Injury Could End Melendez’s Season : Baseball: Former St. Bernard High player, who is playing for Dodgers’ affiliate in San Antonio, will have his wrist examined today.

Dan Melendez has envisioned a midseason flight from a minor league city to Los Angeles ever since the Dodgers drafted him out of Pepperdine in June of 1992.

Melendez, a 6-foot-4 left-handed first baseman, had his dream become a reality this weekend when he arrived in Southern California from San Antonio, home of the Dodgers’ affiliate in the double-A Texas League.

However, a limousine ride from LAX to Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda’s office was not on Melendez’s agenda.

Today, Melendez will visit a hand specialist to see if a wrist injury he suffered a few weeks ago will end his first full professional season.

“I feel terrible,” said Melendez, who hurt his right wrist diving for a ground ball June 11. “It’s my first full season and they gave me a chance to play double-A. With a good year, I would have put myself in a good position.

“This just kills everything. I might have to start all over again.”

Melendez, 22, was batting .241 with seven home runs and 30 runs batted in before he injured his wrist during the first inning of a game at El Paso.

“I thought I had just jammed it,” he said. “I got it taped up pretty good and played another inning. But when I went up to the on-deck circle getting ready to hit, I couldn’t swing the bat.

“I didn’t think it was that serious, maybe just a sprain. I had it in a splint for a days, but it didn’t get any better. Now, I may have to get a cast on it. I’m not feeling too great about things right now.”

Melendez was anything but low last year when the Dodgers selected him in the second round of the amateur draft. Melendez, a St. Bernard High graduate, had batted .354 with 12 homers and 44 RBIs for a Pepperdine team that won the school’s first NCAA championship with a 3-2 victory over Cal State Fullerton.

Melendez was assigned to Bakersfield in the Class-A California League where he batted .267 with 11 RBIs and 11 doubles in 146 at-bats.

“It was a pretty big adjustment, coming off the high of winning the World Series and then signing with the Dodgers,” Melendez said. “I wasn’t really concentrating on what I was doing. I was caught up in being in pro ball.

“After the season, I told myself, ‘If this is what I want to do the rest of my life, I have to step up my game.’ ”

Melendez’s play at Bakersfield did not warrant a jump to double-A this season. But his performance during the Florida Instructional League in the winter convinced the Dodgers that he could make the adjustment.

“I worked on a lot of things and I was driving the ball during Instructional League,” Melendez said. “I also did pretty well at spring training.”

After struggling early in the season, Melendez found a groove. He was playing well and taking consistently good at-bats before he was injured.

Today, his status is uncertain.