BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : Erstad Enjoys His Day in Dome

Saturday was Kirby Puckett Night in the Metrodome. Sunday was Darin Erstad Day, minus the flashy pre-game ceremony, laser shows and speeches.

The crowd of 14,378 also was significantly smaller than Saturday’s sellout of 51,011, but about 3,000 of those fans--roughly one-fifth the population of Jamestown, N.D.--made the 5 1/2-hour drive to Minneapolis to see Erstad, their hometown hero, play against the Twins.

Three North Dakota newspaper reporters and two television crews were on hand to chronicle the event. Among the traveling party was Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) and several hundred members of Jamestown’s Trinity of Lutheran Church, who conducted services under a tent outside the Metrodome Sunday morning.

“Our pastor was pretty excited,” Erstad said, “because he got to use the same podium Kirby used Saturday night.”

Manager Joe Maddon started Erstad in center field, moving Jim Edmonds to the designated hitter spot and Chili Davis to the bench. Erstad singled in four at-bats.

“I’d have been dead meat in that state if I didn’t play him,” Maddon said. “I could get one speeding ticket there and never be heard from again. I’m sure now I’ll be welcomed into their fine community.”

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Angel third baseman Jack Howell, who started Sunday’s sixth-inning triple play, and second baseman Rex Hudler, who turned the triple play, said they had never been involved in a triple play before. But the player who hit into it, Minnesota’s Ron Coomer, actually started two triple plays as a third baseman for triple-A Albuquerque last season. . . . Strange but true: After starting the triple play, Howell was removed from the game in the seventh for defensive purposes. “George Arias has been playing great,” Howell said. “I’m sure 90% of managers would do the same thing.” . . . Sunday marked Edmonds’ first start at DH. Asked what he was going to do between at-bats he said, “Watch football.”