Hyzdu keeps chasing the dream

SURPRISE, Ariz. -- There was no heat in the desert on Tuesday afternoon, just rain, wind and temperatures dipping well below 60.

The Angels were leading, 9-0, in the eighth inning when Adam Hyzdu went into the game defensively so that Kevin Mench could have the rest of the day off. He was out there in the muck when Rob Quinlan hit a fly ball down the right-field line and Hyzdu sprinted over to make a diving, sliding catch just inside the foul line.

"A beautiful catch," Rangers manager Buck Showalter said, reviewing the play two days later.

The Angels still won, 9-0.

"It's happened before," Hyzdu said Thursday morning, sitting with his son, Zachary, in the Rangers clubhouse. "Even in a game that's out of hand, I'm of the opinion you give it your best effort no matter what. It may not mean much in the grand scale of things, but I'm sure the pitcher appreciated it. You have a responsibility to give your best effort at all times."

He has been trying to do that for a long time over a fascinating 17-year odyssey through the Minor Leagues and across the United States.

The No. 1 draft pick of the San Francisco Giants in 1990, he has been in professional baseball longer than any other player in camp except reliever Antonio Alfonseca.

Yet not even Alfonseca, well-traveled himself, has as rich and varied a resume as Hyzdu, going back to Cincinnati Moeller High School, where he broke Ken Griffey Jr.'s career home run record.

"He took that personally," Hyzdu said. "We'd try to joke with him about it but he'd say, 'Yeah, I got you now.' We'd say, 'Yeah, Ken, we know.' He's a little sensitive about his accomplishments."

The Rangers are his seventh organization, which doesn't include three separate tours with the Red Sox. He has been traded three times, released three times, been a Rule 5 Draft pick and loaned out to the Mexican League.

He has played in 1,604 Minor League games and has 5,631 at-bats. He has hit 259 home runs in the Minor Leagues, which is 13 more than Crash Davis supposedly hit to break the all-time Minor League mark in the movie Bull Durham.

He has 354 Major League at-bats, but they have been spread over six seasons, with a career high of 155 with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2002.

But he has a World Series ring and was once the National League Player of the Week, and he was the first player to ever have his uniform retired by the Double-A Altoona Curve. He is huge in Altoona, the Pennsylvania railroad town where he was the 2000 Eastern League Most Valuable Player.

"It was just like the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the way the city embraced me and my family," Hyzdu said. "It was just the timing, the first two years of the franchise's existence, the best player on the team. I became the grandson, big brother, brother of everybody. They would stop me on the street and say, 'Great job. When are the Pirates going to call you up.' "

Pittsburgh finally did so on Sept. 8, 2000, more than 10 years after the Giants had made him their first overall pick and after having played across the map in Everett, Clinton, San Jose, Shreveport, Chattanooga, Winston-Salem, Trenton, Pawtucket, Tucson, Nashville, Altoona and Monterrey, Mexico.

Hyzdu singled in his first at-bat off Ron Villone but he was just beginning a six-year tribulation of shuttling between Triple-A and the Majors. Most of it was in Triple-A, either Nashville, Pawtucket or Portland.

He has yet to play a full season in the Majors, even though he was the National League Player of the Week for July 15-21 while with the Pirates, hitting .588 with three home runs and 11 RBIs.

But Hyzdu was with the Red Sox at the end of the glorious 2004 season, and hit a game-winning home run in the eighth inning off the Devil Rays' Lance Carter on Sept. 29.

He was 3-for-10 with the Red Sox that year and let it be known that his .800 slugging percentage was the highest for anybody on the World Series champions. He wasn't on the postseason roster but he was on the bench, took batting practice just in case somebody got hurt, and brought along a video camera to chronicle what he called the greatest moment of his career.

"After 86 years of misery for those folks, it was amazing to be a part of that," Hyzdu said.

The Red Sox traded him to the Padres in Spring Training last year, and then re-acquired him four months later. This time he was on the postseason roster after Gabe Kapler went down with an injury, but did not get into a game as the Red Sox were eliminated by the White Sox in the Division Series.

Hyzdu turned 34 in December, he's married and he and his wife, Julie, have three children. Zachary's birthday was Wednesday and he celebrated it by hanging with dad in the Rangers clubhouse on Thursday.

"I've been afforded the opportunity to provide a living for my family by playing a game," Hyzdu said. "Have we gotten rich? No. But we have a roof and food playing a game for a living. My family has enjoyed it for the most part.

"It doesn't happen much but things like this, bringing my son to sit in the Major League clubhouse, those things can't be emulated. You can't get it back once you're gone."

The Rangers signed him for outfield depth, and he's still in camp because Laynce Nix has only started to play in "A" games because of his throwing arm, and Gary Matthews Jr. is down with a rib cage injury.

"The first thing that impresses you is what a very young, athletic 34-year-old he is, as evidenced by the play he made in right field," Rangers general manager Jon Daniels said. "You can see why he has been given the opportunities he has, because of his ability and track record. I'm glad we have him."

That doesn't change the fact that Hyzdu still faces long odds in making this team. It is much more likely -- perhaps certainly -- that he'll be in Triple-A Oklahoma when the season starts.

That does not deter him from chasing the dream.

"I love to play the game, that's the main thing," Hyzdu said. "The main thing still is the opportunity to provide for my family. But what happens if I wind up playing every day and hitting 30 home runs?

"Everybody's opinion of my career changes. It's not out of the realm of possibility. The physical skills are there. All of a sudden I'm an everyday player for the next three or four years. I don't ever want to be in a position where I could have done something else."