For Jose Altuve, Size Doesn't Matter

• Jim CapleMay 1, 2013, 03:00 AM ETClose
  Author of "The Devil Wears Pinstripes" and winner of a Sports Emmy. Reported from 17 World Series, 9 Olympics, 6 continents.
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When I was playing Little League and Babe Ruth baseball, I always had to wear a low number, like 1 or 2. That was because I was usually the shortest player on my team, and, back in those days, our numbers corresponded to the size of the jerseys we wore. The smaller the jersey, the lower the number.

It would have been a very simple matter to stencil (or sew) a higher number on my jersey; but no, that just wouldn't work. If you wore a size small, you got a low number. It felt demeaning -- I desperately wanted to wear a double-digit number like the big guys -- but that wasn't the only issue we short players faced. We also had to convince our coaches we were as good as the taller players; that wasn't always easy, especially when they coached the basketball team as well, and valued height.

The Astros Jose Altuve, from Maracay, Venezuela, knows this feeling all too well. At 5-foot-5, he is the shortest player in the majors in more than three decades. He's an inch shorter than David Eckstein was and 18 inches shorter than Jon Rauch. He makes Dustin Pedroia look like Sasquatch.

"Everywhere I go, I have to prove myself," Altuve, who will turn 23 next Monday, says. "I have to go a little harder than everybody else. But you know, I really like that, because that way I feel everyone's attention on me, so they can watch what I was doing. I just take it like a bonus and just ask God to help me."

Altuve is accustomed to the comments about his height by now. Are you a player or the batboy? Ha, ha, ha! "[People] ask me a lot of questions. How tall I am. How old I am. They say, 'You're really small to play baseball.' I just want to go out to the field and play hard and show people that short guys can play baseball, too."

Although he is the shortest player in the majors since Fred Patek, Altuve hit .290 with 33 steals and made the All-Star team in 2012, his first full season. And this season, he takes a .330 batting average into Wednesday night's game in New York against the Yankees. He slammed a home run in pitcher-friendly Safeco Field the second week of the season. He made a dazzling play at second base last week, diving to his left, smoothly pushing off his leg as he rose from the ground and firing to first for the out.

He's impressive.

Like the rest of the world's humans, ballplayers continue to grow taller. Baseball-reference.com lists 57 major leaguers since 1901 who were 5-foot-5 or shorter, but only four of whom played in the past 50 years. Of the 166 players who were 5-foot-6 or shorter, just 13 played in the past half-century.

Of course, players are not just getting taller. The game has been overwhelmed and damaged by the proliferation of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs. I'm not saying shorter players never ,but in this day and age, I welcome seeing the occasional height-challenged guy make a big impact.

And Altuve is the latest in a short (sorry) but great lineage of little players dating back to Wee Willie Keeler. Short players are about more than just hustle and grit. There is real talent as well.