He’s No Carbon Copy, Just a Boone Original : Baseball: USC shortstop could follow his grandfather and father to the majors.

Bret Boone practiced daily with future Hall of Famers, slept overnight at the home of baseball’s all-time hit leader in clothes drenched in World Series champagne, and rode shotgun in a parade through the streets of Philadelphia.

Baseball is in his blood.

Ever since Boone begrudgingly enrolled in college almost three years ago, the USC junior has focused on the day he could put his books aside and follow his grandfather and father into the major leagues.

“I can’t remember ever wanting to do anything else or even considered any other job,” Boone said. “I don’t think I’ve thought about a different occupation one time.”

Ray Boone, 66, played 12 years in the major leagues and is a scout for the Boston Red Sox. His son, Bob, 42, is starting catcher for the Kansas City Royals, a seven-time Gold Glove winner in his 18th season who has caught more games than anyone in baseball history.

Bret, 21, is the oldest of Bob and Sue Boone’s three sons, a consensus preseason All-American infielder and a projected first- or second-round selection in the June free-agent draft.

Scouts like Boone’s hitting and fielding and they love his lineage--qualities that could help him become the first third-generation player in major league history.

“He was born in a bat bag,” one American League scout said, “so you know he knows how to play.”

This season, Boone is attempting to lead the 11-time national champion Trojans to their first College World Series appearance since 1978. USC, ranked fourth in the nation by Baseball America, is 28-11 and in second place behind Stanford in the Pacific 10 Southern Division. Boone, who is playing shortstop this season, is batting .311 with four home runs and 31 runs batted in. “I’m just trying to block out that this is my draft year and not think about all the preseason rankings of what I’m expected to be,” Boone said.

Try as he might, Boone will never escape comparisons to his four-time All-Star father. His fate is one of the few things he has in common with Bob, who grew up being compared to Ray, a former All-Star third baseman who played for six major league teams.

Though they have the same bloodline, Bob and Bret are of different breeds.

“Like night and day,” Ray said.

Bob, 6-feet-2, has dark hair. Bret, 5-10, is blond.

Bob is quiet. Bret can be boisterous.

Bob is a Stanford graduate, a student of the game who has combined natural ability with knowledge, self-discipline and rigorous physical conditioning to fashion an extraordinary career with the Philadelphia Phillies, the Angels and the Royals.

Bret admitted that he has never had much enthusiasm, “as far as training rituals go.” A communications major, “He has never really been a student,” Sue said. “He does OK (in school), but he doesn’t love it. And Bob can’t understand that.”

The differences between father and son are also evident on the field.

Bob is a supreme technician, but Bret is more of a natural athlete.

“Bret’s probably more offensive-minded than I am,” Bob said. “And he has much more speed than I ever thought of having.”

In his first two seasons at USC, some scouts believed that Boone also had an attitude problem.

His freshman season was noteworthy not only for his .326 batting average, eight home runs and 53 runs batted in, but also for the loud and visual outbursts that followed his own perceived failures.

“His expectations of himself were not always reasonable,” USC Coach Mike Gillespie said. “He was his own worst enemy.”

Last summer, Boone was chosen for the USA Senior National team but left before the Intercontinental Cup because of differences with the coach, Charlie Greene.

“I don’t think I was treated fairly and I still think I made the right decision,” Boone said. “Maybe I needed to experience that to see what it was like to have a coach you don’t see eye-to-eye with.

“Everything I’ve gone through the last two years has helped me mature.”

Gillespie acknowledged that Boone can be remiss when it comes to shining his shoes, pulling up his socks or keeping his arm in an ideal throwing position. But except for cosmetic deficiencies, he has never been a problem.

“He’s uniquely refreshing,” Gillespie said. “There’s no question Bret is headstrong and has his own ideas sometimes, but those aren’t necessarily bad qualities. In fact, they’re probably some of the reasons he’s as good as he is.”

Gillespie recounts a practice game in the fall of 1988 when Boone, batting fourth, was visually upset after receiving a bunt sign with two runners on base.

Following two half-hearted bunt attempts, Boone laced a run-scoring double into the gap in right field. When he arrived at third base, Gillespie stood waiting with a homework assignment.

“I told him to go home and talk to his dad about what a hitter should do when he gets the (bunt) sign in that situation,” Gillespie said. “I didn’t think anything would come of it, but two days later, he says, ‘I talked to my dad and he said you’re right.’

“Hey, I was pretty happy about that. Then he added, ‘But that’s why my dad hits ninth. I think you’re both wrong.’

“Like I said, uniquely refreshing.”

Born in San Diego, Boone spent the first three years of his life in towns like Raleigh-Durham, N.C., Reading, Pa. and Eugene, Ore.

He was walking at 6 months, jumping off diving boards at 7 months and hitting balls over the roof of the family’s house by the time he was 1.

“Bret was always swinging a big whiffle-ball bat or something,” recalled Greg Luzinski, who played with Bob in the minor leagues and with the Philadelphia Phillies. “He was the kind of kid that always seemed to be chasing after a ball.”

After Bob broke into the Philadelphia lineup in 1973, Bret became a fixture in the clubhouse and on the field at Veterans Stadium. “(Former Phillie President) Ruly Carpenter used to say, ‘We gotta hide this kid somewhere so we can draft him,’ ” Luzinski said.

Steve Carlton, Mike Schmidt and Pete Rose were some of Bret’s playmates and baseball tutors during Bob’s nine years in Philadelphia, a period highlighted by the Phillies’ victory over the Royals in the 1980 World Series.

“It was 10 years ago, but it seems like yesterday,” said Bret, who fell asleep at Rose’s the night the Phillies clinched the Series, then joined his family the next day for the victory parade.

Celebrating, however, was the last thing Bret thought about doing when his parents informed him after his freshman year in high school that the family was moving from New Jersey to California.

“I thought they were kidding,” he said. “I went crazy, saying, ‘No way. I’m not moving.’ I resented everything about it.”

The move, however, proved a boon to Bret’s career.

Playing almost year-round, he blossomed into one of the best players in Orange County, batting .500 with 10 homers and 31 RBIs in his senior season at El Dorado High School in Placentia.

Selected by the Minnesota Twins in the 28th round of the 1987 draft, Boone was disappointed he wasn’t drafted higher. He felt even worse when his grandfather and father advised him to attend college.

“I couldn’t understand it,” he said. “All I had ever planned on doing was playing baseball.”

At USC, he started all but two games at second base and earned freshman All-American honors in 1988. But last season, following a move to shortstop, Boone started off three for 29 at the plate.

“We lost a couple of key guys, and I thought it was all on me,” Boone said. “I thought I had to be the guy. It was the first time in my life I experienced a major slump, and it was kind of humbling.”

He rebounded to bat .273 with nine homers and 57 RBIs as the Trojans reached the NCAA Midwest Regional at Austin, Tex., but they were eliminated by Texas.

This season, his goal is the College World Series in Omaha.

“My parents told me that in the long run, the move to California was going to be the best thing for me,” Boone said. “I didn’t believe it, but now that I look back on it, it was definitely a benefit because you play the most baseball and get the most exposure.

“I don’t have any regrets, because it’s been great here at SC.”

Ray Boone is confident that his grandson will put another Boone in the Baseball Encyclopedia.

“A lot of ballplayers never have one big league son,” Ray said. “Bret’s just another plus on top of the first one.”