Hernandez got started in baseball with a little coaching
from his
father, Brian
Hector Hernandez, at the age of four. Hernandez eventually lead his
team to
the semi-finals of the
Little League World Series, and in high school, earned his district’s
Player
of Year title for helping
his team to the state semi-finals.
Hernandez played at Duke University for two years before transferring
to
Vanderbilt last summer.
2005 is Hernandez’s inaugural season with the Commodores.
Q: What led to your decision to transfer?
A: I started for two years, I was getting a lot of playing time. But I
didn’t
necessarily feel like I was
getting better. I’ve known about this program, especially last summer
when
they were on TV
playing Texas. 
I started thinking about transferring because this is a
great
school and I’ve known
Coach Corbin for a while, he recruited when me when he was at Clemson.
I was looking at a couple of places closer to home, but I made my
decision to
transfer here just
because I want to get better and this seemed like the perfect place.
Q: How was the transition between schools?
A: I knew a couple of the guys and that made it easier, it wasn’t like
I was
coming in knowing no
one whatsoever. Plus I played against Warner in various showcases when
we were
in high school. I
didn’t know him very well but I knew who he was. The guys here have
been
absolutely tremendous.
I love it, I’m having a great time.
Q: How was your first home run at Hawkins Field?
A: I
honestly didn’t even know if it was going to go out or not. I hit and I
was
just running and I knew
there were two outs and guys on first and third and I was just hoping
to get
those guys in and get
myself in scoring position on second. I was coming across first base
and I saw
the umpire motion
that I had a home run. I had a little smile on my face, I was trying
not to
show it too much, but I
was excited.
Q: Do you have any goals for the season?
A: My goal for the season is to help this team get to Omaha. They had a
great
season last year, I
wasn’t a part of it. I had nothing to do with it so I hope I can come
in and
help the team take the
next step. I don’t really have any personal goals. Hopefully coming in
and
helping the team win
help the personal stuff will take care of itself.
Q: How are you feeling about the Baylor series this weekend?
A:
We’ve got a tough series this weekend. We’ve been on a good little
streak here
and hopefully we’ll
continue our momentum into this weekend and play our game. Hopefully
we’ll
come out with 3-0,
but we’re really just concentrating on Friday right now, you know, just
come
up with a W on Friday
and then we’ll worry about the rest later. It’s going to be tough,
Baylor’s a
good team.
Q: What are your plans for immediately after college?
A: I want to play baseball. But I’m majoring in communications so
hopefully
I’ll be able to do
something with that and any type of sport. I just love sports in
general.
Q: Where do you see yourself in the future?
A: I could definitely be happy without baseball but it’s something that
I love
to do. It’s a passion of
mine, and it’s been a passion of mine for as long as I can remember. I
really
can’t see my life
without it. I know in some shape or form it will be involved with me
for the
rest of my life.
I hope to raise a family. You know, I’m getting older, I’m 21 now so I
gotta
look towards the future
a little bit. Raising a family is something that’s definitely
important.
Q:
At Duke you alternated between catcher and DH. Do you prefer one more
than the
other?
A: Well, when everything is going good hitting is awesome. But I love
to
catch, I think you have to
in order to catch. It’s such a demanding position. You do a lot of work
and
you don’t get a lot of
praise. And you’re kind of coaching when you’re on the field. Everyone
is
looking at you and you’re
the only guy facing the other eight guys on the field. And you have to
direct
things and tell
everybody what to do. You have to learn how to handle pitches. Being
new I had
to learn how to
handle a whole new pitching staff, and learn different guys
personalities,
what fires them up, what
gets them down, how to pick them up. I think catching is one of my
favorite
things to do.
Q: What attracted you catching?
A: I’ve
been catching since I was seven. I don’t really know why I started, I
just
did. I guess I have the body
type for it. In high school it was all I ever really did.
Q: What draws you to baseball?
A: It’s just a great game. It’s the only game where you just have two
opposing
players, a pitcher
and a hitter. And for that time it’s one on one. In basketball and
football
you have so many
different factors but here it’s really just pitcher vs. hitter. Hitting
is
probably one of the hardest
things to do in sports. You have .4 seconds to decide what you’re going
to do,
where to hit it,
where’s it going to be and do you want to swing.
Q: The media guide listed Phil Collins as your favorite artist. Is
this a
typo?
A: No, nope. I like the later Phil Collins. I like a lot of his stuff.
I had
to pick a musician and it was a
toss up between him and Billy Joel. I’m an 80s fan.