He's had a tough time finding his place

"It's definitely, you know, a lonely place to be," Place said.

There were fights and disagreements, a young player taken out of high school trying to mature in an environment he sometimes saw as hostile. There were worries about an overbearing father, with a son starting his baseball life in the same town in which he grew up, Greenville, S.C.

It wasn't always possible to break away from that Marine Corps father who had pushed him.

"He was pretty hard-nosed," said Place. "No excuses. He was knee deep in my butt whenever I screwed up. I guess that rubbed off on me."

He adds that the time spent with his father taking swings was "priceless - nothing more valuable than that."

"I expected a lot out of them," said Ken Place of his two children while sitting outside a batting cage at the Sox' minor league complex. "Yes, that came from my military background.

"They had a job just like I have a job. Your job is to bring home good grades. That's your job. If you take on something you want to do, you will finish it. There's no going halfway and deciding you don't like this. That is my military background.

"They knew what was expected of them, both of them."

That is, at least in part, why Place, 20, sometimes ended up nose to nose with teammates, despite their respect for his style and dedication on the field, and why he might have benefited more than anyone else in the organization from the journey to Lancaster, Calif., last season. It was a chance for Place to show the stunning power, the incredible outfield range, all the tools that made him a first-round pick - away from the pressure of home.

It was those tools that gave confidence to a kid who was raised "to be a strutting peacock on the inside, but humble on the outside," according to his father. It started when he was 3, swinging at a taped-up Wiffle Ball, and burgeoned when his father would be there every day when Jason came home from school to go to the field.

"In my opinion, they made an excellent choice in Jason," said Ken Place, who achieved the rank of staff sergeant in the Marine Corps. "Excellent. Because I'm telling you right now, he's going to be there in the end. I guarantee you. I'm telling you, that kid, nothing's going to stop him."