Hot Stove: Club Baseball Q&A with Nick Carr

2/18/09

         Hofstra Club Baseball is gearing up for what looks to be another exciting and eventful season in 2009. To provide fans, students, and players with something to hold them over until opening day, hubaseballclub.com will feature highlights of 2008 and interviews with current and former players. This week, hubaseballclub.com sits down with current senior cocaptain, Nick Carr.

        Nick Carr, Vice-President and Co-Founder of the Hofstra Club Baseball team, has seen experienced everything throughout his tenure as a leader on the squad. As a starting shortstop through his entire club baseball career, Carr will be making the transition to second base and first base as injury and age have taken taken a toll on his range at the position. Entering his third full year, Carr is currently the all time team leader in career batting average (.391), hits and runs. He also set a single season record scoring 21 runs out of the leadoff spot in 2008. He looks to improve on these feats in 2009 and lead Hofstra to their eventual goal, the 2009 NCBA World Series title in May.

HUBASEBALLCLUB.com: Who is your favorite pro athlete?

CARR: Derek Jeter... I got to watch him grow as a player and inspire me to play the way I do today

HUBASEBALLCLUB.com: What is your favorite TV Show?

CARR: Entourage... Vince is great, kind of a fan of E, Drama is hilarious as well

HUBASEBALLCLUB.com: If you could meet three people, living or dead, who would they be?

CARR: Donald Trump, Michael Jackson, Andrei Kirilenko

HUBASEBALLCLUB.com: Why did you pick Hofstra?

CARR: Location, close to home, close to the city, close to many good things

HUBASEBALLCLUB.com: What do you think was the biggest challenge back in 2006 when you and Rich Fiore started the team?

CARR: The biggest hurdle was finding college level ball players. In our first season we actually had a good starting lineup, but the depth was horrendous. We had at least five kids on the team who had never touched a baseball field before.

HUBASEBALLCLUB.com: What do you think was the biggest reason for coming up short last season?

CARR: We got off to a great start and were set up to win it all, we were right there with NYU the entire season. When we won, we made the plays, we pitched, and the hitting came. In that last series we simply didn't make the plays. We made stupid mistakes and allowed NYU to take advantage on them. NYU is a great team and they showed it. They deserved to win. Even though I felt we had the talent to get to the postseason, if you don't work hard and make the plays, you're not going to win no matter how good you are.

HUBASEBALLCLUB.com: Who do you think will be our toughest opponent this season?

CARR: Pretty much every conference game is going to be a tough game and we cant take anyone for granted. Every conference game counts just as much as another, so if we go out there every weekend and win, we'll be successful

HUBASEBALLCLUB.com: What would you say to a graduating high school baseball player who is interested in Hofstra University and is looking to continue their career into college?

CARR: Club baseball offers competitive baseball that is a good step above high school baseball and is much less time consuming than playing for an NCAA program. It allows you focus not solely on baseball and still play on a competitive squad.

Stay tuned for the next edition of Q&A with infielder Chris Kalesavich