After Four Poor Seasons, Anderson Is Nearly King of AL : Baseball: Former Anteater now the Orioles’ leadoff hitter is among league leaders in 10 categories.

Brady Anderson’s sideburns draw almost as much attention as, say, his leadoff home run Sunday against Oakland.

They elicit more comments than his scale-the-fence, visit-the-crowd-and-bring-back-the-ball catch that robbed Gary Gaetti of a home run May 22 at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Here he is, the most distinguished alumni of the now-defunct UC Irvine baseball program, off to one of the most outstanding and unexpected starts in the major leagues this season.

But this is what Brady Anderson got Monday when he arrived in the Orioles’ clubhouse at Anaheim Stadium.

“Hey,” said first base coach Davey Lopes, greeting him. “90210, whatever it is.”

Lopes was only the first of many. The writers who cover the Orioles call him Elvis. Most everybody else seems to throw ZIP codes at Anderson indiscriminately, teasing him about a resemblance to Luke Perry, the sideburned kid in the TV show “Beverly Hills 90210.”

The numbers that ought to be talked about are an altogether different set.

Anderson, playing left field and batting leadoff, has secured an everyday position and held onto it for the first time in his career. What he’s done with it is remarkable.

Never thought to have much power, he entered Monday’s game with home runs in each of his last three games, and nine this season.

He is batting .291, with an eight-game hitting streak. He has 14 doubles, an American League-best five triples, 14 stolen bases and 37 runs batted in.

With 37 RBIs, he and Kirby Puckett are tied for second in the league behind Mark McGwire (41). No leadoff hitter has had so many so early in a season since Lou Brock had 37 in the first 44 games for the 1967 Cardinals.

All this from a player who is the first outfielder in major league history to survive nearly four seasons while batting .231 or lower. He entered spring training with no lock on a job. Now he’s among the league leaders in 10 categories.

Explain it?

“I don’t have an answer,” said Baltimore Manager Johnny Oates. “You could put a gun to my head, and I couldn’t answer. I’d say he’s taken advantage of an opportunity.”

Angel second baseman Rene Gonzales, Anderson’s buddy and roommate in the off-season, puts it simply: “I think it’s just playing up to your potential.”

Last winter, back in the days when UC Irvine had a baseball team--”I think it’s terrible,” Anderson said of the decision to discontinue the program last week--the former Anteater and his buddy spent nearly every day working out together on campus.

They didn’t just lift weights and hit. They ran sprints, and they hung out with some of the world-class track stars who train at Irvine.

“We’d throw the shotput, the discus, the javelin,” Gonzales said.

Anderson and Gonzales, who met as teammates when Anderson was traded to the Orioles in 1988, say they’ve always worked hard in the off-season. This time they did it together, and both are having the best seasons of their careers.

“This year was probably more fun because I was with Rene Gonzales,” Anderson said. “I had somebody along to push and inspire me and had somebody to talk to about baseball. We’d both been through some sort of disappointment.”

The Orioles had their disappointments with Anderson, who was a 10th-round draft choice of the Red Sox in 1985. Anderson’s speed and good eye at the plate--he set a school record for walks with 52 in 1985--set him apart in college, even on a team that went 75-87-2 during his three seasons, ending in ’85.

People at Irvine remember Anderson as skinny and fast. But after growing nearly two inches and putting on 20 pounds, he is now 6 feet 1 and 193 pounds.

“I keep thinking he’s a little guy,” Oates said. “He’s bigger than I am. He’s just got that appearance. He and I joke. Last year he walked up to me and said, ‘How tall do you think I am?’ And he’s looking down at me.”

He’s still fast, too.

“Brady is one of the best athletes I’ve ever been around,” Gonzales said. “I told him there was no reason he should have had the numbers he had (the first few years of his career). He had a chance but just didn’t do it. I thought he should improve on them.”

Will Stolpe, a former standout in the sprints for Irvine, found out how fast Anderson is a few years ago, when the two raced during some of the track workouts suggested by White Sox conditioning coach Steve Odgers, a former Irvine decathlete.

“He came out, he wasn’t even going to get loose,” Anderson said. “It was 40 meters. I beat him pretty good.

“He was probably surprised. He’s really good at 100 meters. If we stretched it to 100, I wouldn’t have had a chance.”

Anderson’s chances of staying in the majors were slim if he hadn’t improved this season. Oates admits the Orioles had tagged Anderson as stubborn.

“We don’t think he is,” Oates said, “we know he is. He’s in the top five for all-time stubbornness. Brady’s No. 3. Gene Michael is No. 1, John Vukovich is No. 2.

“I’m No. 4. Cal Ripken Sr. was No. 4, but he has lifetime honorary membership now. He doesn’t have to be ornery to keep his spot anymore.”

The stubborn tag was mostly the result of Anderson’s hitting, or lack thereof.

“For four years around here we’ve been trying to get him to do certain things,” Oates said. “In ‘88, ‘89, ‘90, ‘91, we were trying to get him to hit the ball the other way, be a slap hitter. Finally this spring we said, ‘Hey, go do whatever you want.’ He’s probably gotten more base hits to left field this year, since we told him he didn’t have to, than he ever did before.”

His defense has been good, too. Oates points to the diving catch of Lance Blankenship’s line drive down the left-field line in the ninth inning of the Orioles’ 7-6 victory at Oakland on Saturday.

All over the field, he’s been a spark in the Orioles’ 30-19 start.

“I’d hate to see where we’d be without him,” Lopes said.