Sport: Baseball
Born: May 18, 1965
Town: Kinnelon, New Jersey
Erik Brian Hanson was born May 18, 1965 in Kinnelon, NJ. Erik attended the Peddie School, a boarding school in Hightstown. It was only during his junior year that he started playing varsity baseball at Peddie. Even then, he just thought of himself a strong-armed third baseman. Erik was well over 6′ tall at the time and thought basketball might be his ticket to college. His older brother, Robert, was already playing for Penn State. Erik had his eye on Mike Krzyzewski’s Duke basketball team.
It wasn’t until his senior year that Erik became a pitcher. He developed an incredible curveball to go with a 90 mph fastball, elevating him from an average player to a potential early-round draft pick. He was unbeaten as a senior in 1983 and led Peddie to a state title. More than two dozen scouts were in the stands for the championship game.
The Expos targeted Erik but knew he was thinking about college. They sent Yankees legend Eddie Lopat to try to interest him, but Erik decided to pursue higher education rather than sign right out of high school, and went on to attend Wake Forest University. Montreal still gambled a draft pick on Erik and waved a $100,000 bonus in front of him, but he held fast. He played three seasons for Wake and was a preseason All-American in 1986 until a teammate collided with him during batting practice and he was left with a torn knee that ruled his junior season.
The Seattle Mariners still made Erik a second-round pick that year, offering him $107,000 plus the amount needed to pay for the remainder of his college education as a bonus. In 1988, Erik was 12-7 for Seattle’s top minor league club, and was called up to the big leagues. He joined the group of Seattle pitchers referred to as the “Young Guns.” They included Randy Johnson, Scott Bankhead, Mike Dunne and Brian Holman.
Erik posted an 18-9 record in 1990 with 211 strikeouts, which was third-best in the American League. Two seasons later, he led the American League in losses at 8-17. After six seasons, the Mariners decided Erik was too expensive to keep and traded him to the Cincinnati Reds.
Erik joined the Boston Red Sox as a Free Agent in 1995 and had his lone All-Star season, fashioning a 15-5 record. Boston made the playoffs and Erik started a game against the Indians, but the Red Sox lost. In 1996, he joined the Toronto Blue Jays and pitched until he retired in 1998 due to an injured right elbow, which required ligament-replacement surgery.
Erik, who stood 6’6″, often said that basketball was the game he really loved, and that baseball was something that had “come out of nowhere”—making it much easier for him to leave the game after 11 years. In 1999, Erik donated $365,000 toward the remodeling of the basketball courts, indoor track, and bleachers at his beloved high school, Peddie.
Erik took up golf in his retirement and won two regional majors, the Oregon Open and the Northwest Open.