from The Birmingham News

`Thanks, Crony'
Thursday, July 06, 2006
DOUG SEGREST
News staff writer

The UPS package, thrown in with the monthly paychecks, was addressed simply.

It had Chris Cron's name as recipient. The return address only had a name - "Joe Crede."

It arrived July 1 at Mobile's Hank Aaron Stadium as part of a box load of correspondence needing the attention of Cron, the Birmingham Barons manager.

 "I'm a golfer and I knew from the shape of the package that it was a sleeve of Callaway golf balls," Cron said. "So I set it aside on my desk while I went about my work."

As Cron began sorting paychecks for distribution to his team, his curiosity got the best of him. What had Crede, the Chicago White Sox's star third baseman sent him and why?

So he opened the package to find a walnut case with the Sox's World Championship logo embossed on the top above Crede's name.

Inside the case? Not a single solitary golf ball.

Instead, there was a sparkling, Tourneau watch, with 10 diamonds on each side of a black face featuring another Chicago World Series logo in silver.

On the inside of the watch was an inscription: "Thanks, Crony - Joe."

Ever seen a 42-year-old man weep?

 "I was shaking like crazy, I could barely open it. Then my eyes teared and I must have cried for five minutes," Cron said. "You get to a point in your life or your career where sometimes things aren't the way you want them to be and you're away from your family all the time.

"Then you open something like this ... it touches you immediately. It touches you deeply."

Cron and other managers in the White Sox organization received World Series rings following Chicago's 2005 sweep of the Houston Astros.

 "I'm grateful for that. It was the organization's way of saying thank you. But this watch means more, because it's from an individual."

Cron wasn't the only one to enjoy Crede's goodwill. The Sox star also bought a championship watch for another former Barons skipper, Nick Capra.

"This was a memento from me to them," Crede said Wednesday before Chicago played Baltimore. ``It was my way of saying thank you for everything they've done for me."

A fifth-round draft choice in 1996, Crede was going nowhere fast in Low-A Hickory. He struggled around the Mendoza line for much of the first half of his first full season and wondered how quickly he would need to find a real job.

"I didn't think I was good enough to play at that level, much less in the big leagues. I figured I'd play in the minors a year or two, then go somewhere else. But Crony kept putting me in the lineup every day," Crede said.

"It was such a huge step for me, from high school to the minors, and he taught me so much - not just about baseball, but life. He took me under his wing."

Cron said if Crede didn't consider himself special, everyone else did.

 Sure, he had talent, but he also had a demeanor, mixing humility with maturity beyond his years.

And he became a favorite of Cron's because of the way he played ball between the lines and the way he treated Cron's kids away from the field. If Cron's young kids came to the ballpark, Crede willingly provided the entertainment.

The player and mentor moved up the ladder together - to High-A Winston-Salem in'98 and to Double-A Birmingham in '99, where Crede firmly established himself as a big-league prospect.

 A year later, with Cron managing Triple-A Colorado Springs, Crede played for Capra before a late-season call-up and his White Sox debut.

"Cappy made it very fun to play for him," Crede said. "He kept the clubhouse loose and his players relaxed."

The championship watch won't stay in Cron's Hoover Metropolitan Stadium office. He's taking it home to Phoenix for an all-star break vacation today to share with his wife, Linda, and his three children.

"This is what kind of guy Joe is ..." Cron said, reminiscing about the World Series. Cron flew his entire family to Chicago, just before the opener at U.S. Cellular Field.

"We're walking into the hotel to check in and there's Joe Crede coming out of the elevator, headed to the ballpark," Cron said. "He spends 15 minutes talking to us, like he doesn't have a care in the world, and poses for a bunch of pictures with my kids.

"I've had a lot of good kids play for me, but Joe Crede's in a different ballpark altogether. When I saw the gift he sent, I would have gotten the same satisfaction if he'd sent me a Hallmark card.

"But that gift thought brought me back," he added, looking at the watch while dwelling on the sentiment. "This is the reason I do what I try to do in this game."