While taking in an exciting college match-up between South Carolina and Pepperdine at the Metrodome in Minneapolis as part of the Dairy Queen Classic, I was able to speak with Andy Hunter, the first baseman for the host Minnesota Golden Gophers. Hunter was named a preseason third team All-American by "Collegiate Baseball" newspaper, and he certainly has put up some impressive numbers the last few years that should garner even more attention this spring. His 110 RBIs over his first two years as a Golden Gopher are second only to Terry Steinbach's 116. Hunter led his team in home runs (10), RBIs (66) and slugging percentage (.606), and was second on his team in batting average (.366), hits (79) and doubles (20), while also leading the entire Big Ten conference in RBIs. Hunter talked about his hometown connection to the Minnesota Golden Gophers, what we can look forward to from both he and his team this season, and how he believes his golf swing helps keep his baseball swing balanced.

Patrick Ebert (PE): Could you tell us a little bit about yourself?

Andy Hunter (AH): I'm originally from West St. Paul. I was born and raised and lived my whole life there. I started playing baseball in the sixth grade, as I was a soccer player before that. I played both hockey and baseball past the sixth grade, and I started to focus on baseball more in high school. I had the opportunity to come here to the "U" (the University of Minnesota) which was a dream come true for me. I was either going to play hockey or baseball, so thankfully it turned out to be baseball.

I'm also a big golfer. I like playing both sports a lot, and I play a lot of golf during the summer. My dad and I play a lot of golf, and we have great golf here in Minnesota so I'm real fortunate to be able to be around so many great courses. In baseball I hit from the left-side and in golf I hit from the right-side, so I'm lucky there. I like to think that it balances out what I'm doing (at the plate) in terms of release and rotation, because I get to do both (swings) from both directions. It's basically the same idea. Golf is a nice release from the pressures and anxiety from baseball and life in general.

PE: So you feel your golf swing can help your baseball swing?

AH: You know I really do. There are a lot of people that say you can't do them both at the same time, and I think that would probably be true if you did them from the same direction. I really tend to play better when I'm playing both (sports). Right now in the spring when I can't play a lot of golf, it seems that I get a little left-hand dominant. I don't know, it might be in my head, it might be for real, but historically for me it definitely seems to balance out when I'm playing both sports at the same time.

PE: So, do you use the whole field better hitting in baseball when you're getting more swings with your golf club, so you're not so pull-happy?

AH: It seems like it. I think in regards to your strength and how your body rotates when you hit, it's the same thing. It's a different release swinging from one side or another in both sports. But each (swing) is so natural to me to do it from that side (left in baseball, right in golf), I can't swing from the other side in either sport. I've tried many times and I just can't do it. That release seems to be better in both sports when I'm doing them both. I seem to get top-hand dominant with each sport when I'm going bad.

PE: What were some of the events you attended in high school to help your baseball career, whether it be at the professional or college level?

AH: I did get invited to a Perfect Game event but I was unable to attend at the time. I did attend the Area Code Game tryouts in Chicago, but I had something funny happen to my hand at the time, so I didn't make the Area Code team.

We have a great, great legion program in West St. Paul that I had played on my junior year that I also was really excited to participate in again the summer after my senior year. In the West St. Paul and Mendota Heights areas, we get our teams split between Henry Sibley, which is the high school I went to, and St. Thomas, which is a private school. So it was a lot of fun to play with guys I knew really well from the area. I played on some great teams. During my junior year I played on a team that won 36 games in a row. We played in tournaments every week, and played 66 games one summer. That's basically what opened the door for me to come play here. I was scouted that summer during my junior year by the assistant coach here (at Minnesota), Rob Fornasiere, who basically does all of the recruiting and scouting here for position players.

I have kind of a fun story. The first game he was there my dad came up to me and said "I don't want to put any more pressure on you, but just to let you know Rob Fornasiere is here to watch." So, the first at-bat I get up to the plate and hit a home run to left-center field. At the time I thought to myself, "If that's not good enough I don't know what else I can do." I popped one out the other way, and I think I went three for four that game. I thought that really should solidify it (my chances of attending Minnesota), and the rest is history.

PE: Were there any other schools pursuing you out of college, and did you receive much interest from the professional level?

AH: I heard that a couple of (pro) scouts had looked at me basically because of Joe Mauer. Obviously there were a lot of guys up to watch him, so there was some interest. I never heard anything directly, and nothing ever happened. I don't know that I was ready to go (pro) or that I would have gone had I been given the chance. My academics are pretty important to me, and to have the chance to come to the "U" and put on a Gopher jersey was pretty special. As soon as that interest started from them (Rob Fornasiere and the Golden Gophers), which was my junior summer (in high school), that was it for me. I played in the Lions All-Star tournament, which is a senior showcase in Minnesota, and we had like eight guys on that team that were going to be Gophers, so it was a really good group of guys I came in with. When I had the opportunity to sign during the fall of my senior year, I quickly put my name on the line (on the National Letter of Intent).

PE: So you pretty much knew for a year before it happened?

AH: Yeah. When I talked to Rob after that game he basically said, "You're coming." I got phone calls from him after that every once in a while, and I got the idea that if I wanted to make it happened it was going to happen. So, thankfully I had a good game that first day, and he watched a couple of more times, but that first performance seemed to solidify it.

PE: First impressions mean everything, right?

AH: They really do. Rob always says you never get a second chance to make a first impression. It could have gone a different direction, and I think Rob is a good enough judge of talent that hopefully he would have seen through a bad game. But, I definitely made his job easier that day.

PE: Did you receive much interest last year from the pro level as a draft-eligible sophomore versus this year as a junior?

AH: Not so much last year. This year I'm receiving a lot more (interest from professional scouts). I signed to go out and play on the Cape (the Cape Cod summer wood bat league) with the Brewster Whitecaps last summer. I got that call the summer after my red-shirt freshman year. I was pretty excited about that opportunity. I really didn't get any attention last year in regards to the draft, and I didn't know if I should or shouldn't have. I was ready to go to the Cape, and I was going to go to there regardless. If I would have been picked up late (in the draft) there was no way I was going to go (pro) anyway. I'm going to graduate this spring, and I still have another year left of eligibility in case it doesn't work out how I want.

Playing out on the Cape was great, and I was fortunate to play well. I lived with a great host family and I will never forget them and that experience. I started off kind of slow, but I had a great second half, hitting over .300 for the last month and a half. I think that opened a lot of doors into this spring getting some more (pro) attention.

PE: Did the opportunity also help you hitting with a wood bat against some of the best college pitchers across the nation?

AH: Yeah. What a learning experience. Within a couple of games you realize that every righty you see is throwing 93, 94, 95. I faced a couple of righties that threw in the upper 90s and another that threw over 100 miles per hour. It's a great change of perspective on the game. Every once in a while we'll see a guy that throws (especially) hard, but basically what you see in college baseball is 88 to 92 (miles per hour) from righties, and maybe 84 to 88 from a lefty. I saw lefties throwing 90-plus (on the Cape), and righties throwing 95, and they sit there the whole game (with that same velocity). It was an interesting learning process because the wood bat is such a change. I thought the hardest part was finding a wood bat that felt good in my hands. You can pick up any aluminum bat and it will feel like a weapon. However, you can pick up 75 different wood bats and they will all feel different. Any 34/31 (length and weight of the bat in inches and ounces respectively) I pick up in our locker room is going to feel exactly the same. I landed on something that I liked from a guy that actually makes his own bats out on the Cape, and I kind of took off from there. But yeah, it was a great learning experience. Even playing with some of my teammates, such as (Steve) Tolleson and (Michael) Campbell, both of whom I played with that are also playing this weekend (with South Carolina as part of the Dairy Queen Classic), was great to be a part of. To watch guys from across the country that play at that high level every day was special.

PE: Do you as a left-handed hitter have a tougher time against left-handed pitchers?

AH: Until the last half of our Big Ten season last year I wouldn't play if we were facing a left-handed pitcher. I'd like to sit here and tell you that it doesn't make a difference, but I would be lying if I did. Obviously it's harder from that side of the plate, you see it in the big leagues; lefty hitters don't hit well off of lefty pitchers. Last spring when I really started hitting well they threw me in there every day (regardless of the opposing pitcher). Baseball is such a streaky game, and when you get going it doesn't matter if they're throwing 80, 90 or 100, it doesn't make a difference. When you're going well, good things just happen.

My first two at-bats this year were against a lefty, but he threw a little bit harder (than most southpaws). I almost seem to have a better time hitting a lefty that's going to throw 90 than a guy that is going to sling all of the junk at you. I don't know if it's because you don't have as much time to think about it, you're just reacting. I hit two balls real hard in my first two at-bats against lefties just last weekend (against Arkansas), then they brought in a slower guy and that was more of a challenge.

PE: Does most of it really have to do with the fact that you naturally aren't going to face as many left-handed pitchers as you would right-handed pitchers and therefore you don't get the necessary repetitions facing them to become more comfortable hitting against them?

AH: Sure. I was just talking about this the other night. When you have a righty coming at you, you have that open window. You're looking out into an open space, it's really easy to see the ball. When you have a lefty coming, it feels like it's (the ball) coming from behind you. So it's tougher to track a ball coming inside of you moving out as opposed to a pitch from the outside coming in. But yeah, we never see them (southpaws). That's why when you have a good one they can really carry you, like (first-round draft pick, Glen) Perkins did for us last year. You have a guy with that kind of stuff from the left-side and he's going to dominate people. Hopefully that is what he'll continue to do with the Twins.

PE: Did you face Scott Lewis, a tough left-handed pitcher formerly of Ohio State, two years ago when he was healthy?

AH: He threw last year too, which was some kind of miracle, I'm not sure how he came back from injury that quickly. I didn't face him my freshman year, but last year I did. I don't know if he came back too early, but he wasn't throwing as hard, and we got to him a little bit. He is one heck of a pitcher though.

PE: Do you feel the baseball programs at southern universities are at a natural advantage over those at northern universities, or do you feel that Minnesota and other schools have done a good job to help level the playing field by taking several early road trips down south each spring to play some of those higher level teams in weather that is conducive to playing baseball?

AH: I'd be lying if I said it didn't make a difference if we could go outside and play everyday for the last month and a half. We have done a really good job, especially being in here (the Metrodome), to simulate more real game situations. We walked out on the field at Arkansas on the first day we were there and we were already playing a game. Everything is different. The ball travels differently. You have the sun, dirt, grass, etc. We haven't felt any of those things yet this year. We had them for three days, and now we're not going to feel them for five more weeks. It is definitely an advantage to get out there and play and be outside. I think we have done as good of a job as we can. We can't do a whole lot more. We try to take a spring break trip, and get outside for 10-11 days, and we try to get in here (the Metrodome) to practice and play intra-squad games as much as we can.

PE: How much are the Minnesota Golden Gophers at a natural advantage having the Metrodome to play and practice in over the other Big Ten teams?

AH: With what you're seeing this weekend (as part of the Dairy Queen Classic), it's a different place to play. If nothing else it's where the Twins play, so when guys come in they know they're playing in a big-league stadium. To us it's our home field. They have the new field turf out there, dealing with the lights, the roof (etc.), to us now just happens naturally, because we're used to it. This year we play two Big Ten series here, which is different than any previous year. We've been out shoveling snow our opening weekend at home the past couple of years. I'm not kidding, we played both days in that kind of weather, and I'm not sure how we did that. This year we open against Michigan in here for a four game series. That will be an advantage for us.

PE: There have been several proposed changes to NCAA baseball to help level the playing field, such as instituting a unified starting date for all teams. Do you think that would help level the playing field, and is there anything else you think would help improve college baseball for this purpose?

AH: I'm not sure what the magic date is, I'm not sure if March first is the right date, but we went down to Arkansas to start our season on February 25th, and it felt like we were waiting forever to start our season. Every team across the country had already been playing and we were just starting our season. It does seem as though when we go down to Arkansas and they're playing their 10^th, 11^th and 12^th games of the season, and we're playing our first, second and third, there's a problem there. Honestly, I don't know if it's ever going to change, I guess I just don't see it happening. Realistically you have so many big baseball schools down in the south and they like to do what they've done. And I don't know if making them wait an extra two or three weeks is really benefiting anybody. A national start date does make a lot of sense, so everyone is on the same playing field as the season moves along.

PE: Similar to college basketball where they have their annual 'Midnight Madness' date, in which teams are allowed to not only start playing, but to start practicing. Would a unified starting practice date also make sense?

AH: Yeah. You talk about leveling the playing field, and they (southern teams) have a huge advantage and they do their best to take advantage of it. If we were down there we would be doing the exact same thing, so I can't say that they're wrong, but is it fair? I don't know, probably not, but we do the best we can to deal with that. We end up playing more games during a weekend series. We play four games a weekend and most teams in the south play three games a weekend. While it's different, you have to make the most of what is given to you. If we benefit from playing four game series at the end of the year when we get thrown into a four-game series against some team in the NCAA tournament, then maybe somehow that helps us.

However, there's nothing you can do. You can sit here and complain about it, or we can just say 'that's how it is.' We get to play in a dome so we're pretty fortunate because of that, and we make the most of it. We have Pepperdine, New Orleans and South Carolina that we get to play this weekend, and we get to play them on our turf. I think that's a pretty good deal.

PE: Since you have been here you have seen highly regarded national teams like the ones you just mentioned that are here this year along with Nebraska, Florida State and West Virginia from a year ago, and Wake Forest from two years ago. How big of an honor is it to be able to host an event like the Dairy Queen Classic?

AH: It's just a great tournament. I think it says a lot for our program and a lot for our history and tradition. Basically anybody who is anybody has played here. All the big schools, and like you've seen it's mainly from the south and the west coast. What an opportunity, last year we swept the tournament and played really well. We pride ourselves on facing the best competition in the country that we can at the beginning of the year to see where we're at and get a feeling for both our strengths and weaknesses. We try to be ready for the opening of the Big Ten season by playing the best competition that we can. That is why this tournament has so much weight to it, and that's why people like you are here, because there are great teams here from around the country every year.

PE: With the previously mentioned Glen Perkins moving on, along with other key Gopher contributors from a year ago such as Sam Stiedl, what are some of the changes we're going to see with the Gophers on paper this year?

AH: Sammy (Stiedl) was one of the best centerfielders ever in the history of the program. He left with the second most hits of all-time. What a great leadoff hitter; he never struck out, he got on base all of the time, he stole bases, he played great defense (etc.). But other than that, we have eight guys returning to the starting lineup this year. So looking at our lineup, we're really a mature team. Our infielders are exactly the same as a year ago. Tony (Leseman) moved from left to center, and he's a phenomenal centerfielder. The new leftfielder is basically the only new player on the field this year. What a great catcher we have in Jake Elder. He's solid, he's been back there for three years, he really controls a game well for us, and he basically calls all of the signs on everything that happens. So, from a defensive standpoint we're also really mature.

From a pitching standpoint, obviously we lost Perk (Glen Perkins), we lost Gags (Jay Gagner) and we lost Craig Molldrem last year. Perk was one of the best pitchers in the country and the other two were experienced senior pitchers. This year we have two more senior starting pitchers in (Matt) Loberg and (Josh) Krogman. How they pan out and handle that will determine how far we go. Last year Perk never lost on a Friday, so we opened every Friday with him winning. He really set the stage for us. We're going to have a lot of new arms for us this spring, as we brought in some good transfers and some other young guys that need more experience. Defensively, we're going to make the plays behind them, and we're going to hit the ball. How we get up and get guys out is going to be key for us.

PE: In a year or two your lineup will be significantly different, so what are some of the things you do to help the young players learn the ropes? Do you take a take-charge type of approach or do you lead more by example?

AH: I tend to be a lead by example guy. I'm not going to go back there and tell someone how to hit or tell them what to do. If they ask I'm more than willing to talk about it with them, and recently that has happened a little bit more. I know for me when I got here the best thing I did was red-shirt my freshman year, so I sat back and watched guys like (Luke) Appert and (Scott) Welch and (Jason) Kennedy play. You really have to take advantage as a young player to watch the older guys. You can't simulate those observations hitting off of a tee, or hitting in BP. It's really about how you're going to come out and play when the game matters. You're right, it's going to be a different lineup next year, and it's going to be a really different lineup two years from now, and that's why we're going to try and make the most out of the year we have right now. Hopefully some of the young guys who will fill-in in years to come will learn from how we play this year and hopefully step in and do a good job next year.

PE: Despite hitting .366 with 66 RBIs a year ago, are there any ways you're looking to improve this season?

AH: I'd like to be a guy that shows up towards the top of a lot of offensive categories. I would be lying if I said I didn't want to go out and hit 20 home runs, but if that means losing 60 points on my batting average because I'm trying to hit every ball out of the park, that is not going to help the team. I really try not to look back too much. I know it sounds cliché, but I think the more I can focus on the process than the end result, the better off I will be. I'll try to keep hitting my doubles, and if a ball happens to jump out the park because a pitcher made a mistake, that's great for my team and I. I would like to have an improved strikeout to walk ratio, and that may be a goal, but that to me is more of a byproduct of staying within the moment and having a good at-bat each and every time.

PE: So basically taking it one at-bat at a time?

AH: Exactly. It sounds great, but it's hard to do.

PE: Who are some of the people you looked up to growing up?

AH: More recently, a guy that I try to idolize when it comes to the mental aspect of the game is (Barry) Bonds. Obviously his off the field issues leave a lot of question marks, but how he approaches his at-bats are unbelievable. I don't care if you're on steroids or not, his mental approach to the game is so clean it's unreal. You can watch him play for a week and he'll never make a mistake. He may not get a hit in every at-bat, but he still won't make a mistake; he won't swing at a pitch that he shouldn't, he doesn't miss a pitch he should hit, and he doesn't get behind in the count very often. That's something every hitter can learn from. Not so much trying to hit 73 home runs in a season, and 600 to 700 career home runs, but what a great example of someone whose mental approach is the reason for their success. Hitters usually tend to get overly aggressive or not aggressive enough, and the more you can find that happy medium the better off you'll be, and Bonds does it perfectly.

PE: How much does it mean to come so close to Terry Steinbach's two-year RBI record, especially being a St. Paul native?

AH: I think it's fun because it's a real humbling experience, because I get to look at it and think, "This is a great Major League player." I don't think of him really as a Gopher, until I had the chance to play with him at the Alumni game. So to have those roots that come back to me, you have (Paul) Molitor, you have (Dave) Winfield, you have some great players, makes you realize that they were throwing on the same jersey that I am. It's been written about a lot, and honestly before it came out I didn't know about it. Whatever happens to me down the road, no one can take that away from me.

PE: What can we expect from the Gophers this year?

AH: I think you can expect a team that really plays as a team. We're going to win because we're going to play all three phases of the game well: We're going to pick the ball, we're going to hit the ball and we're going to pitch. You can expect the same things that we expect of ourselves, which is to go out and win the Big Ten again and make a run in the NCAA tournament. We've won the Big Ten the last three years since I've been here, and I think you can expect good things from us again this year.

PE: Good luck this year to you and the entire team. Thanks for taking the time to talk.

AH: Thank you. Take care.