"But Grady," his dad would say, "it's freezing outside."

Nevertheless, the two would soon be hitting plastic balls in the backyard or baseballs on an empty field -- never a cage, because they wanted to see the flight of the ball off the bat. Big Grady would throw a bucket of 40 or 50 baseballs to Little Grady, who'd spray them all over the field, then they'd round up the balls and do it all over again.

"He always suggested it; I never had to come to him," Big Grady says. "It's what he did for fun."

Says Shapiro, "Grady wants to be great, not just good. And what you're starting to see now is maybe that once-a-decade convergence of effort, energy, talent, athleticism and baseball ability. It's all coming together."

Through Sunday, the Indians owned the second-best record in the AL, at 18-10, and Sizemore had reached base 52 times while scoring 24 runs. (In only one game had he failed to get on at least once.) He had worked the count full in 23.1% of his plate appearances, up from 16.6% last year, including an eighth-inning at bat against Toronto righthander Jason Frasor in a tie game last Thursday night. True to LaCava's early reports, on the 20th pitch he faced that night, Sizemore belted a game-winning ground-rule double.

Afterward, hardly raising his voice above a whisper and with his head bowed, Sizemore actually spoke about himself and his growth as a hitter. "I feel comfortable in the batter's box," he says. "I feel like I can be the same hitter at 0 and 2 as I am at 2 and 0, not worrying about the outcome as much as just working on putting a good at bat together."

With that, culminating what for him was a Churchillian address to a few reporters, Little Grady slipped out of sight behind the thick pillar that hides his locker, content with the reward of victory and the promise of tomorrow, another day to wear the baseball uniform and, better still, get it dirty.