LOS ANGELES — It's not the job anyone envisions at the start of his major league career. Some guys never come to grips with it.

Robert Fick has.

"I'm a bench guy," he says. "I stay ready."

Wednesday's start against the Dodgers was a rarity for Fick, the 1992 graduate of Newbury Park High in his second year with the Washington Nationals. While he's appeared in 98 of the Nationals' 134 games, he's started just 31 times. Most have been at first base where (it's a small world, isn't it?) he backs up Dmitri Young, the Rio Mesa graduate in contention for a National League batting championship.

It's not the role anyone envisioned when Fick began his career with Detroit. In 2001, he led the Tigers with 19 home runs and batted .272. In 2002, he played in a career-high 148 games, batted .270 and was an All-Star, going 1 for 2 in the infamous 7-7 tie at Milwaukee.

But Fick carved out a niche as a multi-faceted reserve during a 2005 stint with the San Diego Padres, when he split 50 starts between catcher, first base, right field and left field. He's had a similar role since joining the Nationals, although catching — which figured in 26 of his 60 appearances a year ago — is temporarily out of his job description. "These guys," he says, referring to regular receivers Brian Schneider and Jesus Flores, "have stayed healthy this season."

That is true of most of the players he backs up, so starts have been hard to come by — one reason he's batting just .207. Another, larger reason might be the death of his mother in June.

"It's been a tough year for me," he says. "I was flying back and forth the first half of the season dealing with my mom."

While it might be a stretch to say Fick is content with his current role — he's a little too competitive for that — it is clear he accepts it, particularly in this place and time.

"I don't like to say I enjoy being a bench player, but here I enjoy it," he says. "It's easy to play behind these guys that play my positions. We all pretty much pull for each other, and we've got a pretty good support system going on here."

Or, as he says at another point: "Great clubhouse. Great guys."

That's standard baseball speak, but it seems to ring true in this case. Washington's players actually hang out in their clubhouse — less common than you might think — and engage in the sort of constant verbal abuse of each other common in harmonious clubhouses.

Fick dishes a lot of this out, but predictably is on the receiving end as well. Pitcher Ray King demanded an explanation from a reporter talking to Fick before a game — "Why are you wasting your time with him? Don't you have anything better to do?" — and would later suggest Fick should be batting ninth, behind the pitcher, in his Wednesday start.

While he made his first major league appearance in 1998, appearances at Dodger Stadium are still fairly rare for Fick (before Wednesday, he'd had just 38 at-bats in L.A.) and they're undeniably special.

"It's real exciting," he said. "Dodger Stadium is the place I grew up, coming to watch games. So to come here and play, or sit in the dugout, is pretty cool, you know."

Wednesday's game became a bit more cool for Fick in the sixth inning, when he hit his first home run this season, and first of his career at Dodger Stadium, as part of a 2-for-6 day with about 25 family and friends in attendance.

Still he couldn't quite revel in the moment, since he had a chance to drive in a go-ahead run in the 12th, but hit into an inning-ending double play. The Dodgers finally won the game 10-9 in the bottom of the inning.

"It was a good feeling," he said of the homer. "But shoot, I had a chance to win the game at the end there. But I'll take it. It was fun."

This is Fick's ninth year in the major leagues, and there's a very large incentive, beyond simply staying in the game, for making it through a 10th. A 10-year major league veteran qualifies for an annual pension of $175,000 at age 62 — not only the best pension plan in pro sports, but the largest annual pension payment allowed by federal law.

"One more to go," he said. "I need to fool 'em. I hope to be back here next year. I still have a month to do something."

A year ago, he batted .333 in September and October to get his season average to .266. That, and his place as a useful player with a good outlook, kept him in Washington's plans.

"I just try to be the best teammate I can be," he says. "I study the game, the pitchers, and try and help the guys out that don't know the pitchers, just do what I can and stay positive."

That's easier to do, he says, given the makeup of the Nationals.

"We come to play every day," he says. "I make sure of it, and Dmitri makes sure of it and that's what you need.

"We care. We've been in this position before, only this time, we're not so bad. We may be in last place" — the Nationals entered Wednesday 58-75, tied with Florida at the bottom of the NL East — "but it's been a pretty good year for this ballclub. It really has."

Since Fick is, at heart, a ballplayer, that does offer some consolation in a year that has been difficult both personally and professionally.

— Contact Star columnist David Lassen at dlassen@VenturaCountyStar.com.