 05/07/2004 8:00 AM ET
Erstad takes mom's words to heart
First baseman's mother taught him to always have fun
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| Dorothy Erstad told her son to always have fun playing the game. (Courtesy of the Erstad family)
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MINNEAPOLIS -- Moments after Darin Erstad caught the most important fly ball in the history of the Angels, he was bathing in champagne and toasting his father, Chuck.
All he could think of as the last out of the 2002 World Series soared toward his glove was, "Two hands. Just like Dad taught me."
But there were a lot of things Mom taught him, too.
"I haven't taught him too much," said Dorothy Erstad, Darin's mom, after making the trip from the Erstads' home in Jamestown, N.D., to watch her son play against the Twins in the Metrodome.
"I guess maybe I told him that he should always remember to have fun playing the game," she said. "That's the most important thing. And no matter what you do, put your whole self into it."
Perhaps no professional athlete has taken his mom's words to heart as much as Darin Erstad.
Before he was moved to first base this year to clear room in the outfield for new acquisitions Vladimir Guerrero and Jose Guillen, Darin was busy hurling his body all over center field, crashing into walls, slamming different body parts into the turf, and gaining a reputation as one of the game's most intense and fearless players.
So did he take his mom's words a little too seriously?
"Maybe so," Dorothy said.
According to his mom, it's always been like that with Darin.
"He's always been as intense of a competitor as he is now," Dorothy said. "He played hard from the time he could get up on his two feet."
When he was 9, he broke his arm "jumping ramps," Dorothy said, and had to spend the whole summer fishing instead of playing.
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