Darin Charles Erstad is an American former professional baseball player and the former head coach of the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers baseball team.
32 Facts About Darin Erstad
2.
Darin Erstad was a two-time MLB All-Star and a three-time Gold Glove Award winner.
3.
Darin Erstad was the first overall pick in the 1995 Major League Baseball draft.
4.
Darin Erstad graduated in 1992 from Jamestown High School in Jamestown, North Dakota.
5.
Darin Erstad was a placekicker and punter on the school football team, logging a school-record 50-yard field goal.
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Darin Erstad played hockey and participated in track and field.
7.
Darin Erstad played American Legion baseball and hit.
8.
Darin Erstad started his junior campaign on a tear and never stopped hitting.
9.
Darin Erstad was at his best against the conference's top team, Oklahoma.
10.
Darin Erstad was the only batter in the conference to surpass 100 hits, and led all players with seven triples.
11.
In 1993 and 1994, Darin Erstad played collegiate summer baseball with the Falmouth Commodores of the Cape Cod Baseball League.
12.
Darin Erstad was named league MVP in 1994 and in 2001 was inducted into the CCBL Hall of Fame.
13.
Darin Erstad was the starting punter on the Cornhuskers football team and was part of their 1994 National Championship squad, averaging 42.6 yards per punt, the 14th best mark in the country that year.
14.
Darin Erstad was selected to the American League All-Star team twice and had eight game-ending walk-off RBI in his career.
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Darin Erstad made his major league debut the next year, batting.
16.
Darin Erstad had a career season in 2000, when he finished eighth in the American League in MVP voting.
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Darin Erstad was just 26 years old at the end of the season, an age at which many players enter their prime, leading many to believe more superstar seasons were ahead of him.
18.
Darin Erstad is one of only five batters, through August 2009, to have hit both a leadoff and walk-off home run in the same game, the others being Billy Hamilton, Victor Power, Reed Johnson, and Ian Kinsler.
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Darin Erstad led all major league center fielders in range factor in 2002.
20.
Darin Erstad won Gold Glove awards in 2000,2002, and 2004, when he made a transition from the outfield to first base.
21.
Darin Erstad is the only player in MLB history to have won Gold Gloves as an infielder and as an outfielder.
22.
Darin Erstad was the first to win the award at different positions until Placido Polanco won an NL Gold Glove as a third baseman for the Philadelphia Phillies in 2011 after having won two Gold Gloves as a second baseman, thus both being infield awards.
23.
Darin Erstad played the following two seasons with the Houston Astros.
24.
When catcher Chris Coste joined Darin Erstad on the Astros roster in July 2009, they became the first two players born in North Dakota to play together on the same team in major league history.
25.
On June 17,2010, when asked if he would continue playing baseball, Darin Erstad said that he was "done".
26.
Darin Erstad was on the 2015 ballot to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.
27.
On July 5,2010, the Lincoln Journal Star reported that Darin Erstad accepted a position to become a volunteer coach for the Nebraska baseball team.
28.
On June 2,2011, after Anderson was fired, Darin Erstad was hired as Nebraska's head baseball coach.
29.
Darin Erstad was named the 23rd head coach of the Nebraska baseball program.
30.
Darin Erstad was named Big Ten Coach of the Year in 2017 after leading the Huskers to the conference championship during the regular season.
31.
Darin Erstad resigned as coach of the Nebraska Cornhuskers after eight seasons on June 3,2019.
32.
Darin Erstad has three children with his wife, Jessica: a daughter, Jordan Elizabeth, and two sons, Zack and Adam.