Howie Kendrick, Angels infielder

	Howie Kendrick, Angels infielder. Michael J. LeBrecht II/1Deuce3 Photography

As told to Ben Reiter

On rookie hazing

I have duties here and there. I load drinks onto the bus. Jered Weaver carries the poker chips on the flights. I've run back to the locker room to grab things for guys, like sunglasses. Before today the last time I was hit with shaving cream was in Little League, after winning a title. It's probably coming up here, but it'll be unexpected.

On getting nicknamed Howiewood

At Fenway Park, I leaned into the stands to catch a pop-up. I felt my arm hit somebody's arm, but I ran to the dugout, not paying atten- tion. The crowd was booing really loud. Our pitching coach, Buddy Black, goes, "That's Ben Affleck you stole that ball from." I looked over, and sure enough it was Ben, next to Jennifer Garner. The next inning I caught the last out, and I was going to toss him a ball, but he wasn't looking. Jennifer was, so I got her attention. I tossed the ball: It's up in the air, she's looking at him, and he's looking down. It landed in his lap. He [starts] looking at me, and I'm making signals saying, My bad! Access Hollywood did an interview with me -- they had me sign a ball they're going to give to him. Scot Shields started calling me Howiewood.

On how he became Howie

Most people, my family and everyone, call me Howard. My second year in [Rookie League] Provo, I had a [baseball] card made. They asked, Do you prefer Howard or Howie? And I said, It doesn't matter. They put Howie, so that's what everybody calls me now. I like my name.

On adapting to the major leagues

On the road you have to have leather shoes and a collared shirt. I didn't have many collared shirts, so I went to Nordstrom and got some Lacoste polo shirts, and some button-downs from Express. A little girl about 11 comes up and is like, Are you Howie Kendrick? I was like, Wow, I didn't think anyone would recognize me. She asked me, and then she took off running, really excited.

On ALCS MVP Paul Konerko

In spring training I went to hit in the cage after a workout. [The White Sox] had come up from Tucson, and [Konerko's] in the cage doing some work. I walk in, and he's like, Hey, do you want me to get out of here? I was like, Noooooo, don't get out, you're all right. I went to the other side of the cage to hit. When we played the White Sox the other day, I told him, "That was me in the cage. I didn't want you to get out because I respect you guys." He goes, "It's not 'you guys' any more. It's 'us.'" That was pretty cool.

On the difference between travel in the major leagues and the minors

Your luggage is at the hotel when you get there, and it's taken away for you before you even get to the field. Everything's always taken care of for you, whereas in minor league ball you're either on a bus trip or you're flying on a plane in Triple A that same morning you have a game, so you're rushing and have to take care of your own luggage and sometimes your luggage doesn't even get there when you're there. I just say it's a reward for making it there. In the minors you really don't get any food on the plane. This year we flew Delta in Triple A because it was the home base for Utah. If you wanted anything, they rarely served it because our flights were short. You get drinks and whatnot, just regular airplane food -- peanuts. In the majors they're chartered flights -- on a Boeing 777 -- and you get meals. If you're hungry, they have chicken sandwiches, salads, hamburgers, whatever you want. Steaks every now and then. Anything you really would want to eat. Everytime we get on the plane I get a fruit platter, every flight.

On minor league bus trips

The travel gets to you eventually. When I was in the Pioneer League, my second year, we had a twelve hour bus trip, from Provo all the way up to Great Falls, Montana. You don't really get used to it, but you know you have to do it so you might as well not complain about it. As you look back on it, you appreciate being up here even more.

On a busy week in early July

It was fun -- first I played in the Futures Game. A lot of the guys in the Futures Game I played with in the [Arizona] fall league, or I've known from other teams. [Royals prospects] Alex Gordon and Billy Butler -- Butler's actually from the Jacksonville area. The Triple-A All-Star game was like two days later. I flew from Pittsburgh over to Toledo, Ohio, and we got delayed in the airport near Toledo to fly over on one of those little prop planes. Little did I know, Toledo is a 45 minute drive away from the airport, but I'm sitting in the airport for 4 hours waiting for a 10 minute flight. After the Triple-A All Star game I flew to Sacramento to meet up with our Triple-A team. They told me, OK, you're only going to play five innings tonight, and we'll tell you the details after the game. I knew what was coming. I played five, and I ended up being called up [to the Angels] that night and I've been up ever since. The next morning I had to get up and catch a flight out of Sacramento to Anaheim. A lot of frequent flier miles!

On his girlfriend

When I was in the Arizona Fall League last fall, I was in the gym working out, lifting, and I happened to see her and end up talking to her. Her name is Jody. She didn't want anything to do with me at first, but I gave her my number and she called me back a week later. No slick lines. I was up front, I don't want to lie to people, so I told her I was a baseball people. She's a good girl -- she's been there for me, she encourages me, and she's strong. She does her thing, I do mine, and she's not too worried about what I'm doing all the time. She lives out in Arizona. She's a hairstylist. She comes out and visits me every weekend we're at home. She's a homebody, just like me, and we like to relax, stay in my hotel room and do nothing together. But we'll probably go to the San Diego Zoo soon, which I've heard is pretty nice. Disneyland, we have that in Florida, but I she might want to go there or something. I've been to Dollywood a couple times, in Pigeon Forge (Tenn.), because my family moved up there last year around January. It's nice up there, quiet, a lot of backwoods.

On his 16-game hitting streak that began his first game after being recalled to the Angels in mid-July

I was just hitting the ball, and had a clear mind, and I was just feeling good at the plate. I really was trying not to think about the hitting streak too much. A couple reporters said things here and then to me around game 10, and I really try not to focus on that stuff. You can't really press on one day, because you play every day. When it was over, I was looking forward to trying to start another one. You know you can't hit every day -- if it was that easy, everybody would be good.

On why he's hitting so much better during his second call-up in 2006

I feel more comfortable at the plate, and I have an idea of what I want to do. I have a defined approach. I feel more confident. I know that these guys are good pitchers, but it's still baseball and the game's always been the same. They have to throw the ball over the plate and I have to try to hit it.

On growing up in tiny Callahan, Florida

It's 900 people now, but I think it might have been a couple hundred fewer when I was growing up. You know everybody in the town. Everybody I graduated with I pretty much knew. That's just great. There wasn't much violence there. For fun we'd go out to friend's house, parties sometimes. We'd hang out, ride 4-wheelers, go paintball, fish. Fishing's fun, but for the most part I was into riding ATV's. Mostly in the backwoods. I don't own one, but my friends did.

On learning to hit

I grew up hitting a lot of stuff in the driveway, rocks, whatever I could get my hands on. I'd use a broomstick, whatever was like a bat. My grandmother, she decided to sign me up for Little League, and ever since then I've been in love with the game. I had some close calls with hitting a rock through a window, but I know I would have gotten my behind beat if I would have broke some. My grandmother, though, she's a great person, and I love her and respect her a lot. Her name is Ruth Woods, my mother's mother. My mom was in the military, and [my grandmother] raised me and my two sisters since I was a baby. She's the one person who has really been with me. Hitting was a knack for me -- I've always been able to hit, and I've always had really good hand eye coordination.

On living in a hotel in Anaheim

You're pretty much living out of a hotel in the minor leagues anyway. You're here, you're there, you're always traveling on the road, the bus trips. Right now the only reason I'm staying there is that we have two months left in the season, maybe three if we make the playoffs. There not a point for me to look for an apartment, because they probably wouldn't want to do a month to month lease. I could probably stay with some guys, but I don't mind being by myself and having the downtime. I don't have a lot of clothes with me, and the clothes I do have and don't need I'll just leave in the car until we get back [from road trips].

On being signed by teammate Casey Kotchman's dad, Angels scout Tom

I went to a small junior college, St. John's in Palatka, Florida, and not a lot of people would come out, not a lot of scouts. He'd pop up every now and then, and wouldn't really say anything to me. He had me fill out a questionnaire, but he never bothered me. I had four or five scouts who would come out all the time -- maybe four or five -- and talk to me. I hit for Tom a couple times after the season was over, and he goes, well, we're going to try to take you. I was going to go back to school -- I was really set on getting my education. One thing he said to me was, all these guys, they know who you are now -- they're not really going to pitch to you anymore. Major League Baseball is really what I wanted to do, and I figured if I go now I'd be getting a head start on where I want to be. Casey's dad's a great guy. Casey's a great guy too -- unfortunately he's ill right now [with mono].

On not getting any college scholarship offers

I tried out at schools, and I had offers that fell through because they had just given out their last scholarship, but I don't have any regrets. I remember what schools, but I'd rather not say -- they know who they are. I'm just glad I got a chance to play anywhere.

On the Angels' successful farm system

I don't know, man, it's just a good farm system. They teach you the basics, the fundamentals of everything. They have a really good style of teaching -- they teach you aggressive baserunning, the hit and runs. They work on a lot of the fundamental parts of the game, rather than letting you just go and play. They really press on doing things right -- getting the bunts down, moving guys over. It's all about executing things. I've played with Brandon Wood a couple of year -- I think he'll always hit home runs, he's got that homerun type swing, the elevation. I played with Sean Rodriguez, Matt Brown, Dallas McPherson, Erick Aybar's an exciting guy too. It goes back to our scouting directors and our good scouting program.

On being compared to Kirby Puckett by his Triple-A manager Brian Harper

Obviously he's a great hitter, and it's an honor for somebody to even say that. Hopefully one day I will be as good as him, and have a good career. Brian Harper, though, I played for him in the Arizona League my first year, and played for him this year in Salt Lake. I learned so much from him because he's a major leaguer who did play with Kirby. I have an aggressive style like Kirby. Not taking a lot of walks can hurt you, but at the same time -- I want to hit.

On how he, a lifetime middle infielder, learned he'd be playing first base in the majors

I was in Detroit in May, sitting in the locker room, and [second baseman] Adam Kennedy comes in and says, "Hey, you're first base today." I'm like, You're kidding. He goes, "No, you're at first." I'm like, What am I going to do? I've never played first base before! I was so nervous. I didn't have any balls hit to me that day, so I was like, Phew. I caught everything, though. I'm borrowing a glove because I don't have one--it's our bullpen coach, Orlando Mercado's, glove. It has MERCADO stitched on it.

 On who people tell him he resembles

I've gotten 50 Cent, but a lot of my friends from high school call me Keyshawn -- they think I look like Keyshawn Johnson.

KENDRICK, 23, HAS HIT .376 SINCE BEING RECALLED ON JULY 16

Issue date: August 21, 2006