Lance Berkman sustained excellence at the plate: Astros first baseman's consistency ranks him as one of the game's elite players and among the majors' top switch-hitters

Baseball Digest, August, 2008 by Richard Justice

LANCE BERKMAN DOESN'T DRINK or swear, drives a Ford F-150, and has a wardrobe that s mostly jeans and boots.

His idea of a perfect day is to spend a morning doing chores on his Brenham ranch and an afternoon watching college football.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

He's a devout Christian and a political conservative. Don't get him started on them dad-gum liberals.

After all these years, after all the money and all the success, he's still pretty much the same decent guy who walked into the home clubhouse at the Astrodome nine years ago.

He's one of those guys who reminds you it's occasionally OK to admire a professional athlete. To know Lance Berkman is to admire and like Lance Berkman.

Yes, he did eat those Twinkies a Cub fan threw at him at Wrigley Field a few years ago. Next question.

Now, about that cell phone. He has one, but don't bother trying to reach him on it, because the thing has a mind of its own and just keeps walking off. Wife Cara has joked that if she has something really important, she'll pin a note to his clothing.

He's making $14.5 million, not that you would know it. He wore a Gruene Hall T-shirt until there wasn't much left. If you see someone who looks like him in line at Whataburger, it probably is.

Perhaps the most amazing thing about Lance Berkman is that he has been so good for so long that he has been taken for granted.

He would never tell you this kind of thing annoys him, but it has to, at least a little.

About the only time anyone ever mentions him is when his average slips below .300 or he goes more than a day or two without delivering a big hit.

That's when people wonder why he's not more serious. Is he a leader? Does he really work hard? They're uncomfortable with his sense of humor.

"I guess I'm going to have to shut down the speed game," he said one year after pulling a leg muscle.

He didn't mean it exactly that way, since he really has no speed game, but people wondered.

Being taken for granted is about the highest compliment an athlete can receive. It means his greatness is a given. In seven years as a full-time player, Berkman has averaged 34 home runs and 110 RBI.

We may also take him for granted because he's one of us. You should have seen the celebration the Astros held when they used the 16th pick of the 1997 draft on him.

They were convinced there was no way he'd slip to them, and when he did, they acted like they'd won the lottery. Actually, they had.

The first haft of the 2008 season has been so amazing because Berkman hasn't just been great by his own standards. It's time to stop trying to collect all the numbers. They've become a blur. It's time to stop putting it all in some kind of historical context. It simply doesn't exist.

Berkman is doing things that have seldom been done in the last 100 years. In Houston's 28 games in the month of May, Berkman hit .471 (49for-104) with 11 doubles, nine homers, 22 RBI and a .856 slugging percentage.

Through June 1, he was hitting .385, second in the National League, and led the league with 17 home runs and 47 RBI. In case you're looking ahead, the N.L. hasn't had a Triple Crown winner in 71 years.

I don't know about you, but I've run out of superlatives. I say we cut to the chase and build him a statue right now. If Bagwell and Biggio can have one, the Puma certainly should have one. Puma? Yes, sir.

He got that nickname from a couple of radio guys a few years ago. He liked it immediately.

"I am The Puma," he said.

Why?

"Pumas are fast and lean and deadly," he said. "That's me."

His amazing start this year came after a season in which Berkman hit a career-low .278. Since he's not inclined to make excuses, I'll make one for him. He had a wrist injury that bothered him more than he let anyone know. No, it's not his weight or his off-season program or any of that.

Sometimes athletes who are so consistent and so decent and so bighearted that we take them for granted. Sometimes it's the ones who are so comfortable in their own skin that they're OK if others get all the attention.

Berkman is a prototype for what every professional athlete should be in the way he lives his life and plays the game.

He's a great hitter in every sense of the word. He just turned 32 years old and has a .304 career batting average with 276 home runs and 902 RBI. His career on-base percentage is .415.

By the time he's done, he may be knocking on the doors of Cooperstown. In the steroid era, he's completely untainted except for an occasional extra piece of pie.

If he's not careful, he's going to end up being a household name in spite of himself. In a world of egomaniacs and designer suits and all kinds of phonies, he's still just The Puma.

"I'm not changing," he said.

Thank goodness.

By RICHARD JUSTICE

The Houston Chronicle

All-Around Switch-Hitters

There have been only five switch-hitters in major league history who
have hit .300 with 30 or more homers, 100-plus RBI and an on-base
percentage of .400. Mickey Mantle accomplished the feat three times
and through 2007, Lance Berkman did it three times. Chipper Jones
reached those figures four times.

Year    Player, Team                      BA      HR      RBI     OBP

1956    Mickey Mantle, Yankees           .353     52      130    .464
2001    Lance Berkman, Astros            .331     34      126    .430
2001    Chipper Jones, Braves            .330     38      102    .427
1996    Ken Caminiti, Padres             .326     40      130    .408
1999    Chipper Jones, Braves            .319     45      110    .441
1961    Mickey Mantle, Yankees           .317     54      128    .448
2004    Lance Berkman, Astros            .316     30      106    .450
2006    Lance Berkman, Astros            .315     45      136    .420
1998    Chipper Jones, Braves            .313     34      107    .404
2000    Chipper Jones, Braves            .311     36      111    .404
2007    Mark Teixeira, Rangers/Braves    .306     30      105    .400
1964    Mickey Mantle, Yankees           .303     35      111    .423

Switch-Hitters With Most Runs Batted In ...

Season
Year                Player, Team                   RBI

2005                Mark Teixeira, Rangers         144
2006                Lance Berkman, Astros          136
1956                Mickey Mantle, Yankees         130
1996                Ken Caminiti, Padres           130
1934                Ripper Collins, Cardinals      128
1961                Mickey Mantle, Yankees         128
2002                Lance Berkman, Astros          128
2001                Lance Berkman , Astros         126
1985                Eddie Murray, Orioles          124
1935                Ripper Collins , Cardinals     122
2000                Bernie Williams, Yankees       121
1990                Bobby Bonilla, Pirates         120
1999                Roberto Alomar, Indian

Career

Player                         Years               RBI

Eddie Murray                 1977-1997            1,917
Mickey Mantle                1951-1968            1,509
Ted Simmons                  1968-1988            1,389
Chili Davis                  1981-1999            1,372
Chipper Jones +              1993-2008            1,334
Ruben Sierra                 1986-2006            1,322
Pete Rose                    1963-1986            1,314
Bernie Williams              1991-2006            1,257
Frankie Frisch               1919-1937            1,244
Bobby Bonilla                1986-2001            1,173
Roberto Alomar               1988-2004            1,134
Reggie Smith                 1966-1982            1,092