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Big Leap for Big Mac
by Tom Krasovic, San Diego Union Tribune
April 1, 2007
PEORIA, Ariz. -- The little-train-that-could stuff gets overdone in
Padres lore.
Tim Flannery was a versatile athlete and a hitting machine in college
at Chapman.
Back when Eric Owens was wearing No. 74 in Padres camp, well before
the Padres marketed him as the guttiest player of the 20th century,
his bat control impressed hitting coach Merv Rettenmund. And Owens
could really run.
Now along comes Paul McAnulty, another player who likes to get dirty.
Propelled by his left-handed bat, McAnulty learned yesterday he has
made the club as a reserve left fielder/pinch hitter.
Five years ago McAnulty was a doughy designated hitter at Long Beach
State, when scouts Jason McLeod and Chris Gwynn recommended him to
Padres scouting director Bill Gayton, who would select McAnulty in the
sixth round.
Because McAnulty didn't look like a Greek god and didn't play a
position, skeptics doubted him.
But this isn't the dead-ball era.
"We aren't presumptuous enough to think we can teach somebody to
hit,"
Oakland Athletics General Manager Billy Beane likes to say. Or as
Padres second baseman Marcus Giles put it this week, "The ability
to
hit is a gift. You come out of the womb with it."
The hoary clich is that hitting is the hardest thing to do in sports.
For many years, McAnulty has been good at it, long before he made side
money by giving hitting lessons to kids in Oxnard.
Still, some people couldn't get past the body, which is more athletic
than it used to appear. After seeing him in the entry- level Pioneer
League -- where McAnulty would bat a league-best .379 - - one Padres
executive blasted a Padres scout for inducing the club to invest a
six-figure sum in him.
"He's an American League player," said many scouts.
In time, McAnulty found his inner athlete. He firmed up his 5- foot-10
frame to 220 pounds after getting conditioning advice from veterans
such as outfielder Dave Roberts.
He invested in his defense.
"I've been paying someone to hit flyballs to me," he said yesterday,
shortly before he singled in his first Cactus League at- bat since
March 18. "I do it in the winter. I've done it the last three years."
McAnulty shagged flies on the same Padres practice fields where he
auditioned in spring training. He strengthened his arm by throwing
several times a week.
This month McAnulty made several good plays in sunny, arid defensive
conditions that are more difficult than a typical regular- season
game. It was all the more impressive because last year McAnulty
shuttled from third base to first for most of the Triple-A season.
"I turned the critics into believers," McAnulty said. "It
shows that
hard work pays off."
In the minors, McAnulty batted far more regularly than he probably
will early this season -- but major league scraps are far tastier than
minor league full courses.
"You won't hear me complain about pinch hitting," said the 26-
year-old, who hit a game-winning, pinch home run for the Padres in
September but is just 3-for-26 in the majors as a pinch hitter.
"You've got to start somewhere. This is a tough lineup to crack.
Each
year, I get a little closer. Nothing was ever handed to me coming up."
Trust the bat, said a baseball veteran who saw McAnulty often, as he
assembled a .305 batting average and a .398 on-base percentage in 575
minor league games.
"Mac is fearless, and you need that as a pinch hitter," minor
league
field coordinator Bill Bryk said. "And he's got a compact, quick
swing."
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