Abner Gets Off to Good Start : Baseball: Center fielder shakes opening-day jitters to contribute two RBIs in Padres’ victory over San Francisco.

Except for his orange fingers, he was ready to start the baseball season.

He finished his bag of Cheetos, crumpled it up and threw it away.

He licked the Cheetos dust off his fingers.

“Nervous food intake,” Shawn Abner said.

He paced in front of his locker. Sat down. Kicked up his feet.

Only four hours to go.

“I’ve been excited since (Monday night’s workout)” he said. “I got goose bumps.”

Four hours until the biggest season of his life. Abner, the No. 1 choice overall of the June 1984 free agent draft, earned the job as the starting center fielder during spring training. He is only 24, yet it seems as if he has been waiting forever.

He hung around the Padre clubhouse as a backup outfielder last season. Before that, he made cameo appearances in San Diego in 1987, 1988 and 1989. He never has had more than 184 at-bats in a big-league season. Abner and “potential” have usually been partners in the same sentence.

Tuesday, his opportunity arrived. Manager Greg Riddoch penciled him into the eighth slot in the Padre batting order and told him to keep it for awhile.

Tuesday, Abner got off to a good start. He went one for three with two RBIs and also robbed Giant shortstop Mike Benjamin of an extra-base hit with a running catch in the third.

Despite having just over two years of major league experience entering Tuesday’s game, he never had an opening day at-bat.

In fact, he could only remember playing once in a major league opener, in 1988 when he got in as a defensive replacement in the late innings at Houston.

“I’m excited,” he said before the game. “This is my first (opening day) and hopefully not my last. Hopefully I’ll feel this way every April eighth or ninth.

“I feel like a kid.”

Abner hit .350 this spring with two home runs. He was three for four in the final game Sunday, after which he quickly credited Merv Rettenmund, Padre batting coach.

“He taught me more in the last two weeks than I think I’ve learned since I’ve been playing,” Abner said.

But the No. 8 position in a batting order isn’t a place to collect impressive statistics. With the pitcher up next, you don’t see many pitches to hit. Abner’s goal is simple: Just get the pitcher up to bat as many times as possible.

For the first time, he has a starting position until he plays his way out of it. For the first time, he said, he won’t feel like one lousy at bat will send him back to the bench.

“I don’t have to worry about going oh-fer,” he said.

Finally, he can get excited for more than one token appearance a week. Center field. Nice ring to it.

He got up to go brush his teeth, and face the first night of the rest of his career.