Cruisin’ to the Majors

Jose Cruz Jr. grew up in the shadows of the major leagues.

Actually, in the tunnels.

As the son of the former Houston Astro star outfielder, Cruz went to hundreds of games at the Astrodome when he was a kid, but he didn’t see too much baseball.

“I don’t think I ever watched more than three or four innings at a time, tops,” said Cruz, an outfielder for the JetHawks. “I was down in the tunnels with the other players’ kids, playing cupball.”

Cupball?

“It’s just like baseball, but you play with a cup and hit it with your hand,” Cruz said.

Cruz says he didn’t get serious about baseball until his freshman year in high school, which happened to be the same year his father retired.

“That’s when when I started really liking baseball, eating, sleeping and breathing baseball,” Cruz said. “My dad’s a real energetic guy and I was always saying ‘Let’s go practice,’ and he never said no. We just practiced and practiced and practiced.

“It worked out perfectly. Right when I started liking baseball was just the time when he needed an outlet.”

That outlet has become quite a baseball player.

Cruz, who turns 22 on Friday, is widely considered the top major league prospect in the Seattle Mariners’ farm system, and among the best in all of baseball.

Last spring at Rice, Cruz batted .377 with 16 home runs and 76 runs batted in, all while seeing few enough strikes to draw an NCAA-leading 76 walks in 62 games. He was an All-American and among nine finalists for the Golden Spikes Award, which goes annually to the top player in college baseball.

Because of Cruz’s combination of skills--hitting for average and power, speed, defense and a strong arm--the Mariners drafted him in June with the third pick of the first round. He signed two months later for a franchise-record $1.25 million bonus.

Though he had been a center fielder his whole life, the Mariners have him ticketed for left field in the Kingdome, alongside Ken Griffey Jr. and Jay Buhner.

And he’s not that far away.

Cruz, a switch-hitter, says he needs to become more consistent at the plate and cut down on his strikeouts, both areas in which he believes he improved while playing for a team his father managed in Puerto Rico over the winter.

Larry Beinfest, the Mariners’ director of player development, agrees that Cruz needs only some fine-tuning to be ready for the major leagues.

“He was a pretty skilled and well-polished player coming out of college,” Beinfest said. “I think Jose has got a lot of tools and a lot of talent. For him it’s just a matter of going out and becoming more comfortable with the pro game.”

In that respect, Cruz figures to have an easier time than most because of the environment in which he grew up.

Wayne Graham, who coached Cruz at Rice and played in the minor leagues, says he sees how Cruz may have an advantage because of his background.

“We stood in awe of the major leaguers,” Graham said. “Despite 10 years of pro ball and 90 days in the major leagues, I still somehow didn’t feel right. I didn’t have the confidence that someone raised in the major leagues would have.”

Cruz, who was invited to the Mariners’ major league camp before being sent to the minors this spring, says that experience is overrated.

By growing up around major leaguers, “you see that they are just like everyone else, but still when you are around the big guys in Seattle, you have to be quiet just because they have done so much.” Cruz said. “I’m not comfortable yet.”

Cruz doesn’t fit the popular perception of the modern millionaire athlete: someone with expensive jewelry, fancy cars and no concern for the fans.

He says he has not spent a dime of his signing bonus, which is paid in installments.

“I don’t want to touch it,” he saids. “I just want it to sit in the bank, and reproduce.”

For now he is living off the same $1,200 a month as his JetHawk teammates, and eating his meals at restaurants with plastic utensils.

“He’s a really down-to-earth guy,” teammate Marcus Sturdivant said.

Cruz does not see himself the way Mariners’ fans do, as the final piece to an outfield that could be among the best in the major leagues. He’s just a minor leaguer for now.

And even though he spent much of spring training with the Mariners’ double-A team, he graciously accepted his assignment to Class A, where he finished the season last year.

“I’m here and I’m just going to try to put up some good numbers and get better,” he said. “That’s all you can do, try to get better.”