Oakland A's young star Eric Chavez now in charge: winning a Gold Glove and hitting 32 homers last season were a big boost for young third baseman.(Interview)(Statistical Data Included)

HIS MOTHER CAN TELL THE difference. She watched her son in Anaheim last April, and she saw more than his two home runs. She saw peace and confidence, Eric back to normal, smitten with baseball all over again.

"He looked relaxed," said his mother, Ruby. "It's like the pressure was gone."

Eric Chavez always loved the sport, but for-several years, it made him unhappy, made him insecure, as though baseball were just stringing him along, ready to spurn him at any minute.

"This is the first time since I've been in the major leagues that I've really felt like I could have fun playing," Chavez said. "All the other years, it was hard for me to enjoy myself. I worried about everything."

He said that on Opening Night for the A's. He couldn't have known then that by the end of June he would be tied for third in the American League with 20 home runs while hitting .274 with 58 runs batted in and 46 runs scored. But he knew something, knew that something inside him had been fixed and he was willing to share that information with anyone who asked.

If Chavez could share exactly how it happened, he'd have a book deal by now.

But he can't, not really. The neurosis just went away, subsided over time until baseball stopped torturing him.