Faces on the Field: Josh Fields

Josh Fields was a pretty good college quarterback. Some Oklahoma State fans may even say he was a great college quarterback.

In two-plus years as a starter, Fields led the Cowboys to two bowl games and, perhaps more importantly, two wins over archrival Oklahoma. He still holds the school record with 55 career touchdown passes.

Fields may have had a chance at a promising football career, but when the 2004 First-Year Player Draft rolled around, those close to Fields knew which way he he'd be leaning. As a two-year starter on the Cowboys' baseball team, there was no doubt Fields was heading for the diamond.

"Coming out of high school I though I was going to get drafted but didn't get drafted and went to college hoping to do three years and be eligible for the baseball draft again," Fields said. "I was lucky enough to have a great football experience as well. I played with a lot of great players, I got to go to some bowl games.

"But people who knew me well, knew that I was really looking forward to the baseball draft my junior year and that's what I wanted to do all along. Baseball was my first love."

The White Sox are certainly pleased with Fields' choice. They selected him with the 18th overall pick in the 2004 draft, and since then, he has shot through Chicago's farm system as the top third base prospect.

In only his second full year of professional baseball, Fields has grown into one of many stars on the White Sox's Triple-A affiliate in Charlotte. Seventy-six games into his stint with the Knights, he is second in the International League in batting at .333 to go with 13 home runs and 52 RBIs in 77 games.

His numbers through the first half earned him a spot on the IL All-Star team, where he is one of six Charlotte players on the 28-man squad. He also will be playing at the XM Satellite Radio All-Star Futures Game at PNC Park on All-Star Weekend. Despite all his current success, however, Fields' future is very much in doubt.

For a shot at playing every day at the Major League level, Fields may have to dislodge Joe Crede from third base. With Crede playing a key role in Chicago's 2005 championship run, getting past him will be no easy task.

That has produced talk of a position change for Fields -- perhaps to one of the corner outfield positions. For the time being, that talk has all been speculative. He has started every one of his games at third base or designated hitter for the Knights but knows the possibility exists for a change.

"Right now, third base is where I feel comfortable," he said. "I think I still have a lot of work to do to get to what Chicago is used to having at third with Joe [Crede], because he is an amazing third baseman. You get more comfortable with every game that you play over there, and now I have a couple of games under my belt.

"If a position change is going to happen, I'd be all for it. When I'm told to go to the other position, I'm just going to have to get comfortable there, like I have at third."

One of the factors limiting Fields' progress at third has been his defense. He has committed nine errors this season, the second-highest total on the team. Fields has taken a somewhat unique approach to trying to improve his play in the field -- he does yoga.

"I have an offseason workout where I do yoga," Fields said. "I do it probably once a week, sometimes twice a week. It helps a whole lot with my balance and stuff like that. You take for granted your balance in baseball. It is pretty key in your hitting and fielding. I've seen a big difference, so I can only sit here and praise it."

The work ethic and constant desire to improve that Fields displays may stem from his days on the gridiron, where unlike baseball, there may be five or six days of practice for one game.

"College football is so strenuous," Fields said. "It is crazy the stuff that we had to do. Most people just see the awesome rivalry games on Saturday and don't see what the guys go through during the week."

Baseball may be Fields' first love, but playing football provided him with another tool he hopes he will never have to use on the diamond -- the ability to get up after being run over by a 300-pound defensive end.

"You learn a degree of toughness from football," Fields said. "You get hit and still have to go back out and play more downs. In baseball, in 150 games in a year, inevitably at some point you are going to be tight or your arm is going to be sore, and you still have to go out there and play.

"Football helped me learn that you can play through the pain and give it what you have. Hopefully, at some point, the pain will go away."

It is going to take all of Fields' toughness and work ethic to take the final jump to the big leagues, a step some say could come by the end of this year. It would be unlike Fields to sit back and not try to take it to the next level. Even with his touchdown record, he knows his place in Oklahoma State history won't last forever.

"I'm realistic about it," Fields said. "I know there is going to be someone who comes in and plays four years, and they're going to annihilate it one of these days. The day is coming. But now I can sit around and talk about my glory days playing football for only so much longer and then I'm going to have to give that record up to someone and move on to something else."