He Can’t Serve When He Sits and Waits : Angels: Center fielder Junior Felix has learned he’s no fan. He is happy only when he’s entertaining them.

Junior Felix discovered last season that he isn’t a baseball fan.

Idled early in the season because of a strained right calf muscle and later because of strained muscles on the left side of his rib cage, the Angel center fielder soon realized he lacks the patience to be a spectator.

“I was watching the other guys playing, and I don’t like to watch any sport at all,” he said.

“Sometimes I would go inside and think, ‘What’s happening? What’s going on? Geez, I cannot play.’ I’m glad to come back and do what I want to do.”

Felix’s recovery and happiness are reflected in his offensive statistics and in his take-charge attitude in the outfield. Batting second behind Luis Polonia, Felix leads the Angels with 13 runs and is second in runs batted in, with 11 in 17 games.

With two home runs, he has equaled his production in 66 games last season, and despite his .247 batting average, he is second among the Angels only to Hubie Brooks in total bases, with 27.

More important is Felix’s improved defensive play. The 24-year-old native of Laguna Sabada in the Dominican Republic is the only regular who hasn’t committed an error, a result of the confidence and aggressiveness he developed this spring under the guidance of spring training outfield instructor Sam Suplizio.

“The skills, I’m sure, have always been there,” Suplizio said, adding that Felix’s development might have been hindered by his inability to speak English. “I’m not sure it wasn’t that he just needed someone with him.

“What I think he’s done is developed good work habits during the course of the spring. He practiced jumps off the bat daily and worked on running good routes to balls, charging ground balls and lining himself up with the base he’s throwing to. He’s more confident on turning his back to the ball.

“We talked about him being the quarterback of the outfield. I’ve told him you have to say, ‘I’m going to call for the ball, and if you want it, you have to call me off.’ I’m more pleased all the time with the handling of his outfield duties. The corner fielders respect what he does. He’s been terrific.”

Based on his strong spring and good start, the Angels say they believe Felix is close to becoming the offensive catalyst and defensive leader they hoped he would be when they got him and Luis Sojo from the Toronto Blue Jays for Willie Fraser and Devon White in December of 1990.

They know he can hit--Felix blazed an end to the 1991 season by hitting .325 in his last 23 games and finished at .283--and they now project him as a complete player. They point to Saturday’s game against Seattle, when he hit a three-run home run against Randy Johnson and also leaped to reach above the fence to rob the Mariners’ Kevin Mitchell of a home run.

“Junior Felix has been a joy,” Manager Buck Rodgers said. “Even though he’s not carrying a high batting average, he’s playing super outfield, and I think he’s second on the team in RBIs. He’s playing hard every day.

“Junior Felix is turning into a good, good player. This is the start of the season, and we want him to continue this. He keeps this up, and Junior Felix will be one of the better players in this league. We’re seeing some of his overall talent, complete talent. Junior has won us games with his defense and with his bat, and by beating the ball out at second base against Jim Gantner (on April 11 against Milwaukee) he prolonged the inning and won us a game with his speed.”

Said Suplizio: “He’s an impact player and a good one. If he can stay injury-free, he should have a very good year . . . defensively and offensively.”

Because of Felix’s injuries last season, and because Rodgers was named manager on Aug. 26, Rodgers didn’t have much of a chance to see Felix, and he wasn’t sold on the outfielder. Rodgers’ doubts were evident this spring, when he cast Felix and Chad Curtis as competitors for the starting job in center field. That didn’t last long, though. Felix was assured of a place in the lineup, and Curtis got a backup role.

“I was very skeptical from what I saw in September,” Rodgers said. “Of course, he was coming back from a calf injury. He showed us in spring training what he can do. He worked very hard, and it’s paid off. We’re very happy with Junior Felix.

“He’s played a very good center field. That’s the big thing I wanted. I always felt he’s a good offensive player, felt he was coming into his own, and I still do. He goes (from) first to third better than anybody on the ballclub and gets down the line well, too.”

Felix insisted he didn’t resent having to win his job back this spring.

“I wasn’t mad. Not really,” said Felix, who hit .263 for the Blue Jays in 1990 with 15 homers, 65 RBIs and 13 stolen bases, “It was the same situation I had in Toronto. They had Mark Whiten and Glenallen Hill and Rob Ducey behind me. There were more people there. Here it was one. It’s competition, and you just have to do the best you can.

“When there’s competition, you have to work a little harder. It’s good to have some competition--but not too much.”

Expected to vie for the team lead in stolen bases, Felix has yet to record a steal and has been caught twice. He said before the season opened that 35 steals “is going to be the start. I want more than that. I’m going in with some numbers in my mind. I really can’t tell you. RBI, at least more than I had in 1990, and a little bit more stolen bases.”

He says he’s confident the steals will come, given Rodgers’ penchant for the hit and run and aggressive baserunning.

“That’s what I was used to,” Felix said. “I hope we keep going like that. You put a lot of pressure on the other team, and you never know what’s going to happen. They can make mistakes that might cost them the game.”