Angels shortstop David Eckstein isn't built like a typical big-leaguer, but he proves that good things come in small packages.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- What David Eckstein has done is pretty impressive. Here he is, no more than 5 feet 6 no matter what anyone says, playing shortstop and a key role for an Angels team three wins from the World Series.

One minute he's diving in the dirt to make a seemingly impossible play. The next he's digging for an extra base or sliding in hard to break up a double play. He takes pitches, and an occasional fastball on the backside, for the team. He's constantly on the move, scheming, plotting, trying to find some way to help from the top of the order, whether it's dropping a bunt or hitting a grand slam.

"Eckstein's incredible," Anaheim manager Mike Scioscia said. "To really appreciate him, you have to see him every day. Some guys that might be seeing him now might think, "That's just playoff adrenaline,' or whatever. When we were playing intrasquad games, this guy was playing at the same pace.

"I think that's how you can really measure David Eckstein. He knows how to play this game one way and one way only, and you're going to see it. We saw it all year. We saw it in the first series, we'll see it again in this series. That's why he's incredible. He's our catalyst. We wouldn't be here answering these questions if David wasn't doing his part. He certainly has this year."

More impressive, if not more amazing, is how Eckstein, 27, got here, how he got to the big leagues, how he got to pro ball. It all starts with the fall day in 1994 he walked up to the University of Florida baseball office.

A two-time all-Florida selection and a member of Sanford-Seminole High's state championship team, Eckstein (Eck-STINE) was content, with no other offers, to follow older brother Rick to Seminole Community College until his father, Whitey, told him he was "better than that" and suggested he instead walk on for the Gators.

When Eckstein went to the UF office to inquire of the schedule, he was told practice didn't start for six weeks, and the first two weeks would be for only the regular players.

What did he do? He did what he always does. He worked hard. Five days a week for those six weeks, he would go to the batting cages. Shortly after the returning Gators opened practice they realized they needed another second baseman to play an intrasquad game. Someone suggested the kid who'd been hanging around the cages.

"Since I was out there every day they said I was dedicated enough to at least give me that shot to play," Eckstein said. "So I got to have my walkon tryout the first two weeks with the guys. A walkon tryout at Florida is usually five swings, three ground balls and a 60(-yard) time.

"If I had to go through that process, I wouldn't have made it, because there's nothing I do that sticks out."

Instead, he earned a scholarship, two years of All-SEC honors and first-team All-American status in 1996.

Pro teams were so impressed that Eckstein was a 19th-round pick by Boston in 1997 and got $1,000 to sign. Worse, scout Luke Wrenn is said to have told Whitey Eckstein his son would probably play four or five years in the minors and then become a coach.

Eckstein had other plans. He was playing at Triple A in his fourth minor-league season when the Sox put him on waivers to create a roster spot, and the Angels grabbed him. That was the first of two big breaks.

With second baseman Adam Kennedy sidelined with a fractured finger in spring training in 2001, Eckstein earned a spot in the Angels lineup. His strong play and endless hustle made such an impression that when Kennedy came back, coach Alfredo Griffin suggested to Scioscia they try him at shortstop.

Scioscia's reply: "I looked at him and said, "You are kidding me.' "

"He did not have the arm," Griffin said. "But he had good hands, soft hands. He had good footwork. He's a smart player. And he has a big heart."

Eckstein started 118 games at shortstop last season and blossomed into an offensive force this season, hitting .293 with eight homers (including three grand slams, most in the majors) and 63 RBIs. He was hit by pitches a major-league-high 27 times, ranked third with 34 infield hits and stole 21 bases.

But the numbers really don't tell the story, which is an inspiration for undersized players. It is the relentless way he plays the game, his state of perpetual motion and always-thinking approach that endears him to teammates and coaches and alienates the opposition.

"I thought he was a little weasel," said Minnesota's Doug Mientkiewicz, who played at Florida State when Eckstein was at Florida. "He played the game exactly the way he plays it now -- hard. He drives the other team crazy. But I've said, "If you had nine David Ecksteins on your team, I don't think you'd ever lose a game.' "