By John Klima
Staff Writer

They are at opposite points of their careers, batting first and second in the order, and as one establishes himself as one of the top young players in the National League, the other continues running it out towards 3,000 hits.

Craig Biggio, 41, had his shoulder and his lower back wrapped in ice after the game Wednesday night. Hunter Pence, 24, a rookie in his fourth year of professional baseball who didn’t even need to be protected on the 40-man roster when the season began, was bouncing around the clubhouse with as much enthusiasm as Biggio’s two young boys.

There hasn’t been much to watch in Houston this year, with too many injuries and not enough pitching wrecking its season. But the interaction between Biggio and Pence, as a fellow pro, a mentor as needed, both pests with pop, is as welcome as watching Biggio run ‘Hard 90s’ at an age when many ballplayers are counting their money.

Biggio left Anaheim Wednesday night with 2,992 career hits. Pence left with his first 68 hits, including an opposite-field home run Tuesday night. Yet Biggio and Pence are blood relatives in the grand scheme of the game. Pence grew up in Texas watching the way Biggio attacked the game. As Biggio moves toward becoming the 27th player to reach 3,000 hits, Pence is performing and absorbing, and Biggio seems to take as much delight from watching Pence grow into his skills as he does in putting the definitive mark on his own career.

In many ways, this is Biggio at his best. His hard-edged play over the years supports his words. To reach 3,000 hits is significant, but to him, it’s merely a byproduct of caring about the way the game is played. This is evident in how Biggio and others feel about Pence. As one veteran National League scout said of Pence, “No one does things as ugly and looks as pretty doing it.”

Pence could be the model for the next generation of star hitters. He is lean and athletic, yet his hands are tremendously strong. He ran down a ball on the warning track against the Angels Tuesday night, starting in shallow center field and finishing on the track in the right-center gap, covering ground with plus speed and not approaching maximum gallop.

He takes his practice swing the way you’d never teach your kid to, with fierce chopping actions, and he almost chokes up on the bat. Yet he has power and a line drive swing, with an approach that has won over his organization and complemented Biggio’s own grand accomplishment.

As Pence proves himself, Biggio reflects on his career. Pence is at the start and Biggio closer to the finish, and this passing of the generations may very well be the meaning of Houston’s 2007 season.

“There’s a lot of things I see that I can’t stand, things that make me want to throw up,” Biggio said. “As far as the way I go about my business, I believe this is the way it’s supposed to be done.”

Very few players talk as passionately about playing the game correctly as Biggio does, and his actions back up his claims. He lined out in the ninth inning Tuesday night, in a game the Astros had won by four runs, yet still, there was Biggio, running hard to first.

It’s simple but significant. No one is going to fine Biggio $100 if he doesn’t run hard. After nearly 3,000 hits and a career that will take him to the Hall of Fame, he can play the game however he wants to. This, however, is the only way he wants to play it. That’s something that seems like it will stay with Pence, and if he is in the big leagues 20 years from now, you get the feeling that he won’t forget his playing time with the venerable second baseman.

“If he’s still running hard at 41 and I’m 24, I have to be doing it to,” Pence said. “It goes to show that he plays the game the right way. He’s a role model. That’s what I aspire to be.”

Biggio’s numbers are not what they used to be. He’s striking out more and walking less. He doesn’t drive the ball like he used to, though he can still spray it around. He’s showing signs of age, but not of going through the motions. Even as his average lingers around .230, Biggio is busting it down the line.

Houston manager Phil Garner guided Milwaukee and Robin Yount, another multi-position player who quietly accumulated 3,000 hits. He admires the way Biggio plays.

“I was with Craig in his second year,” Garner said. “He plays it just as hard now as he did then. He’s an icon in Houston.”

Pence helped interject some life into Houston, which left Anaheim 10 games under .500 and laboring in the NL Central. In his first 47 games, he was hitting .351 with seven home runs and 33 RBIs. It may not be enough to save this season, but it may be a building block for the years to come.

“The ball just comes off his bat in a different way,” Houston infielder and former USC star Morgan Ensberg said. “He’s hitting opposite field home runs off Bartolo Colon sliders like it’s nothing. We think we’re seeing the start of a special player.”

It doesn’t seem like that long ago when veterans like Nolan Ryan, Buddy Bell and Billy Doran were saying the same thing about Biggio, who got his first big league hit off Orel Hershiser in 1988 and is tied with Nap Lajoie for sixth on the all-time doubles list with 657.

He’ll probably finish his career in fifth place, surpassing George Brett, who had 665 doubles, leaving only Tris Speaker, Pete Rose, Stan Musial and Ty Cobb in front of him. There’s no statistic for how many of those were singles Biggio stretched into doubles.

“It’s the way you’re supposed to play the game. It’s as simple as that,” Biggio said. “It’s the same thing I preach to my kids. When the day is over, I look in the mirror, good day or bad day, and I gave it all I had. If a Dad brings a kid to the game, I want him to say, ‘Hey, look at that guy – he runs out ground balls, he runs out fly balls, he backs up bases. He plays the game the way it was meant to be played.’ That’s the way baseball was taught to me. To play the game the way the older guys played, to me, that’s my responsibility.”