From Hunter: Erstad Needs a Nickname

Hi,

Finally spring training is here and I have some baseball to talk about! Even though I haven’t been able to do much in spring training, other than watch, there’s still a lot going on. And for the record, I’m healing quickly and rather excited because I am supposed to be back at practice tomorrow!

It’s been a bummer that the accident had me sidelined, but I was very fortunate that my injuries were not serious and that my recovery has been quick. So back to spring training …

When I arrived, I was happy to see that my locker was right between Bourn and Erstad. It’s been nice getting to know Bourn. I was also excited to talk to Erstad and found it interesting to hear what his impression of me was last year. You see, Erstad is one of my favorite players to watch so it’s weird to think that he has seen me play. I found out that he initially I thought I was some know-it-all rookie!!

I asked him why he thought that and he said that when we played against the White Sox, last season, he saw me taking my 100 practice swings before the game. During my swings, he saw me walk over to the home plate where I started talking to the umpires. So it appeared to him as though I was acting like I ran the show. Keep in mind, he saw me doing this when I hadn’t been in the League for long. Little did he know that the umpires had called me over and I was just following their orders.

For whatever reason, last year, the umpires got a kick out of picking on me, in good nature. I remember the day Erstad referenced, the umpires had called me over to tell me that they heard I was a big trouble maker and to watch it because I was on a tight leash. I just laughed and said, “Yes sir.” Anyways, I got that all straightened out with D-stad and have gotten to know him pretty well now. As a matter of fact, I’m actually debating on what his nickname is going to be and I figured I could ask you guys for some help? Any suggestions would be good!

As a joke, I told Erstad I was going to call him by his first initial and the last two letters in his last name “Dad” or possibly even Fred Derstad. I don’t think either of those are going to stick, so help me out and send me some suggestions =) In baseball, you can’t call anyone by their regular name, everyone has to have a nickname.

Just to wrap things up, I wanted to share that there is a great feeling in the locker room this year because everyone has high expectations and a new attitude. On the field, I’ve mainly been standing behind the cage watching all of our pitchers and I’m excited because, as I’ve mentioned before, we are going to have a solid staff this year. In addition, with a little more help from the defense, things are looking good for the Astros this year.

The thing is we can’t just talk about it, we have to do it. I really liked how Tejada put it to me when I told him we were going to have a lot of fun with this team, I think I’ll stick with his plan. Next week I’ll gladly get to talk about PLAYING in spring training! haha, ’til next week.

Thanks.

Hunter