ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Anaheim Angels shortstop David Eckstein proved he could play in the majors despite being smaller than many batboys. He fought through injuries. He learned to hang tight on the plate with a 95 mph fastball coming at him.

All that is insignificant compared to what his family has faced.

"I learned from my parents and my brothers and sisters that if you have heart, you can overcome almost anything," he said. "I was always taught to think positive, was never allowed to feel sorry for myself."

His two sisters, Susan and Christine, and one of his two brothers, Ken, had to have extensive dialysis and eventually have kidney transplants. Eckstein's mother, Pat, donated one of her kidneys to Susan.

Now, Eckstein's father, Whitey, needs a transplant. Of the seven family members, only David and his brother Rick have been untouched by kidney disease. Genetic factors can contribute to kidney disease, although the Ecksteins present an unusual case.

"The doctors said my father's case wasn't related at all to what the kids had, so it was very rare for all that to happen to one family," Eckstein said.

Angels manager Mike Scioscia says it's apparent to him that the family's grit has toughened Eckstein, a 5-foot-7, 165-pound shortstop.

"I'm aware of what they've gone through, and I understand they've all handled it extremely well," Scioscia said. "David certainly has always been determined, and it's not hard to see why."

The three Eckstein siblings stricken by kidney disease have done well -- Christine and Ken earned law degrees, and Susan got her master's degree.

Rick and David have thrived, too. Rick, a former college coach, has a baseball-related business, and Ken works with him. David has been the Angels' starting shortstop since 2001 and played a key role in 2002 when the team won the World Series.

"In a lot of ways, God doesn't give you anything you can't handle," Whitey Eckstein, like his wife a retired teacher, said by phone from the family home in Sanford, Fla. "Our children turned negatives into positives, were very goal-oriented and just weren't going to let anything stop them.

"Sometimes, out of bad things, good things happen. Look at David -- he was considered too small to play baseball and lots of people thought he would never make it. Kenny had to spend 10 hours or more a day on the dialysis machine, but he still was maintaining a B-plus average in college."

Susan, then 16, was the first to have kidney failure. She almost died, but dialysis eventually worked and then she received the kidney donated by her mother.

When Pat and Susan came home from the hospital around Christmas 1988, they learned that Christine's and Ken's kidneys also were failing.

"There was already a support group established. Susan and my mother had already been through the rounds," said Ken, at 34 the oldest of the siblings. "Having been through it before, we all knew what to expect."

David, 29, is the youngest of the children. He was 13 at the time his sisters and brothers became ill.

"I didn't really understand exactly what was going on because I was pretty young," he said. "But my parents always made sure that I didn't get to feeling down about it. Now we're all supporting our father -- definitely understand what he's going through."

Pat Eckstein said: "David's seen it all. Is David ever going to say, 'I can't,' or 'I'm too tired,' after what he's seen his brother and sisters go through? We have been under a cloud of kidney disease. I was afraid my children were going to die."

Catherine Paykin, transplant program director for the New York-based National Kidney Foundation, said heredity can be a factor in kidney failure.

There are almost 93,000 people in the United States awaiting organ transplants, with the majority of those -- about 63,000 -- needing kidneys. About 15,000 kidney transplants are performed annually, with the number rising.

Living donors, often family members, provide about half of kidneys used in transplants. The rest come from people who die and have signed organ donor cards.

"Sign your donor card or join the donor registry in your state, if available," Paykin said from New York. "Also talk with your family members about your wishes."

Ken and Christine Eckstein each underwent successful transplants -- four days apart in 1991 -- from donors who had died.

"When people sign their cards to donate organs, they're giving others the gift of life," David said.

Whitey considers his family lucky.

"Forty or 50 years ago, you didn't have much of a chance of surviving kidney disease," he said. "Medicine has gotten so advanced, transplants are almost routine now."

Pat Eckstein said the family learned to cope with the hardships.

"We learned, yes, you have a disease, but you don't let it control you, you control it. That's a strong point in our success," she said.

"Some think that if you have kidney failure, life is over. But life is just different and you have to make some adjustments. We made those adjustments."