Shortstop
By Mike Travis
Editor in Chief
There is an old saying that practice makes perfect.
Senior Kevin Estrada has been playing baseball since the age of four and has never stopped since.
“As soon as you can pick up the bat and ball, you’re going,” Estrada said. “Baseball becomes part of your life.”
Estrada was not the only member of his family who has lived the baseball life.
His father was a major leaguer in Mexico and his older brother Marco was drafted by Major League Baseball’s Seattle Mariners after playing at Cal State Northridge.
With that background, it is no wonder that Estrada brings a certain degree of charisma and leadership to the team.
“(Estrada) plays with tremendous passion,” Head Coach Frank Sanchez said. “He seems to make the guys around him elevate their game. His instincts are very good.”
It all comes down to Estrada’s philosophy.
“I’m a different guy, I practice a little bit different,” Estrada said. “(I do) things to get the team going. You dive during practice, you run off the field, and it catches on to other guys. It makes the team just a little more energetic. It’s important to practice like you are going to play in the game.”
In a Baseball America Magazine poll of WCC’s coaches, Estrada was chose as the conference’s most likely “Player of the Year,” the league’s best base runner and top defensive shortstop. He was also chosen the WCC’s fourth-best pro prospect.
During his junior season at Florida in 2001, Estrada was an All-Southeastern Conference (SEC) selection after batting a career-high .351, leading the team with 88 hits, driving in 41 runs and stealing 35 bases while extending his consecutive-games played streak to 101.
So while old sayings are often true, they sometimes need a little improvement. Estrada shows us that it is not always the practice that makes perfect, but how one practices that helps them improve. And while nobody’s perfect, they can get pretty close.
January 23, 2003