ANAHEIM, Calif. -- If you haven't yet fallen in love with Angels shortstop David Eckstein, you're either a Yankees, Twins or Giants fan. Because as he showed us again Sunday with another Energizer Bunny act in Game 2 of the World Series, there's simply nothing not to love.

Start with his height. Professional athletes are, for the most part, muscle-bound Goliaths. And then there's this David. He's listed at 5-foot-8, 170 pounds, but there's a very good chance he was wearing the boots and armor Gene Simmons wore on the first of Kiss' seven reunion tours the day those measurement were taken.

In the third inning Sunday, during a mound conference with 6-foot-2 pitcher Kevin Appier and 6-foot-5 third baseman Troy Glaus, Eckstein kept jumping up and down. Longtime Angels observers say that's pretty common for Eckstein, whose energy amp goes to 11. But there's a decent chance he was just trying to hear what the big boys were saying.

The combination of his size and that energy makes for some comical scenes. One comes every time he steps into the on-deck circle. Actually, he never really steps into it. He stalks it, pacing back and forth in front of it while challenging physics with his curious on-deck routine.

It involves his bat and one of those long extra-weight things players put on the bat. You know, the things that look like a white Shinjo sweatband? Well, Eckstein takes the bat in one hand and whips it in big circles with a motion similar to a third-base coach waving a runner home. And because the loaded-up lumber probably weighs half of what Eckstein really weighs, it looks like he's either going to pull his shoulder out of socket or go spinning into an involuntary cartwheel.

But hey, whatever works. And this works for Eckstein, who led the league with three grand slams this season, two on consecutive days.

Not that he's a power guy. He's not. He's a leadoff hitter, and he's everything you want your leadoff hitter to be. For one thing, he's pesky. Borderline annoying. That might explain why he was thumped with a pitch a league-high 27 times.

And bat control? Brilliant. Saturday, with a runner on second and nobody out, he was visibly irked when he failed to drop a sacrifice bunt and then whiffed on a slash after faking a bunt. So he settled in and put together an epic at-bat against Giants starter Jason Schmidt than ended with Eckstein fighting off a nasty inside pitch.

It dribbled out to second base and Eckstein was thrown out, but it moved the runner over, and that's all he was hoping to do in the first place.

"Just a great piece of hitting," Schmidt marveled. "That guy's a pain in the (butt)."

He was at it again Sunday. He opened Anaheim's incredible first inning with an opposite-field single to right, and he opened the second inning with a bunt single. Two innings, two hits, two runs scored.

He slapped his third hit of the night in the bottom of the eighth, then drew 13,467 throws over from Giants reliever Felix Rodriguez, who was clearly gassed when he served up Tim Salmon's second homer of the night.

David Eckstein, the human equivalent of the Rally Monkey.

He can pick it up out there at short, too. Nobody's going to mistake him for the Wizard of Oz out there, but he turns in his share of spectacular plays, and he christened Game 2 by laying out to his left to rob Rich Aurilia of a knock in the top of the first.

Never mind the fact that any shortstop who couldn't sub in for the Lucky Charms guy wouldn't have needed to dive for that ball. The effort was impressive nonetheless.

It always is with Eckstein, a 27-year-old lifelong Floridian whom the Angels picked off Boston's scrap heap in 2000. He's been in a great big hurry ever since.

He sprints on and off the field, slowing only for an exuberant hop over the foul line that makes him look like he's the little man in Donkey Kong, jumping flaming barrels.

He sprints to first base when he's walked, and after sprinting to first on his bunt Sunday, he ran through the bag so hard that he was halfway to the right-field fair pole by the time he'd slowed.

He'll even sprint home from third on a sacrifice fly to deep center, his maniacal momentum taking him nearly into the netting behind home plate.

And when Reggie Sanders hit a moon shot of a homer in the second inning Sunday, Eckstein sprinted out to shallow left as if he was going to be the cutoff man for someone in the 20th row of the bleachers.

It's like every destination is a restroom, and Eckstein really has to go.

Only once has this hustle come back to haunt him. He fell victim to the evil temptation to slide into first base earlier this year and suffered a knee injury that cost him a week.

Knowing full well that there have been studies that prove running through the bag is faster -- are you listening, Shawon Dunston? -- than sliding, Eckstein coughed up another couple of reasons to love him: humility and humor.

"I don't know what I was thinking," he said. "That was stupid."

This is why Anaheim's preposterous victory Sunday is such a good thing. It guaranteed that there will be at least five games in this series and probably more. Which means more of this lovable espresso shot of a man.

Game 3 is Tuesday in San Francisco. Eckstein might just sprint to it.