Darin Erstad on Tickets, Twitter, Dunking and More

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Randy York’s N-Sider

Darin Erstad has always been a fast-moving man, and now that he has more than 10,000 followers on his relatively new Twitter account, he’s quicker than he’s been since … well, since he earned three Gold Gloves for the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the first 11 years of his 14-year Major League Baseball career. Fortunately, The N-Sider caught up with Erstad in his office Wednesday, so we could get Nebraska’s fourth-year head coach’s thoughts on his baseball team, season ticket sales, social media, and even those who might want to dunk him at a free Fan Fest event at the Hawks Championship Center a week from Friday. Please join our conversation:

Q: Baseball season ticket sales are already up 200 from last year and are still on sale. What’s that mean in January?

A: Our Marketing Department does a fantastic job of keeping everybody going and   creating excitement. At the end of the day, it’s the players on the field going out there and playing their hearts out and respecting the game and playing the right way … that’s what Husker Nation wants and what our fans want. It’s a credit to our players that the fans keep coming back. We were ranked in the top 15 in attendance last year, and I just can’t say how important that is to have that kind of support in the setting we have. You just don’t get that kind of support in college baseball. I’ve always said we’re different and we are!

Q: Who persuaded you to join the Twitter world and what’s your strategy?

A: I did what I do with everything. Who better to ask than the guys in our locker room? I asked them to vote on whether or not I should do Twitter. They said I should and I asked them why. It was an interesting response. All they wanted me to know was whenever I retweet something, I could get more followers. That was their motivation for wanting me to be on Twitter. It’s kind of funny. If it benefits our program or generates excitement for our program, I’m all for it. I will say I like it more than I thought I would. I probably spend too much time on it, but it’s like everything we do. If getting more information out there excites our recruits and our fans, I’m going to do it. It’s an avenue for recruits and fans to see the heartbeat of our program and what we’re all about. It’s just a great way to share information out there.

Q: How hard was it for you to transition into social media?

A: Kelly Mosier (director-digital communications) has been super helpful. I’m a rookie and had to ask him what to do and how to reach out. You have to be able to adapt and keep your same values. You have to keep the same foundation, but you adjust and learn different things that are in the best interests of the program.  

Q: You have eight seniors and lots of newcomers. What are your expectations?

A: They’ve worked hard and have put themselves in a position to achieve, just like a lot of programs across the country. They’re a team who wants to be on the field every day. They’re a quiet group and not very vocal. They’re blue collar and they work hard. Like a lot of teams, we have a lot of guys with a lot of experience. They played and won a game in last year’s regional, and they’re hungry to do it again. We’re going to have to be very consistent and pitch well and play very good defense. I would expect that out of our guys. We’re going to have to grind it out from the top to the bottom of our lineup. It’s going to be a complete team effort all the way around. There’s not one guy we’re going to rely on to carry us. We need production from up and down our lineup. We’ve gotten big hits from the top of the order to the bottom of the order, so it’s going to have to continue to be a complete team effort. That’s how I see it playing out this year.

Q: I see 17 home games scheduled in March. What's your view on that?

A: It’s not ideal, but when you look at the schedule, it’s the only time you can have home games. We start looking at weekends during conference play in April and May and it’s tough because everyone else is in conference play as well. You have to play your local games because you can’t be traveling all season. You’re kind of limited before you ever start conference play. The availability to get Texas or Florida Gulf Coast or Indiana State isn’t easy. Those teams can’t come here during conference play. So that puts you in March for those games.

Q: Share your thoughts about the largest freshman class coming into the program.

A: When you have turnover, that’s a good and a bad thing. You have people who need to get up to speed quickly. But you’re also losing guys in the (MLB) draft. In a successful program, that kind of thing is going to happen a lot. We’re fortunate to have a good senior class to lead the way and show these young guys what’s expected and how we go about our business. Hopefully, we’ll be able to work a couple of the younger guys into the lineup on the mound. We hope to slow that process down a little bit, so they’re ready and put in the best positions when they do start. You don’t want to put six freshmen on the field at the beginning, and fortunately, if we’re healthy, we won’t have to do that right away.

Q: What’s your fundamental philosophy on naming captains?

A: We don’t do captains. We do a Code of Brotherhood Council. Our seniors were the highest vote-getters, so I decided to put them all on the council. That’s our sounding board, the heartbeat of our team. It’s their team, so they’re given a lot of power to communicate.

Q: Blake Headley seems to surface in most conversations. Why is he such a leader?

A: Blake’s been with us four years, and he’s our first-ever unanimous four-time choice for the honor to be on that council. He cares about his teammates. You can’t fake that. He’s just developed a lot of relationships and helped so many of our guys over the past four years. They appreciate the way he goes about his business. We don’t ask Blake to be a leader. We don’t have to label him. I just want Blake Headley to be himself, and whatever comes out of that, that’s good. There is no extra responsibility put on him and no word for it. He just needs to be a good person and a good teammate, and he’s both.

Q: Your schedule begins Feb. 13th with three games in Las Vegas, followed by four in Arizona, three in Los Angeles, and three in Houston. Is aggessive the right word here?

A: Kids who come to Nebraska, those are teams (UNLV, BYU, Loyola Marymount, Texas A&M, Hawaii, LSU) our guys want to play. It’s one of the top schedules in the country. We have to put our team in a position to have a strong enough RPI strength of schedule to host (NCAA) regionals or get to regionals. We play to be one of the top eight (national) seeds. If we’re not able to accomplish that goal, we want to be somewhere in the mid-30s in terms of wins and be in a regional. We want to be prepared to go on the road and play in a tough environment, and that’s what we’re trying to do. We’re all about creating great experiences and not just for our team.

Q: Why are you the target in a dunk tank in the free Fun Fest a week from Friday?

A: To try and have fun. I think there’s probably a lot of people out there that would like to throw a ball at me. What a great way to throw a ball at me and get me all wet! You never know. There might be a little kid there with a good arm, and people want to see me go down in the dunk tank. We’re just trying something different. We’ve had banquets in the past. We thought this was a chance to reach out to families, so kids can interact with our players and also have a formal program where you can sit down and our older fans can have a chance to cheer the team. That’s what it’s all about. We just wanted to combine it all together and see how it all goes. It’s Husker Nation, and we want to get everybody on the same page. We just wanted everyone to come together as one and celebrate together. It’s really important, and I’m excited about the opportunity to get really wet.

Q: Too bad Alex Gordon doesn’t get the chance to dunk you. He’d make it happen.

A: Alex can’t throw. He has a cast on from (late December) surgery (on his right wrist). So I’m safe from him, but I’m sure my wife (Jessica) will be the first one in line getting ready to dunk me. She has a pretty good arm, so I’m probably going to get wet quick.

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