Pedro Feliz is always up for a challenge. He even jokes about mastering Chinese, just because it would be so difficult.
Right now, however, Feliz has enough on his plate on the field.
In his first season as a regular, Feliz is playing three positions and helping provide protection for Barry Bonds in the San Francisco Giants' lineup.
PHOTO: AFP
He's batting .266, is third on the team with 43 RBIs and has hit 13 home runs, second to Bonds' 19. Feliz has played first, third and shortstop this season, and the Giants have even talked about using him in the outfield if necessary since he played 15 games there last year.
"I want to be in the lineup. It doesn't matter what position," he said. "Every time I go there and see my name in the lineup, I just go do what I have to do. ... I want to be a one-position player. I don't think anybody wants to be an every-position player [forever]."
Feliz's contributions have helped the reigning NL West champion Giants win 12 of their last 14 games to regain the division lead. They play a three-game series against the Dodgers in Los Angeles starting Tuesday.
With what Feliz shown the club this season, manager Felipe Alou has said Feliz should be a starter in one position come 2005 -- which will be his fifth full season in the majors. Feliz's favorite spot is third, but Edgardo Alfonzo has that job.
"I think it's very difficult," Giants assistant general manager Ned Colletti said. "His primary position is third base, but he has learned to play shortstop and first. Few players in the game can do that. Thinking that he's a full-time player for the first time is amazing, and that he's hitting in the middle of our lineup."
Feliz is already well ahead of his 2003 pace, when he had his most productive pro season yet despite starting only 48 games. He hit 16 homers, drove in 48 runs and had several game-winning hits.
General manager Brian Sabean said before this season one of his priorities was to get Feliz more playing time.
"Part of playing the game is being comfortable, and he's done a great job," Giants outfielder Dustan Mohr said. "He's adapting at first, third and shortstop. He's done that and still been consistent. It would be easy for him to get frustrated and confused constantly moving around, but he just wants to be in the lineup."
For Feliz, who's signed through this season, playing every day has become an important distraction from the hard life he left behind in Azua, Dominican Republic, a village roughly 2 1/2 hours south of the Caribbean country's capital of Santo Domingo.
His older brother, Isaac Antonio, was killed in a car accident in 1998, and he was the father figure for Feliz and his two sisters, who lived with their mom. Their father is a farmer, but business isn't good.
"Right now, there's not much to farm down there," Feliz said.
Feliz was playing winter ball in the Dominican when his brother died at age 29, then reported to Double-A Shreveport that season.
"That was hard, a big thing. Your only brother. He was the big man in the house. Anything I needed if he had it, it was mine. We were friends," Feliz said.
"It took me a long time. That was a tough time for me when I had to concentrate on baseball. About 10 times in the game I had him on my mind. I had to do it because it was only me left in the house [to earn money]. Thank God we got over it. We hung in there. It wasn't easy."
Feliz still batted .253 that season with 13 homers and 77 RBIs. The next year, in 2000, he went to Triple-A Fresno and hit 33 homers with 105 RBIs, and the Giants called him up in September.
Now, he's become a key member of the club because of his versatility.
"If he puts his mind straight, groundballs everywhere -- third, short, first -- are groundballs," said Neifi Perez, who has played second and shortstop this season, and also played with Feliz in the Dominican Republic. "He has shown he can play different positions. He hasn't made progress, he's just gotten opportunities to show the skills he has."
Feliz began developing those skills playing street ball in his neighborhood when he was about 4. As a kid, he preferred shortstop and second base. But for now, he's not going to be picky.
His family tries to see as many games as possible on TV via satellite, but the satellite hasn't been working well this season.
Frustrating as that it, Perez knows they're cheering him on from afar, and relying on him to support them, too.
"That's why I'm here," he said.
Victor Zambrano pitched six solid innings to win his fifth straight decision, and the Tampa Bay Devil Rays beat the Toronto Blue Jays 10-2 on Monday night for their 16th win in 18 games.
Geoff Blum and Jose Cruz Jr. homered in support of Zambrano (8-4), who hasn't lost in nine starts since May 15. The right-hander allowed two runs on seven hits, walked four and struck out three.
Tampa Bay improved to a major league-best 27-8 since May 20 and climbed back over .500 (37-36) two days after becoming the first team in major league history to get above the break-even point after being 18 games below.
Roy Halladay (6-5) allowed seven runs on eight hits in five innings -- his shortest outing of the season.
Orioles 10, Royals 1
In Kansas City, Missouri, David Newhan had three hits, including a two-run homer, and the Orioles snapped a seven-game road losing streak.
Rookie left-hander Erik Bedard (3-2) pitched 6 1-3 shutout innings for the Orioles, who won for just the second time in 11 road games. He gave up five hits, struck out three and walked one.
Brian Roberts, Miguel Tejada and Javy Lopez each drove in two runs.
Darrell May (5-9) lost for the first time in four decisions, allowing seven runs and eight hits in six-plus innings.
David Bell hit for the cycle and drove in a career-high six runs, powering the Philadelphia Phillies to a 14-6 victory over the Montreal Expos on Monday night.
Bell doubled in the second, homered in the fourth, singled in the sixth and hit a controversial triple in the seventh inning to complete the feat also accomplished by his grandfather, Gus Bell, who hit for the cycle for Pittsburgh on June 4, 1951.
Bell drove a 2-2 pitch off Rocky Biddle to left-center that appeared to deflect off the outreached hands of a fan in the first row. The ball caromed toward center field and away from Montreal's Brad Wilkerson, who along with Montreal manager Frank Robinson, protested the call for several minutes. The umpires convened and allowed the three-base hit to stand.
Pirates 2, Cardinals 1
In Pittsburgh, Jack Wilson turned an apparent double in the bottom of the ninth into the game-winning run and the Pirates, held hitless into the seventh by Jeff Suppan, rallied to beat the Cardinals.
Wilson hit a drive down the left-field line for his NL-leading 104th hit with one out in the ninth against reliever Julian Tavarez (2-1) and, after realizing no one was covering second, kept running on the play.
First baseman Albert Pujols moved over to cut off the throw and appeared to have time to get Wilson at third. But his throw sailed wide of the bag and out of play, sending Wilson home.
St. Louis shortstop Edgar Renteria leads Houston's Adam Everett by just six votes in fan voting for next month's All-Star game at Houston.
Renteria (986,688) overtook Everett (986,682) in the race for the National League's starting shortstop in totals released Monday by the commissioner's office.
Renteria's six-vote lead at shortstop -- position No. 6 in baseball scorebooks -- is not final. Ballpark balloting is over, but fans can still cast votes online through June 30.
In the American League, the Yankees' Hideki Matsui (1,264,633) moved past Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki (1,207,614) and New York's Gary Sheffield (1,174,689) into the third spot among AL outfielders.
Leaders at every other position remained the same. In the National League, Mets catcher Mike Piazza (1,613,390), Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols (1,533,898), Astros second baseman Jeff Kent (1,825,661) and Cardinals third baseman Scott Rolen (1,811,831) maintained strong leads.
Giants outfielder Barry Bonds (2,028,148) remained the NL's leading vote-getter. The Reds' Ken Griffey Jr. (1,864,669) and the Cubs' Sammy Sosa (1,545,356) are also in position to start in the NL outfield.
On the AL side, Rangers second baseman Alfonso Soriano leads all players with 2,333,795 votes. The Yankees have three infielders in line to start -- first baseman Jason Giambi (1,296,809), shortstop Derek Jeter (1,422,786) and third baseman Alex Rodriguez (2,014,890). Detroit's Ivan Rodriguez (1,654,358) leads at catcher. In the outfield, Matsui joined the Angels' Vladimir Guerrero (2,088,001) and Boston's Manny Ramirez (1,877,779) as possible starters.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier