From da Cubune,
TUCSON, Ariz. -- White Sox hitting instructor Greg Walker noticed the change in Joe Crede almost immediately.
Walker had managed Crede in the minors and was with the big club last year when Crede started to emerge at third base.
Not that there weren't some growing pains.
After all, Walker was there when Crede wobbled through a first half of the season with a .225 average, second-lowest among American League regulars. But he also was there when Crede hit .308 with 11 home runs in the second half.
Having seen the young infielder in good times and bad, Walker particularly was interested in what he would see this spring. And he was delighted to see a different Joe Crede from the sometimes-shaky kid of a year ago.
"He seems a lot more comfortable this year, smiling, having fun," Walker said. "I feel so good about Joe Crede, I think we ought to just write him in our lineup for the next seven, eight, 10 years."
Then Walker paused, looked over to where Crede was talking with teammates and said, "I think he knows he belongs here."
Crede, indeed, has left little doubt, which augers well for a position that was something of a turnstile not too many years ago. Greg Norton, Herbert Perry, Jose Valentin; none provided the answer to the departure of Robin Ventura like Crede has.
He is hitting .400 this spring with a .478 on-base percentage. The Sox have lofty expectations for their 1996 fifth-round draft choice and he is showing that the "real" Joe Crede is the one from the second-half of '03.
He has added strength, but the Sox are not pushing him to be a Mike Schmidt-type threat.
"He has a chance to be a .280-plus hitter with 20-30 home runs and driving in 80-100 runs and playing the heck out of third base, which he already is starting to do," Walker said. "We'll take him. I think most teams would."
For his part, Crede would just like to be a Crede. Just not necessarily Joe Crede.
Like most St. Louis-area youngsters in the 1980s, Crede wanted the No. 1 on his uniform, the number that belonged to Cardinals Hall of Fame shortstop Ozzie Smith. But his real baseball model was his older brother, Brad.
The Baltimore Orioles drafted Brad Crede out of high school, but he chose instead to attend Central Missouri, where he was part of a national championship team and voted to the Division II all-time team. The Philadelphia Phillies then drafted him and he tried pro ball for two years before deciding to go into teaching.
Along the way he taught younger brother Joe quite a bit.
"I tried to do everything like him: hit like him, dress like him, talk like him," Joe Crede said, laughing. "He was four years older and was in high school where I could watch him. Then he went to college when I was a freshman in high school and he was really, really good. So I didn't try to be like any big leaguer, just do things like him."
Even now, having successfully made it to the big leagues, Crede has a difficult time imagining that he is as good as the brother to whom he always looked up.
"I don't know; I don't think so," Crede said. "I don't think I can picture myself being better than him. I can't see that in my eyes; maybe somebody else could, but I didn't think I could ever reach the level he was at."
Crede could have done a lot worse than his family for baseball models or for other role models. His father, Dave, played in the Air Force while stationed in Germany and was good enough to catch the attention of scouts.
Up in the family attic, Joe Crede found some of the letters sent to his father along with a film of his father batting back in the early 1960s. The senior Crede was good enough to go twice to spring training with the Los Angeles Dodgers but now gets his baseball infusion from watching his son playing in Chicago.
Well, mostly watching him.
"He's living out his dream and loves watching me play baseball," Joe Crede said. "The trouble is, he's about as nervous as a person can be. Whenever he comes to watch me play, he can't sit. He's all over the stadium. He'll walk around the park about five times during a game.
"My family knows that when they come to the game with him, he's just too nervous."
At this point thought, he may be the only one nervous about how Joe Crede is doing at third base for the Sox. They certainly aren't.
"I think he's going to hit with power," Walker said. "He showed last year that he has the potential to be a really good everyday player."
