Free Web Hosting Provider - Web Hosting - E-commerce - High Speed Internet - Free Web Page
Search the Web

Told in absolute terms for nearly four years that he would never make it, Marcus Giles comprehended instantly what it meant when he finally did. It meant nothing.

"More. I gotta do more," Giles said after he returned home to San Diego last winter. "The last thing I thought was that I'd made it. Because I haven't done anything yet. Nothing, as far as I'm concerned."

Too small, too clumsy and certainly too stone-handed to play in the major leagues, Giles is the Atlanta Braves' fifth second baseman in six years  simply because he made liars of the scouting profession. As the club refurbished its offense during the offseason, its least experienced player became an asset: brash, adaptable, maybe a little angry.

"Scouts can't measure here," said first base coach Glenn Hubbard, slapping his chest. "He had a chip on his shoulder. Drafted in the 53rd round? He'd look out on the field at all the [high] draft picks and say, 'I'm better than him, better than him and better than him.'

"I just said, 'Marcus, you didn't get it up front but you'll get it at the back end.' "

Thrown into emergency service when Quilvio Veras went down for the last time last July, it took less than his 68 games that summer for Giles to establish he is a major league hitter. A slow finish left him with a .262 average, but he swung well under pressure (.352 with runners in scoring position) and fought hard when behind (.304 with an 0-2 count).

With nine homers and 31 RBIs in just 244 at-bats, Giles projected a 22-76 season with 600 at-bats. No Braves second baseman has produced a year like that since Davey Johnson's 43-99 season in 1973.

Defensively, he remains a work in progress. With eight errors in 62 games, his .978 fielding percentage would rank among the bottom six regular second basemen in the majors, but better than the Yankees' Alfonso Soriano (.973) and Boston's Jose Offerman at (.974).

Proving them wrong

But off the field, he is already an established presence. Tuned in to clubhouse decorum after years of following around his brother Brian, the Pittsburgh outfielder, as he progressed through the minor leagues, Giles is 23 going on 33 when it comes to team dynamics. The non-rookie.

"You mean loco?" asked shortstop Rafael Furcal, who played a half-season with Giles at Class AA Greenville in 2000 before they were reunited last year at Turner Field. "He plays the game crazy."

"A kid like that is always going to fit," manager Bobby Cox said. "Has that energy and enthusiasm. All he wants to do is play and win. He was always going to fit."

Not in some baseball communities, he wasn't. Even as Giles churned out league MVP seasons in the South Atlantic League with Class A Macon in 1998 and Southern League with Class A Myrtle Beach in 1999, scouts saw little more than a no-glove converted outfielder who was too small (5-foot-8) to duplicate the minor league numbers against major league pitching. He heard those lines first in 1998, after being drafted, and has ignored them ever since.

"That's the only way you can -- just keep proving them all wrong," Giles said. "It's unfortunate, but there's nothing you can do about it."

Hubbard and Giles were first introduced at 1998 instructional league, when Giles strolled up and asked, "So you're the guy who's supposed to make me into a Gold Glove?" Managing him in Macon the next year, Hubbard watched Giles make 20 errors in the first half.

But a daily early routine of extra infield practice with Hubbard began to take hold. Giles made just five misplays the rest of the year and then only eight the next season at Myrtle Beach, his second MVP year. While no one in the organization believes he will develop into an elite defender -- his two errors in last fall's NLCS were glaring -- Giles credits Hubbard with enabling him to reach the majors.

"I knew what the scouts said about him. I mean, big-time scouts," Hubbard said. "They said he wasn't going to get out of A-ball. And he's a long way from A-ball now. I told him the one thing that would please me the most is if could win a Gold Glove. Just for all the scouts."

Wanting to do more

Even as his career is settling, Giles remains in transition. He interrupted spring training last week to get married to longtime girlfriend Tracy Sonn. For the all the work he has put into being a second baseman, he may be only holding a place until shortstop Wilson Betemit is ready for the majors, at which time Giles could move to third base to open a new position for Furcal.

He wants to run more this year. He wants to learn opposing pitching staffs. He wants what happened in 2001 to happen again but better. He has to do more.

"There was no time for 'You're a rookie.' I had to hit the ground running," he said of 2001. "We were in a pennant race. And I think that's the best way to get into it, with no time to think about it. There are aggressive, competitive ballgames every night. That was something you've been looking forward to your whole life."