EMILY EMULATES ABBOTT\Third-grade girl won't be slowed by two handicaps.

Byline: Bill Schlotter Daily News Staff Writer

Some say the days of athletes as role models are gone.

There's a pint-sized Northridge third-grader who begs to differ.

Her name is Emily Mangel and she's a certifiable 8-year-old sports nut. And Angels pitcher Jim Abbott is her favorite player.

"He's a good pitcher," Mangel said of the Angels left-hander, her No. 1 sports hero. "And he's got the same hand as me."

Nancy Mangel caught chicken pox during her pregnancy with Emily and twin brother Max. The fetal Emily caught it, too.

The illness played havoc with Emily's development, leaving her with a shortened left arm, partially formed left hand and a dysfunctional right foot that had to be amputated 16 months after birth.

Max did not catch the disease and was unaffected.

Twice doctors have worked on Emily's left elbow. Twice more they worked on her right hip. They removed her right foot and fit her with a prosthetic one.

She's had her left arm in a cast the past several weeks, recovering from a fifth surgery that rotated her left hand into a more natural and functional position.

Twice as an infant she was hospitalized because she wasn't gaining weight. She has been taking growth hormones for the past three years but still weighs just 32 pounds and stands 3-foot-7 tall.

But if Emily's travails seem many, her mother wants all to know her daughter is equal to every one and then some.

The brown-haired, bespectacled mite conquers all with a grace and confident good cheer that leaves a wake of smiles widening behind her.

"She's amazing," said Howard Spike, her principal at Fairview School in Van Nuys.

"She's extremely persistent," said her mother. "When she wants to learn something, she practices and practices until she can do it."

Mangel plays basketball, excelling at defense while developing the strength to shoot. She was recently voted most inspirational player on her third-grade team.

"My dad taught me how to steal the ball from tall people," she said.

She plays T-ball and has mastered the Abbott switch, catching the ball with a glove on her right hand, then quickly flipping the glove onto her left arm so she can throw with her right.

"You have to do it fast so you can get people out," she said.

She swims, rides horses and plays tennis. And she excels in the classroom.

"She loves sports," Nancy Mangel said. "They're an important part of her life."

Emily will give almost any athletic endeavor a try.

"I like sports," she said. "They're fun."

And her identification with Abbott because of their shared condition is strong.

"My dad got me a book about him and I read it," Mangel said.

Others draw comparisons, too. Emily's Abbott-like unwillingness to accept limitations, for example.

"I don't think she feels sorry for herself," Nancy Mangel said. "She wishes she had a bigger hand, but it's not a sad wish or a pleading wish."

Instead, the precocious youngster seems determined to go about her business living and learning about life. And there are few things she can't figure a way to do.

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Photo Emily Mangel succeeds despite a partially formed left hand and a right foot that had to be amputated shortly after her birth. Myung J. Chun / Daily News