Hard knocks put Marcus Giles on successful career path: Braves' second baseman has worked hard to become a starter, an All-Star, and one of the top players at his position - Atlanta Braves

Baseball Digest, Nov, 2003 by Thomas Stinson

THE PHONE MESSAGE LIGHT WAS flashing well before Marcus Giles returned to his home on a Sunday evening. If the message itself was new, the content was not.

"Marcus, stay back, keep your hands behind the pitch."

It was his father calling from San Diego.

"Three words. Trust your hands."

Bill Giles laughed at his advice a few hours later.

"I'm sure he'll tell you that half the time I leave him messages, as soon as he hears my voice, he shuts me off."

Not really, not Marcus Giles, who has come to know more about trust and shutting people off--or inviting them in--than the average second baseman may come to know at age 25. Not that he is the average second baseman anymore, either, following the years of doubt that escort any 53rd-round draft pick.

But in a summer of enlightenment for a Braves team that learned a new way of winning, Giles became the bigger surprise, advancing from tentative project to All-Star in barely three months. Through August 19, Atlanta had the majors' best record at 81-43 and Giles was hitting a crisp .317--demonstrating that diligence, a father's hitting advice and some simple resentment can go a long way.

"It can really drive you when people tell you that you can't do something," Giles said. "Pretty much, all it takes is hard work. And if that's all it takes, then why isn't anything possible?"

If Gary Sheffield is the Braves' MVP and Jaw Lopez is their comeback player, then what is Giles? By September 1, he not only was hitting .319 with 41 multi-hit games, but he led the club with 44 doubles and appeared a cinch to break the franchise record of 47 set by Tommy Holmes of the Boston Braves in 1945.

For across-the-board production, he is having the best year by a Braves second baseman since Davey Johnson's 43-homer, 99-RBI season of 1973.

"He's getting an idea of what his Job is in that No. 2 hole, and he thinks about what he has to do before he gets up there, not when he's in the box," hitting coach Terry Pendleton said.

In the field, Giles' .982 fielding percentage was 13th best among regular second basemen in the majors. His rate of 3.5 assists per nine innings was the highest in the N.L.

"He's gone from maybe an average second baseman in the minors to well above average in the major leagues," manager Bobby Cox said. "He may be the standard right now."

In the dugout, where last year former teammate Mike Remlinger dressed him down in front of the team for failing to make a play, he has become the Braves' liveliest wire.

Off the field, he and wife Tracy are adjusting to life with a baby daughter, Arringtun. It was in 2002 that the couple lost their first child--daughter Lundyn, who had been born three months premature.

"There's a reason (Lundyn) was here," Tracy Giles said. "There was something she had on her mind she wanted us to know. It was, 'You can't take a single day for granted."

DOUBTS ABOUT DEFENSE

Seven years ago, Marcus Giles had determined to end his baseball career before it started. Expecting to be a first-day selection in the 1996 draft, he didn't go until near the end of the second day, in the 53rd round.

Having watched older brother Brian's stock drop in the 1989 draft due to his size--he was a 5-foot-10 outfielder--Marcus, who is two inches shorter, had decided it might help if he moved to the infield, which he did after his junior year. It was a disaster.

"I went to see him once against Helix. High," said John Ramey, the Braves' Southern California scout. "He misplayed a grounder, couldn't catch the ball on a stolen base attempt and couldn't catch a pop-up. But he hit three or four of the hardest balls I saw all year."

Giles was a draft-and-follow pick, meaning the Braves wouldn't sign him until just before the next year's draft. He played a season at a junior college, and then the Braves dispatched Roy Clark, the club's current scouting director, to check him out. In one round of batting practice, Giles went from barely beating a grounder out of the cage to driving home runs to all three fields.

"Once he got going," Ramey said, "he hit 'em out everywhere you could hit it."

Ramey and Braves special scouting assistant Al Kubski went to Giles' house to try to sign him, with Kubski reminding Giles that Mike Piazza had been a 62nd-round choice.

"I won't tell you what they offered, but it wasn't much more than a plane ticket and a couple days of meal money," Bill Giles said. "Marcus' expectations were higher, and he made a comment to both of them, 'You know what? Forget it. I'm done playing baseball. I'm going to become a cop.'"

Once Kubski and Ramey left the house, Bill Giles said to his son, "This is just the beginning. Show them what you got. Basically, I said, go back and rub it in their face. It may take five or 10 years. But hey, you drafted me in the 53rd round, and you made a mistake."

That spite served Marcus Giles well. But it wasn't until he was linked with Glenn Hubbard that his resentment was really focused. Undersized like Giles and a 20th-round pick when the draft lasted 20 rounds, Hubbard coached Giles at Class A Macon in 1998 and took him on as a personal project.