Normally a 21st birthday is spent out on the Vegas strip bathing in tequila and basing their memories off photos.  

The only shots on Dirtbag shortstop Danny Espinosa’s mind were the two he hit in the left-center gap in the Dirtbag’s series opening 10-2 win over Pacific.

I spoke to Espinosa prior to the game. Unaware it was his birthday. And I’ll admit that I’ve spoken with him on numerous occasions for different articles—but never in the aftermath of a slump where the Dirtbags loss 11 of 13 games (10 of those on the road).

I tried to skip reporter and play psychologist, read his thought process, and body language compared to my previous encounters with him. But now I realize he is as consistent in an interview as he is with the glove.

“I think we’re fine,” Espinosa said of the team’s losing skid. “I think at times we feel that there is pressure but I think our guys deal with it really well. We just try to go out there and play hard. I tell the guys to go out there and play hard and what happens, happens.”

He added that they also ran into some hot teams at bad times. Now the Dirtbags have won seven of eight. Danny along with Shane Peterson and Jason Corder are hitting the cover off the ball. Espinosa is hitting near .500 during the streak but the most noticeable difference in the team is their swagger seems to be coming back.

Yeah, Espinosa is confident and there is a fine line of swagger versus cockiness. So many people see Danny’s on-field brogadoccio and confuse it for this over-the-top swagger. I’ll be honest, all baseball players have swagger, it’s confidence, it’s personality, it’s part of the game.

And as a spectator, you see the play at the short, the flashing of the pickoff signs with a runner on second, and the open batting stance. You don’t see him make a scene, you don’t see him pout, you don’t see him take a play off.

“You can only do the best that you can do,” he said. “As long as you leave it out on the field.

“I know after a game we lose I am not looking at anybody saying ‘you didn’t try hard.’ Cause I can look at all these guys and say they did try hard. Yea were gonna struggle, individuals are gonna struggle. But no one is trying to struggle.”

As you can see, he is well-groomed in the art of the interview, but speak to him with the recorder off, still the same 21-year-old kid who will answer any question honestly.

Well almost anything truthfully, he did sidestep when you ask him if he is the best shortstop on the Long Beach State campus—opposed to softballer Jessica Beaver.

“Yea I wanna say that,” he said. “I mean she had a good year last year, I haven’t really been able to follow what she has done this year. I’m sure she is having another good year. But I think she was West Coast Regional Shortstop of the year last year so she is a really good ballplayer, I don’t know, it’s tough though. Im not gonna say anything, but I’d like to say that I do better.”

I guess this is why we sportswriters exist, right? To settle these debates? Well, not really, but we do have insight because we get to know and talk to these athletes. People see Danny Espinosa as the shortstop for Long Beach State, a position that has been held most recently by Troy Tulowitzki (Colorado Rockies) and Bobby Crosby (Oakland Athletics), so they have very high expectations. And trust me, he has them for himself as well. I read off some stats to him, word-association style and this is what he had to say:

Batting average .304: “Bad.”  [Note: this was prior to the Pacific series—Espinosa raised his average to .321]
17 RBIs: “Low, too low.”
Three HRs: “Fine with me.”
Winning: “Nothing better.”
Losing: “Worst thing…Nothing worse than a loss. I don’t care how you played individually, a loss is horrible.”
Rankings: “Mean nothing. I just like to see how other teams do on the weekends, but they mean nothing.”
Sportswriters: “They give their own input. Everyone’s got their own input and they get to write about it and everyone gets to see it. Just another opinion.”

Espinosa also had an opinion when the conversation turned to basketball. I asked him if he was a Lakers fan and he said he prefers the college basketball game. He talked about University of North Carolina forward and College Player of the Year, Tyler Hansbrough returning to school for his senior year, despite two of his teammates declaring for the NBA draft. “Dumb move” from Danny’s perspective..

I would like to take credit for setting him up for the following question, but I can’t lie, Danny set himself up. I asked him whether or not he would be back next season, now that he is eligible to be drafted in the MLB Amateur Draft in June. He laughed like he knew he set himself up.

“I don’t know,” he responded with a shoulder to shoulder grin. “We’re gonna see what happens I guess. Of course I love playing here, but I think at the same time it’s time for me to move on. If I can finish this year out strong then I guess I’ll get the opportunity to play professional baseball.”

But Espinosa would not be Hansbrough if he came back, he’d hope to be more like Matt Leinart returning for his senior season after all he is Long Beach State’s closest thing to a quarterback.

Can’t forget that Leinart came back after winning a national title. And for those of you who jumped off the Dirtbags bandwagon, a little something to keep in mind is that Oregon State entered the Regionals last year as an at-large team after finishing sixth in the Pac-10. They won it all. This team has proved it belongs amongst the nations elite and if they do end up in Omaha, will that affect Espinosa’s decision?

“That’d be the best note to go out on,” he said. “I think that Hansbrough or any guy feels like if you were to play for a championship team that’s better than getting Player of the Year—you got a championship. That means way more than getting a player of the year. Who’s gonna remember a Player of the Year? Everyone is always gonna remember a championship. You’re gonna remember a championship and all the guys you have on the team. It’s gonna be something special you hold with them.”