Darin Erstad

In his 14-season career, Erstad compiled a .282 batting average with 124 home runs and 699 RBIs in 1654 games.

His career .9955 fielding percentage as an outfielder is second all-time through 2019 behind Jon Jay.

With a major league-leading 100 hits in 61 games, he became the fastest to reach the 100-hit mark since Hall of Famer Heinie Manush did it in 60 games for the 1934 Washington Senators.

Darin Charles Erstad (born June 4, 1974) is an American former professional baseball player and the former head coach of the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers baseball team.

Erstad graduated in 1992 from Jamestown High School in Jamestown, North Dakota.

He was a placekicker and punter on the school football team, logging a school-record 50-yard field goal.

Erstad also played hockey (36 goals and 24 assists in 26 games) and participated in track and field (winning state titles in 110 and 300-meter hurdles).

Erstad played American Legion baseball (Jamestown had no high school baseball team) and hit .492 with 18 home runs and 86 RBI for Jamestown in 1992.

He was also 10–2 with a 2.18 ERA as a pitcher, and was named AP North Dakota Athlete of the Year in 1992.

Erstad attended the University of Nebraska–Lincoln, playing baseball there for three years and held the school record for career hits with 261.

In 1993 and 1994, Erstad played collegiate summer baseball with the Falmouth Commodores of the Cape Cod Baseball League (CCBL).

He was named league MVP in 1994 and in 2001 was inducted into the CCBL Hall of Fame.

Erstad was also 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.

He was the first overall pick in the 1995 Major League Baseball draft.

In his final year there, Erstad hit .410 with 19 home runs and 79 RBIs, earning First-Team All-American status and was a finalist for the 1995 Golden Spikes Award.

Darin started his junior campaign on a tear and never stopped hitting.

He was at his best against the conference's top team, Oklahoma.

In five games with the first-place Sooners, he batted .429 and blasted three home runs.

Oklahoma lefty Mark Redman—with whom Darin would share conference Player of the Year honors—was among his biggest victims.

The Huskers finished 35–23, and Darin led the Big Eight with a .410 average.

He was the only batter in the conference to surpass 100 hits, and also led all players with seven triples.

Named a First Team All-American by Collegiate Baseball, Darin set career highs with 19 homers and 76 RBIs.

The then California Angels chose Erstad as the first pick overall in the 1995 Major League Baseball draft from the University of Nebraska.

He made his major league debut the next year, batting .284 over 57 games.

Erstad played his first full season in 1997, batting .299 with 16 home runs and 99 runs scored.

He was selected to the American League All-Star team twice (1998, 2000) and had eight game-ending walk-off RBI in his career.

Posting similarly solid statistics the next year, Erstad made his first of two All-Star appearances before having a disappointing season in 1999.

Erstad had a career season in 2000, when he finished eighth in the American League in MVP voting.

That year, he led the American League in hits (240), singles (170) and at-bats (676); he was second in total bases (366) and third in runs (121).

Erstad also hit .355, finishing second in the batting race behind Nomar Garciaparra (.372), became the first player in Major League history to record 100 RBIs as a leadoff hitter, and won the AL Silver Slugger Award.

On June 10, 2000, Erstad hit a double in the Angels' 10–3 win over Arizona.

With three hits on August 29, 2000, he reached 200 hits faster than any player in 65 years.

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.

Although Erstad never hit .300 again after the 2000 season, he was a vital part of the 2002 World Series Champion Angels.

After batting .421 in the American League Division Series against the New York Yankees and .364 in the American League Championship Series against the Minnesota Twins, Erstad batted .300 in the seven-game series vs. the National League Champion San Francisco Giants.

He hit a key home run in Game 6 of the series with the Angels trailing, 5–3, in the eighth inning and facing elimination, and he also caught the final out of Game 7 hit by Kenny Lofton off Troy Percival into center field.

Erstad spent most of his playing career with the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim franchise (–) before signing with the Chicago White Sox in 2007.

Erstad batted and threw left-handed.

He was a two-time MLB All-Star and a three-time Gold Glove Award winner.

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 (having done so in 2000), the others being Billy Hamilton (1893), Victor Power (1957), Reed Johnson (2003), and Ian Kinsler (2009).