Five Positions Later, Templeton Adjusts to Demands of Mets : Baseball: Versatile ex-Padre is on a roll since his May 31 trade to New York.

It would have been natural to wonder how Garry Templeton would react to being uprooted. His reputation was grounded in stability and fixed at shortstop.

Before this season, he had played 1,923 games at that position, more than any other active player, and only two anywhere else, both at third base. That makes his past three weeks with the New York Mets so striking. He has displayed an altogether different kind of range.

Templeton was in the lineup at first base Wednesday night for the Mets’ game against the Cincinnati Reds at Shea Stadium. It was his second straight start at first, and his fifth position as a Met. The shifts--from short to third to left field to right field to first--apparently have not distracted him at the plate.

Although he was batting only .211 entering Wednesday night’s game, he was on a surge. He had hit safely in the previous four games and was batting .312 on the homestand. He had three hits Wednesday night.

His recent performance testifies to the assertion he made last week: that he has not been daunted by the most profound move of all, from San Diego to New York.

“I’ve been coming here for 15 years,” he said. “It doesn’t bother me. It was kind of exciting for me, coming to New York.”

For someone who had been around so long, played in two All-Star Games, was once traded for Ozzie Smith and played 1,999 games with the St. Louis Cardinals and Padres, Templeton nonetheless experienced a novelty soon after the Mets acquired him for Tim Teufel on May 31.

“I gave him my first baseman’s glove and said, ‘Here, take some ground balls,’ ” Met Manager Bud Harrelson said.

With that, Templeton became the Mets’ No. 2 man at first, among other positions.

“I’m not surprised a shortstop can play anywhere you put him,” said Harrelson, a former shortstop, whose injury-dotted roster requires players to be flexible.

Templeton, the only player on the current roster to have collected 2,000 hits and the first player in major-league history to collect 100 hits from each side of the plate in a single season (1979), has been agreeable in the Mets’ clubhouse and all around the field. He finally admits he never was thrilled about being anchored.

“In San Diego, I always asked them to let me play other positions and they said no,” he said. “I almost pitched one time against Houston. I volunteered, but they put Darrin Jackson in instead. I’ve got a fastball. It’s hittable, though.”