like Wild Card bets, Torborg was canned after 38 games with a 16-22 record. Jack McKeon took the helm, and the Marlins took off. Dontrelle Willis, acquired in the Clement deal with the Cubs, got on a roll and drew fans to Pro Player by the tens of thousands. Fellow rookie Miguel Cabrera filled in for an injured Mike Lowell and hit well enough to become an everyday outfielder when the third baseman returned.

Fueled by these two young stars—and new additions Juan Pierre and Ivan Rodriguez—the Marlins began to scratch their way back into contention. McKeon juggled his starting rotation and bullpen, going with the hot hand, and by season’s end he had won the Wild Card and had a club primed for a serious playoff run. Derrek was a big part of the Marlins’ success. He won a Gold Glove for his defense, slugged 31 homers and stole 21 bases. He was particularly effective down the stretch, batting .351 with five homers and 20 RBIs in September.

There were some great storylines during Florida’s remarkable post-season run in '03, as they upended the Giants, Cubs and the mighty New York Yankees to win an improbable championship. Unfortunately for Derrek, he was not a headline-maker that October. Though he played stellar defense and knocked in a run here and there, enemy pitchers were able to neutralize him as he reverted to some old habits when the pressure was on.

Right after the World Series, the Marlins had to make some cost-cutting moves. Believing that Derrek would be too expensive after the final year of his contract expired, they traded him to the Cubs for Hee Seop Choi. Owner Jeffrey Loria hated to see Derrek go, and had nothing but good things to say about him. But business was business. Ironically, the man who had scouted and signed Choi for Chicago was Derrek’s dad, who had been the club’s Pacific Rim Coordinator from 1998 to 2002. The Cubs quickly signed Derrek to a three-year extension for $22.5 million.

Derrek got off to his usual slow start, hitting .233 through April at Wrigley Field. Choi, meanwhile, was yanking balls out of the park in Miami, causing Chicago fans to think they’d given up a star for a stinker. As usual, Derrek waited until June to get going, and wound up with career bests of 39 doubles, 32 home runs and 98 RBIs. Playing day games at Wrigley took a little out of him, as his average dipped in September, but he finished at .278 with a .504 slugging average. Derrek was one of four Cubs to top the 30-homer mark. Moises Alou hit 39, third baseman Aramis Ramirez had 36, and Sammy Sosa—hampered by a sore back—slammed 35. Derrek’s 12 steals were second on the team to Corey Patterson.

Boosted by the addition of Nomar Garciaparra in July, and the clutch pitching of young Carlos Zambrano and veteran Greg Maddux, the Cubs stayed in the Wild Card race despite losing Kerry Wood and Mark Prior to injuries. Manage Dusty Baker tried everything he could to push his team home, but their 89 wins fell three short of Houston’s 92.

How many victories would the Cubs have had without Derrek? Obviously, the power he supplied was a crucial component in the Chicago offense. But it was with his glove that he had his greatest impact. A far better fielder than Choi, he was especially good at stretching for errant throws and scooping them out of the dirt. Ramirez saw his errors drop from 33 to 10, Todd Walker had to dive for fewer balls in the hole, and Nomar knew he could cut lose when he had to.

After the '04 season, the Cubs faced some big decisions. Sosa had worn out his welcome and was dealt to Baltimore. The team declined to pick up the option on Alou, who was 39. Todd Hollandsworth and Jason Dubois would share the leftfield job, and Jeromy Burnitz was signed to hit behind Derrek, who would now be Chicago’s main power threat.

Of course, no one expected to see that power until the weather warmed up. A .230 hitter in April and May heading into ’05, Derrek was being written off by Cubs fans as the season opened. They assumed the rest of the team’s stars would get the job done and Derrek would eventually join them.

That was an unacceptable scenario for him. Over the winter, he had done a lot of thinking about his early-spring slumps and decided to look for pitches he could drive the other way. He knew that’s where enemy hurlers would be working him, and decided to change his approach. The results were astonishing. Derrek was the hottest hitter in the majors in April, and continued his torrid hitting through May. As June began, he was at or near the top of all three Triple Crown categories and drawing raves from fans and teammates.

Injuries to Wood, Prior and Garciaparra, an unsettled closer situation and slow starts by Ramirez and Patterson sent the Cubs into a tailspin. Derrek literally carried the club, delivering clutch hits and late-inning home runs game after game. He was even leading the club in stolen bases. Named NL Player of the Month in April, Derrek was just as good in May, as the Cubs stayed among the Wild Card contenders and waited for their wounded troops to return. The last time a Cub had been this hot was when Sosa hit 20 homers in June of 1998. It was simply amazing.

Derrek has always been at his best when he is able to extend his arms while hitting. He put the final touches on his offensive game in 2005 when he improved his pitch recognition and began taking outside pitches to rightfield, while laying off fastballs up. This forced opposing pitchers to alter their patterns, and Derrek went to town in the season’s first half.

Considered a below-average runner when he came to the majors, Derrek now merits a close eye when he reaches base. If a pitcher forgets about him, he will steal second.

Derek’s forte has always been his defense. He is nimble around the bag and a master at hauling in bad throws. He saves his pitchers several runs a months—and his fellow infielder lots of errors—with his scoops and stretches.

The knock on Derrek has always been that he doesn’t play with any obvious passion. That may be so. But few players are more serious about playing, improving and practicing the game.