Brian Erie caught nearly all of Kansas City’s games in 2014, playing in 92 contests, and was one of the T-Bones main clutch hitters, batting .362 with 22 RBIs when runners were in scoring position with two outs. But who exactly is the man behind the catcher’s mask? Matt McMullen of tbonesbaseball.com caught up with Erie in this installment of Prime 9.

My idol growing up was… Mike Piazza. He was one of the best catchers in the game when I was growing up. He’s the reason I was a catcher.

If not for baseball, I would be... Coaching. I hope to coach when I’m done playing. I enjoy working with college kids, but I’d like to coach at least high school.

My favorite type of music is… I like everything. Rap, country… I listen to everything.

One person in history I’d like to meet is… Shoeless Joe Jackson. I want to know if he took the money.

My favorite thing about Kansas City is… The fans and the atmosphere [at our games]. We have a great stadium and there’s always people out there supporting us. This is definitely one of the better places where I’ve played.  

Some advice I’d give to young ballplayers is… Just keep working hard. Work at it every day. Hopefully somebody is there watching.

My favorite thing about playing catcher is… I get to see everything; I see the whole game. It’s all in front of me. Everybody’s watching what the pitcher and I are doing.

My favorite baseball memory is… Winning two conference championships in college, back-to-back years. I went to Northern Kentucky University, and that was the first time that had ever been done in our conference.

My favorite movie of all time is… Bull Durham. It’s one of the best baseball movies ever made.