Giles Keeps Proving Them Wrong

ATLANTA — Marcus Giles waited hopefully by the telephone on the first day of the baseball draft.

Nothing.

He definitely expected to get a call on the second day.

Nothing.

Finally, on the third day, the Atlanta Braves phoned to say they had taken Giles in the 53rd round. But their offer wasn’t exactly overwhelming.

“An airline ticket, a cup of tea and a couple of thousand dollars. That’s about it,” recalled Giles’ father, Bill.

Marcus was so distraught that he wanted to give up the game. “I’m going to become a cop,” he told his father. “My baseball days are over.”

Bill Giles persuaded his son to stick with it and prove everyone wrong. That he did, overcoming concerns about his size and defense -- not to mention personal tragedy -- to become one of the game’s top second basemen.

Giles was voted to start the All-Star game last season (he couldn’t play because of a concussion) and went on to hit .316 with 21 homers, 69 RBIs and 14 stolen bases. Defensively, he had more assists than anyone at his position in the National League, “which means he gets to a lot of balls,” pointed out Braves coach Glenn Hubbard.

Giles still scoffs at all those scouts who doubted he would ever make it.

“It’s kind of funny to me,” he said. “Somebody who makes the decision that can affect your whole career was never any good playing baseball themselves.”

While everyone knew Giles could hit, the scouts were concerned about his size -- he’s only 5-foot-8 -- and wondered if he would ever become good enough defensively to play in the major leagues.

Giles, though, was determined to follow the path of his older brother. He used to tag along with Brian Giles in the minor leagues, getting a tantalizing glimpse of the baseball lifestyle.

“There’s not too many people,” said Brian, now an outfielder with the San Diego Padres, “who get to take batting practice and go out on road trips.

Marcus grew up playing the outfield, moving to second base in his senior year of high school. It was a difficult transition, but Giles’ father encouraged him to use his perceived weaknesses as motivation to reach the big leagues.

“You know you can play at that level if given the opportunity,” Bill Giles told his son. “Don’t make it easy on them.”

Marcus Giles gave up the idea of law enforcement and spent a year at junior college. The Braves liked what they saw, giving him $60,000 to sign in 1997.

Giles fit right in offensively. He batted .348 his first year in the minors, followed by a huge season at Class A Macon -- .329, 37 homers, 108 RBIs.

Defense was a different story.

Hubbard was managing at Macon in 1998. A second baseman during his major league career -- and one of the best at turning the double play -- he knew right away that Giles would be a major project.

“It was ugly,” Hubbard recalled. “We worked on everything.”

Giles played the position like someone who had grown up in the outfield. Every ground ball was an adventure. He moved awkwardly. He had a tendency to throw across his body instead of squaring up.

But Hubbard was impressed with Giles’ work ethic. That summer, he took thousands of extra ground balls, making significant improvement as the year went on.

Giles committed 20 errors in the first half of the season. Hubbard challenged him to cut that total in half. Giles did even better, making only five errors the rest of the year.

He didn’t stop improving. Last season, Giles made 14 errors but led all NL second basemen with 471 assists and 763 chances in 139 games.

“He’s never going to look like Roberto Alomar,” Hubbard said. “But he’s a thousand percent better than he ever was. He made some plays last year that had me saying, ‘I can’t believe he made that play.’ ”

Defense isn’t the only area where Giles has matured. He got a jarring jolt in the summer of 2002 when his first child, Lundyn Mae, was born prematurely at 26 weeks and weighed only 1 pound. She died 16 days later.

Always on the hyperactive side -- Giles once did an interview while repeatedly striking his bare leg with a toothbrush -- he seems to have calmed since going through the death of a child.

“Marcus was always our loose cannon,” Bill Giles said. “Brian was always more low key. Marcus liked to live in the fast lane. But that whole experience caused him to sit back and appreciate life more. He grew up. That’s what he needed.”

Marcus and his wife had another child, Arrington Mae, less than a year later. She turned 1 recently -- a happy, healthy little girl.

The whole family was in Atlanta for the birthday celebration. In a fortuitous bit of scheduling, Brian and the Padres had a three-game series at Turner Field.

Marcus is having another solid season, though things haven’t quite gone according to plan. He has botched some plays defensively and missed four games after being struck on the left elbow by a pitch.

Still, he was hitting above .300 -- one of the few bright spots for a Braves team that has been plagued by injuries and struggled to score runs.

“You’ve got to believe in yourself,” Marcus Giles said. “If you don’t believe in yourself, no one else will.”