Lance Berkman’s physique is such that no one would accuse him of being a major-league player if they ever saw him out of his Houston Astros uniform.
But, as your mother told you, don’t judge a book by its cover.
On a sunny June day in 2003, Cubs fans sitting in the left-field bleachers at Wrigley Field heaped some verbal abuse upon Berkman and tossed him a couple of Twinkies between innings. Berkman simply walked over to the spot where the Twinkies landed, stuffed one in his back pocket and ate the other before going back to his position.
The very next inning Berkman hit a two-run homer, as if to say, “Who’s the Twinkie now?”
Silencing hecklers always has been an easy task for Houston’s easygoing outfielder.
“Personally, I find it easier to play on the road,” Berkman said recently. “Because if I do bad, I feel like I didn’t embarrass myself in front of my family and friends.”
With Houston on tap for the White Sox in the World Series, stopping the Twinkie-eating, switch-hitting slugger will be the primary focus of Sox pitchers. The rest of the Astros’ lineup is not exactly intimidating, leaving Berkman as the only player capable of serving as a one-man wrecking crew.
Whether the Sox will pitch around Berkman or go right at him could have a major impact on who wins the World Series.
Berkman has stood out during the 2005 postseason, hitting .314 with two home runs and eight RBIs in his 10 playoff games. Both of his home runs were clutch jobs.
He hit a grand slam off Atlanta’s Kyle Farnsworth that ignited the Astros’ comeback in an eventual 18-inning win in Game 4 of their division series. And he hit a three-run shot off St. Louis’ Chris Carpenter in Game 5 of the NLCS on Monday, giving the Astros a 4-2 lead and putting them on the verge of the World Series.
Just when Berkman was about to seal his name in Texas sports history, Albert Pujols denied him his magical moment with his own three-run homer off Brad Lidge, sending the series back to St. Louis, where the Astros eventually won in six games.
“He’s one of those guys, and there’s a few of them out there, that when the game is tough and on the line and the best pitcher is in the game, he can produce,” Houston manager Phil Garner said. “We saw him do that in the big 18-inning game (against Atlanta) when he hit the grand slam.
“He’s a guy who appears to be asleep at some points in the game, but when it’s really key, he’s there. I say that with a great deal of respect, because what you want is a guy with ice water in his veins. And if you have a guy like that, when the game is in its highest moment, when everybody else is nervous and anxious, he’s the guy you look at and he’s cool and calm and knows exactly what he can do.
“He’s a completely confident hitter, a great hitter.”
Shortly after finishing a three-year, $11 million contract, Berkman tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his right knee last Oct. 28 while playing flag football in a church league. He joked afterward about being upset that he wasn’t playing “worth a dang” in the game before the injury.
Berkman wound up missing the first five weeks of the 2005 season, returning on May 6 after being out for 27 games. He hit only .234 in May with one home run and six RBIs in 77 at-bats, and the Astros looked lifeless.
Houston plunged 15 games under .500 on May 24 with a 15-30 record, 14 games behind the first-place Cardinals. But as Berkman rebounded, so did the Astros, who went 74-43 the rest of the way and won the National League wild-card spot on the final day of the season.
Now the Astros have made it all the way to U.S. Cellular Field for Game 1 of the World Series, and the man Cubs fans once threw Twinkies at is leading the charge.
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psullivan@tribune.com
