An Interview with C.J. Nitkowski added 07/23/01 by Ray Kerby C.J. Nitkowski was a lefty reliever for the Astros during their dominating 1998 season. He is also one of a small group of major-leaguers that have their own website. I was able to contact C.J. through his website, C.J. Baseball , and he graciously agreed to do an email interview. I tried my best to think of questions that Astros fans would ask C.J. about his baseball career, so I hope you enjoy the read! (c) Houston Astros Ray Kerby: As a child, did you always want to be a ballplayer? What made you want to be a ballplayer? C.J. Nitkowski: Yes. Meeting Willie Randolph when I was a kid in NY. After I met him, I knew I wanted to do what he did. RK: Did you have a favorite team? Who was your idol? Why did you like him? RK: When you first made it to the bigs, who were some of your mentors? How did they help you? CJ: I got a lot of help from a lot of people along the way. There was no one mentor for me. I was influenced by Jose Rijo and John Smiley a lot when I was in Cincy. RK: When you came into the major-leagues as a starter, you struggled quite a bit with the Reds. How did you deal with the tough days you had? | |
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