When News 25 Sports Director Lee Hall spoke with Joe Crede 12 days ago, the White Sox 3rd baseman was hitting 300 and playing gold glove caliber defense.
He's cooled off a bit since then, along with his team. But after playing only 47 games last season because of back surgery, any start's a good one for Joe Creede.

"It’s always great to get off to a good start, especially in this league, whenever pitchers can go out and make adjustments on every weakness you feature on a nightly basis," Crede said. " To be able to return and make those adjustments yourself at the plate, whether on defense or whatever. To be able to get off to a good start, because you know in this game it’s such a long season that you’re going to hit a bump in the road. Hopefully you’ll be able to bounce back a little faster than what you have in the past."

News 25: You’ve been flashing some serious leather out there and it’s been fun to watch. You must be feeling pretty good, pretty healthy.

Crede: "Everything feels great out there, knock on wood. It’s just, a lot of different things in the past have come from having a bad back. You never realize the importance of how much you use your back until it’s hurt and it’s bothering you. It not only affects everything you do on the field, but off the field as well. Whenever you go out there and you’re not able to perform at a level that you know you can perform at, you know you need to take a step back and try to do something about it."

News 25: How bad was it? How bad has it been for you?

Crede: "It was just more frustrating than anything else. Last year I’d have back spasms and it got to the point where you’d take anti-inflammatories. They’d work for awhile, then those would stop working. I’d take pain pills on top of that, and those would stop working. Then all of a sudden you’re not getting sleep at night. You’re getting headaches out the wazoo every single day. It just keeps snowballing from there and frustrating was the biggest word I could use to describe last year for me."

The White Sox have lost five straight, but when we talked to Crede they were riding high atop the American League Central and feeling good about this year, especially compared to last season.

Crede: "It’s fun to be around and it’s fun to play with these guys, you know, because of what they bring to the field every day. There’s a lot of energy and a lot of looseness in the clubhouse and there’s a lot of fight in this team this year. I think everybody’s fighting to not have a year like we had last year and I think this team knows its capabilities and I think we can expect to win on a nightly basis with this team."