Baseball's `Late-Bloomers'.(players whose play improves as they get older)

Struggling to get their careers on track, many players have spent several years in the minors before they established themselves in the majors

IN THIS AGE OF INSTANT GRATIFICATION, it may seem old fashioned, as well as wearing on the nerves, to exercise extreme patience but when it comes in baseball prospects a period of watchful waiting and nurturing can pay off handsomely. The influence of time as a teacher can't be overestimated.

After all, just as not every beardless spring training "phenom" turns out to be a super star in the making, not all hopefuls who appear to be "duds" early in their careers are inevitably headed for the scrap heap without a chance of making it big.

Few rookies burst into stardom at first try and in their early 20s the way Vladimir Guerrero, Nomar Garciaparra, Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Andruw Jones have done in recent years. Even fewer do so while teenagers, as did Atlanta Braves shortstop Rafael Furcal, the 2000 National League Rookie of the Year, last season, or Hall of Famers Robin Yount, Al Kaline and Mel Ott did in the past.

Sure, quick success is preferable to sloth-like progress. Few would want to emulate pitcher Earl Caldwell whose career season came at the age of 41 in 1946 when he went 113-4 with a 2.08 ERA for the Chicago White Sox, though the old saw that "better late than never" might apply to his case.

Yet, it doesn't require a jaunt into the distant past to cite numerous instances of players who can be called "late-bloomers," though there were plenty of laggard old-timers, too, some of whom are now honored with Hall of Fame plaques.

Among current standouts who came along slowly, even painfully, are San Diego Padres third baseman Phil Nevin, Montreal Expos first baseman Lee Stevens, New York Mets left-handed starter Al Letter, Boston Red Sox center fielder Carl Everett, White Sox third baseman Herbert Perry and Pittsburgh Pirates outfielder John VanderWal