My apologies if this is linked elsewhere, i didn't have time to search the other threads. It's a premium article apparently, so i will paste the text below.
http://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/a...fb-premium
Trei Cruz following in family's baseball footsteps
With a pair of Cruzes already leaving a lasting mark on baseball, Trei is well on his way to making it three following a stint at Rice
By Hunter Atkins July 12, 2017
Trei Cruz was 13 when he gave his first autograph.
He was handed a baseball that already had two signatures. His grandfather and dad had penned their names across the white leather.
As the progeny of former major leaguers Jose Cruz Sr. and Jose Cruz Jr., Trei was anointed like royalty by fans worldwide, from the Caribbean to Canada, and to the United States in between, who discovered a third-generation Cruz planned to continue the family legacy.
Trei signed the ball like it was a major league contract he expected to fulfill.
The Astros validated his ambition last month. After Trei, 19, a switch-hitting shortstop, graduated from Episcopal High School and committed to Rice University, the Astros selected him in the 35th round of the MLB draft. The team knew Trei planned to enroll at Rice - once he does, he cannot enter the draft again for three years - so the selection was more of a gesture to recognize what the Cruzes mean in this city.
Jose Sr. starred as an Astro for the majority of his 19-year career, coached first base for the Astros for 13 seasons and raised his family in Houston. Jose Jr. was a three-time All-American at Rice and played for the Astros in the last of his 12 major league seasons. Enrique, Jose Sr's. youngest son, played minor league baseball and works for the Astros as a corporate sales manager.
"I didn't realize how big my name was in Houston until I moved here," said Trei, who bounced around Seattle, Toronto and Miami during his dad's playing career before settling in Houston in 2015.
On Trei's first day at Episcopal, coach Matt Fox said: "So you're Jose Cruz's grandson? You've got a lot of pressure on your shoulders."
Trei has carried it well. He sees the success of his father and more so his grandfather as inspiration, not intimidation.
"He grew up with so much doubt on him," Trei said of his grandfather. "It's been a very long time since we've spoken about his story."
Trei was 12 the last time he inquired deeply about his grandfather's past, but that was the first time he felt certain about pursuing the family trade.
"That's when I made the decision that I want to get to where my grandpa is," Trei said. "I want to be the best Cruz to play baseball."
When former Rice pitching coach Patrick Hallmark, who now coaches at Missouri, originally offered the scholarship, he lauded Trei's tenacity.
"He's out there playing like his meal depends on it," was Hallmark's assessment, according to Trei's dad.
"That's what I've been harping the whole time," Jose Jr. said. "Understand what has led you to where you are right now. There's a lot of sacrifices that started with your grandfather and passed along through me. Now, here you are. You can't take this for granted. Not even for a second."
Roots in Arroyo
The Cruzes came from Arroyo, Puerto Rico, a working-class town situated between the southern coast and countryside. Even though the Caribbean island is an unincorporated part of the United States, Jose Sr. - "Cheo" to fans - followed an immigrant's path to achieve the American dream.
Cheo grew up in a small home with three bedrooms. His parents and sister had their own rooms, while he shared one bed with three brothers. They slept with the windows and front door open to cool down the house in scorching summers.
"When you're young, you don't feel anything," Cheo said.
He called the upbringing "lower income" because he never considered himself poor. His father held a managerial position at a factory that processed sugar cane and ran a small store that seemed to sell every home essential. In the 1950s, merchants sold clothes on the street or door-to-door. Cheo learned arithmetic when he was dispatched to go collect debts on those purchases. He skimmed pennies when feeling bold. He also delivered bread on horseback around the countryside.
"My father does not give you anything," Cheo said. "To make money, I had to work. Same thing in baseball. In my mind, I said, 'I've gotta work hard to stay with a team.' "
The Cruz boys were fast, adept athletes. They taped a wad of paper for a ball, used a broomstick for a bat and gravitated toward baseball without the influence of predecessors. The sport had not been around long in Arroyo.
Although Cheo was lefthanded, because he had to borrow a righthander's mitt from his brother, he caught and threw with the same hand.
He emerged as a determined ballplayer by 16, but semiprofessional teams in four towns rejected him. He was forced to take three bus rides inland until he reached Aibonito, where coach Luis "Toño" Feliciano gave him a chance with Los To-Ricos, which translated roughly to "little chickens" for the poultry industry there.
By the mid-1960s, Cheo won a championship for Aibonito and caught the attention of a St. Louis Cardinals scout at a tournament in New York City.
Trei called his grandfather his "role model" for the way he used doubts about his potential "as fuel" for a legacy.
"I've had random people who know he is my grandpa tell me, 'Your grandpa saved baseball fans in Houston,' " Trei said.
Cheo's resolve resonated beyond his .292 batting average over his 13 seasons with the Astros. After a loss to the Philadelphia Phillies in the deciding Game 5 of the 1980 National League Championship Series, Cheo remained on the bench until the dugout cleared. He was the last player to shower and dress. He shuffled, crestfallen, into the players' parking lot. There, he discovered hundreds of fans had waited late into the night outside the lot to thank him with cheers.
At 69, Cheo has lived in Houston more than twice as long as he had in Arroyo. He has relished watching his grandchildren.
"The other reason I stay here is the love I receive from the fans," Cheo said.
Puerto Rico preserves the Cruz legacy, too. Cheo used to spend his offseasons in Arroyo playing in the winter leagues and devoting time to training Jose Jr. and Enrique.
Cheo toughened them on an unforgiving field. The firm surface left infielders with welts and sliding baserunners with strawberries. A light pole blindsided players in the middle of the outfield. An unreasonably high concrete wall in left field signified rarefied power for those who could clear it.
The entire Cruz family made inconsistent pilgrimages in Trei's lifetime. When they got together in Arroyo last winter for the first time in four years, Trei and his younger brother, Antonio, 18, revived a family tradition.
"I can guarantee you this field's going to be horrible," Jose Jr. told his sons on their way to the hardscrabble field of his youth.
Cheo was the most enthusiastic. He throws batting practice to his grandsons, with the intent to strike them out on a mix of hard fastballs, curveballs and splitters.
"He could throw for hours," Trei said. "He's in unbelievable shape."
Jose Jr. is responsible for honing Trei's skills, but Cheo does not restrain his opinion, particularly when it cuts through Jose Jr.'s elaborate instructions.
"See the pitch and hack at it," Cheo emphasizes with Trei.
Trei has stood, bat in hand, watching his grandfather and dad erupt into debates.
"To the point where they would start speaking a sort of Spanish that I don't even understand," Trei said.
Jose Jr. will take those moments.
He likes any experience that ties the generations of Cruzes together. He spoke tenderly about his sons being old enough to appreciate a town that has not changed much since their dad and grandfather spent years there. The field still threatens with erratic hops. It also welcomes with the same breeze carrying a grassy scent from the hillside and briny mist from the shoreline.
"They can smell it. They can touch it," Jose Jr. said. "They see the fights … you had to overcome."
Tough times
It can be difficult for the younger Cruzes to identify with everything Cheo endured. He has not divulged it all. Trei had heard about the racism and toil on the bench of the Cardinals - with whom Cheo spent his first five big league seasons before the Astros purchased him from St. Louis in October 1974 - but he almost exclusively discusses baseball with his grandfather.
Jose Jr. and Enrique separately have heard bits about the events that steeled their father, but they do not know the specifics that wilt him upon reflection.
Cheo had his own doubts about making it to the majors. He cried when recalling how Joe Cunningham, a coach in Class AA, believed in him.
"He's getting choked up. I've never seen him like this," said Enrique, who was with Cheo to offer some translations. "Maybe you should have a glass of wine."
Cheo needed another moment to gather himself when explaining that he used the $5,000 he got for signing with the Cardinals in 1967 to buy his mom, a school custodian, a new house.
"I'm sure there's stuff he'd rather not share or just is uncomfortable sharing," Trei said. "Or maybe I haven't asked him the right questions."
A time may come that feels right for Trei to dig deeper, like years ago when he first realized he wanted to be like his grandfather. He comprehended the challenges of becoming another Cruz ballplayer well enough.
Trei still thinks about the ball he autographed.
"I want that signature to mean something," he said.
