Staying Home: Darin Erstad Says ?My Heart?s Here?

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Nebraska baseball fans got a great news flash Tuesday. Giving his own gut-wrenching analysis of why he was tempted to interview for the Los Angeles Dodgers’ manager position, Darin Erstad pulled himself out of the running to complete what he called unfinished business as Nebraska’s head baseball coach.

Even though his interviews in LA went well and he finally realized the Dodgers were serious in their pursuit to hire him, the dual roles of husband and father trumped all dreams of guiding a storied franchise to a World Series Championship.

“I could’ve seen myself working with those guys for a long time, IF I was ever given that opportunity,” Erstad told Nebraska media at a Tuesday press conference. “But when I got back home and sat down with my family and we started really going over the priorities in our life, I just looked in my kids’ eyes and that’s all I needed to do.”

Darin and Jessica Erstad have three children, ages 9, 8 and 5. They all love Lincoln and see the community as a great place to live, work, raise a family and go to school. “I believe so much in Nebraska,” Erstad said. “After a real hard look at it, I just felt that deep down in my gut, this is the place to be. My heart’s here.”

Erstad: When You Get Older in Life, Your Priorities Change a Little Bit

That doesn’t mean he wasn’t tempted to reach baseball’s highest level. Having a chance to win the World Series was his goal as a kid growing up, and Erstad lived that dream with the Angels in Anaheim. “When the Grim Reaper comes and taps you on the shoulder and you can’t play anymore, you kind of think that it’s over,” Erstad said, trying to explain why he showed interest in a program that showed legitimate and meaningful interest in him.

“To have that opportunity to possibly be at that level again was pretty exciting,” Erstad said. “It’s one of those things as you get older in life, the priorities change a little bit of what’s important to your family and it just kind of boiled down to the fact that I was asked to be the head coach here…we bought our house here, and I didn’t know I was going to coach. Then I was asked to serve the university and I’m doing that to the best of my ability.”

Erstad was on a recruiting trip in Florida when he got a call from his agent about the Dodgers’ interest in hiring him. Nebraska’s former All-American said he would be lying if he didn’t think the Dodgers were joking about their interest. The idea wasn’t even remotely on his radar, so he had to know if LA’s interest was sincere, and if it wasn’t, he didn’t want anything to with it. Once he learned the interest was real, Erstad was humbled and felt obligated to explore the opportunity.

Nebraska’s passionate head baseball coach said just the thought of getting back to the big leagues was exciting. When he learned he was a finalist for the Dodgers’ manager positon, the pipedream became real. So real that last Friday, while working with “the guys” in skill instruction, reality started to bite, forcing him to ask a simple question: “What am I doing?” When he went home and talked to his wife, she said she would support whichever decision he made.

Major Factors: His Family, His Alma Mater, the Community, Student-Athletes

Calling the Dodgers back to withdraw from consideration was one of the most difficult phone calls Erstad said he’s ever made. Would he have gotten the job? “Who knows?” Erstad said. “It would’ve been a longshot. But it was definitely an experience I needed to go through. In the end, it just made my love for this university and this community and getting to work with these student-athletes even stronger than it was before.”

Bottom line, at this stage of life, the grind of a 162-plus game season, plus six weeks of spring training and nine to 10 months away from his family, was not appealing to a husband, a coach and a father who likes seeing his family sitting in the stands at Hawks Field. He also likes taking his kids to school and sometimes picking them up from school. Erstad even gets to tuck his kids in bed at night.

At Nebraska, he enjoys the best of both worlds. As much as he’s on the road recruiting or coaching, it’s no comparison to the grind of major league baseball. Erstad appreciates being asked to consider a major league manager’s job, but when he breaks it all down, the question doesn’t seem so complex. “What’s important is my family,” he said. “This is where we need to be.”

Unfinished Business, Powerful Stuff and the Letter N’s Positive Principles

Credit the overall power of the letter N. “It’s the community,” Erstad said. “I was asked to come here and help establish a culture and get us back to the College World Series. It means something to me, and Nebraska means a lot to me.”

So does being able to affect his young players’ lives in a positive way, especially when they’re hungry for development, not just as baseball players but as people. “I think that’s pretty powerful stuff,” he said.

As enticing as the opportunity seemed, it still paled in comparison to the roots the family has established in Lincoln. “I have about as much clarity as I possibly could right now,” Erstad said. “I’m very at peace with where I’m at.”

The same principle applies to the players he informed about his decision. “That’s my family, too, he said, “and as much as they drive me up the wall sometimes, I love ‘em to death. It’s a cool responsibility to have and coach those kids. You’re there to help them grow and turn them into men. I think that’s powerful stuff, too.”

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