PRO BASEBALL / MIKE HISERMAN : It Was a Major Adjustment for Cirillo’s Ears

Reality did not hit when he got “The Call.”

Nor did it set in the first time he walked onto the field at Boston’s Fenway Park and gazed up at the Green Monster.

The butterflies were minimal even during batting practice. And everything still was OK when Jeff Cirillo took over defensively at third base in his first major league game.

But then the public-address announcer introduced the next Red Sox hitter, Mo Vaughn, and the fans roared.

“When that crowd went nuts I just went, ‘Oh, wow,’ ” said Cirillo, who played at Providence High and USC. “When you’re out there in batting practice, it’s basically the same stuff you do every day.

“But when you put fans in the stands at a major league park and they start making some noise, it’s a whole different thing.”

Since the Milwaukee Brewers promoted Cirillo on Tuesday, his head has been spinning. “These last few days have been pretty awesome,” he said.

Cirillo wore a big league uniform for the first time on Wednesday, fewer than 24 hours after receiving a telephone call from Chris Bando, his triple-A manager at New Orleans.

“We got rained out that night,” Cirillo said. “So when he called, I figured either I was traded or was going up.”

“How you feeling?” Bando inquired. “I feel good,” Cirillo said.

Pause.

“How you swinging it?” the manager asked.

Hey, you know how I’m swinging it, Cirillo thought. “Good,” he replied.

Pause.

“Well, you’re going to be swinging it in Fenway tomorrow,” Bando said.

Details of the conversation became a little fuzzy after that.

“I’ve always wanted to go to Boston just to see Fenway Park, just as a fan, never knowing I’d get to play here,” Cirillo said. “The place is pretty magical.”

As for the Green Monster, it was quickly conquered. Cirillo hit a couple of balls over the legendary outfield barrier during his first big league batting practice.

Indeed, he was a busy young man in the hours between his airline flight that landed in Boston at 2:30 p.m. and the game’s 7:05 p.m. starting time.

Cirillo’s mother and stepfather flew in from Van Nuys for the game and Cirillo greeted them bearing gifts: Brewers’ hats and a baseball autographed by Roger Clemens.

“I had to get that,” Cirillo said of the Clemens keepsake fetched by a Red Sox clubhouse attendant. “I still have a picture of him on my wall at home.”

On Thursday, Cirillo viewed his idol in person, from a distance of 60 feet 6 inches. In Cirillo’s debut as a starter, Clemens just happened to be the opposition’s starting pitcher.

Learning the previous day that the Brewers were facing Clemens, Cirillo allowed himself to fantasize about hitting a homer off the hard-throwing right-hander.

“That would be a dream,” he said.

And it will remain a dream, at least for now.

Boston downed the Brewers, 3-1, and Cirillo was 0 for 3, striking out against Clemens in his first two at-bats.

Then again, a smashing debut would have been out of character for Cirillo. At USC he wasn’t a regular until his senior season. He wasn’t even drafted as a junior.

Reflecting on his career this week, Cirillo admonished his many doubters, beginning with those who questioned his ability as a high school player coming out of tiny Providence.

“Whatever I did in high school, people said, ‘Well, how do you know? There’s no competition,’ ” he said. “There were so many doubters all the way up. I got so much negative feedback sometimes.

“I faced a lot of adversity. That’s one of the reasons I’m so fired up now. I feel like finally this is my time to bask.”

Cirillo, 24, last season led Brewers’ minor leaguers with 148 hits, 221 total bases and 84 runs. In 67 games for double-A El Paso, he batted .341 with nine homers and 41 runs batted in. In 58 games for triple-A New Orleans, he batted .293 with three homers and 32 RBIs.

He was batting .300 with two home runs and 13 RBIs in 30 games for New Orleans when he was promoted.

Cirillo is replacing Kevin Seitzer, who is expected to miss about a month because of a torn left hamstring.

However, Cirillo’s status could change when reserve catcher and backup infielder B.J. Surhoff comes off the disabled list in a few days.

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What’s brewing: Scott Richardson last season led Brewers’ minor leaguers with 50 stolen bases for Beloit, Wis., Milwaukee’s low Class-A affiliate. This season he might claim a larger thieves’ crown. Richardson, a three-year starter at Cal State Northridge, leads minor league baseball with 22 steals in 25 attempts. A converted second baseman, Richardson is playing the outfield and batting .295 for the Brewers’ high Class-A affiliate in Stockton, Calif.

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Hot hitter: Brent Cookson hit a team-high 17 home runs last season for the Giants’ Class-A team in San Jose. But in the words of Tony Siegle, the Giants’ vice president in charge of baseball operations, the 24-year-old Santa Paula native also was “a league leader in temper tantrums.”

Cookson was promoted to double-A Shreveport (La.) anyway, where his batting--rather than his temper--is causing quite a commotion. Through 27 games, Cookson was batting .352 and leading the Captains with 12 doubles, two triples, six home runs and 20 RBIs. His .739 slugging percentage is the best in the Texas League and he is second in the league in extra-base hits and fifth in homers.

Cookson has been the Texas League’s “batter of the week” the last two weeks. In a 14-5 victory over Arkansas earlier this month, he was four for four--three homers and a double. The winning pitcher in that game was former Alemany High left-hander Joey Rosselli.

Rosselli, who missed last season after undergoing shoulder surgery, is 2-1 with a 2.95 earned-run average and 27 strikeouts in 39 2/3 innings.

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Wild thing: Former Chatsworth High standout Derek Wallace, top pick of the Chicago Cubs in 1992 from Pepperdine, is off to a poor--albeit spectacular--start for double-A Orlando, Fla.

Wallace is 1-5 with a 5.23 ERA and leads the Southern League with four balks and eight hit batsmen.

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Rally killer: Dan Chergey, who pitched for Thousand Oaks High and Moorpark College, is the closer for the Brevard County Manatees, the Florida Marlins’ affiliate in the Class-A South Atlantic League.

In April, Chergey converted all six of his save opportunities, giving up three hits and a walk in 12 innings. He had 14 strikeouts.