Joe Crede knows his career is done, wishes the pain was

Two years removed from playing his final major league game with the Twins, Joe Crede still hasn’t been able to get his back fixed and is no longer holding out hope of resuming his major league career.

Back at U.S. Cellular being honored by the White Sox on Tuesday, Crede talked to CSNChicago.com about his ordeal:

I’ve been going to doctors trying to figure out what’s going on back there. I don’t know. I just don’t really have a good enough answer. I’m kind of at a loss for words with it. How many doctors can you see about it and still feel the same way? That’s another frustrating thing about it for me, is seeing some of the top doctors supposedly in the world and still having my back feel the same way. I’ve just kind of learned to deal with it and move on. That’s life.

Crede debuted with the White Sox as a 22-year-old in 2000 and made an All-Star team with the club 2008, but he wasn’t re-signed after that season because of his chronic back troubles. He didn’t play in more than 100 games in any of his final three seasons. At age 33, he signed a minor league deal with the Rockies this spring, initially declined to report, later chose to report and then didn’t make the team.

It eats at me everyday almost. Everyday I get out of bed. I have to get up in the middle of the night and I feel that pain again in my back. It really bothers me. It usually takes me an hour, or an hour and a half to get back to feeling normal walking around. It’s what I deal with on a daily basis.

Barring a miracle, Crede is now out of the game for good. A solid regular for the White Sox in the middle part of the decade, he hit .254/.304/.444 with 140 homers in 888 games. He had his best season in 2006, batting .283/.323/.506 with 30 homers and 94 RBI en route to a Silver Slugger award.