As the Florida Marlins battle for the National League wild-card berth, Kevin Hooper sits at his home in Wichita wondering about his future.

Hooper, a 1995 Lawrence High graduate, has spent the last two summers as a Triple-A farmhand of the Marlins.

He isn’t getting any younger — Hooper will turn 27 in December.

“I’ll work my tail off in the offseason,” Hooper said. “I think I opened some eyes, but I don’t know where I’ll be next season. It may not be with the Marlins.”

Hooper, who plays shortstop and second base, hit .266 for the Marlins’ AAA farm in Albuquerque, N.M., this summer, leading the club in games played and posting a career high in RBIs with 54.

“My agent says quite a few teams are interested,” Hooper said.

One of those teams could be Kansas City. Although rookie Angel Berroa figures to be a fixture at shortstop for years to come, the Royals do not have an established second baseman.

“That wouldn’t be a bad deal,” Hooper said about the possibility of landing with the Royals.

Hooper, who spent four years playing baseball at Wichita State, was the Marlins’ eighth-round draft choice in June of 1999. He has been in Florida’s minor-league system ever since.

During the summer of 2002, he turned heads when he posted a 31-game hitting streak for the Marlins’ AAA club, then in Calgary, Alberta. He finished with a .288 average that summer, 22 points higher than he hit this season.

“My average was down a little bit,”

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he said, “but with my game it takes breaks here and there. There will always be bang-bang calls at first base.”

Hooper’s game is predicated on speed — he had 25 base thefts for Albuquerque — and defense — he made only 11 errors in a team-leading 130 games.

“I stayed healthy,” he said, “and that’s a big plus.”

Listed at 5-foot-10 and 160 pounds, Hooper looks fragile, but he has been durable and reliable during five years in the minor leagues.

A late August scuttlebutt in the Albuquerque locker room included Hooper. When major-league rosters expanded Sept. 1, word was outfielder Gerald Williams, pitcher Blaine Neal and Hooper would be recalled for the wild-card stretch drive.

Williams and Neal were eventually brought to the big-league club. Hooper was not.

“Everybody thought I was going up,” he said, “but it was up to the manager and he hadn’t seen any of us, so all I can do is root them on.”

Marlins’ management fired Jeff Torborg early in the season and replaced him with 72-year-old Jack McKeon, who is a candidate for NL manager of the year after guiding the Marlins into playoffs contention.

Obviously, Hooper does not want to spend a third straight season in Triple-A in 2004, so it could be a winter of anxiety for the former Lawrence High and American Legion standout.

“I don’t have any control over what happens,” he said. “A lot of it is just being in the right place at the right time.”

Hooper does have control, however, over what will happen Oct. 18. He and Lindsey Daniel, a sixth grade teacher in Haysville, will be married in Wichita.

— Sports editor Chuck Woodling can be reached at 832-7147.