He’s been pitching peanuts for 20 years. Tri-Cities baseball icon is now a Bobblehead

Like most of us, Erik Mertens has been having a rough time this summer with no baseball.

The ballpark — in this case, Gesa Stadium in Pasco — has been where the Kennewick High grad spends his entire summer.

So it was that on Aug. 15, the Tri-City Dust Devils organization gave Mertens what amounts to a pick-me-up — a 6-foot life-size Bobblehead of Mertens, perhaps better known around the ballpark as Erik The Peanut Guy.

Mertens emcees the in-between innings shenanigans and contests at Dust Devils games. Even now and then, he’ll be out in the stands selling peanuts and Crackerjack.

But he will now have his Bobblehead join the one the team has had of Russell Wilson in the ballpark for four years.

Wilson, of course, is the starting quarterback for the Seattle Seahawks. But in 2010, while he was a quarterback with North Carolina State, Wilson spent a summer with the Dust Devils as an infielder.

As it was, Mertens was in town from Spokane visiting his mother when Derrel Ebert, the Dust Devils vice president and general manager, asked him to stop by the ballpark and see him just to catch up.

Mertens agreed, only to see the entire front office there as well. They were all headed into the park when they came across the Bobblehead.

As it was a complete surprise, as well as an elixir to his summertime woes, Mertens saw the Bobblehead and immediately covered his face and fell to his knees.

“There are very few moments in life where you can’t control your body,” Mertens said. “This was one of them. I desperately wanted to hug every one of those people. It took all of my energy not to hug them.”

“He told us, ‘You have no idea what this means to me. I needed this,’ ” Ebert said.

It means a lot, Mertens said.

“In terms of minor league baseball, this is the equivalent of getting a statue in front of a major league park,” Mertens said. “It has been a rough summer (without baseball), personally for me. Thank you God for Dust Devils baseball. Most of the years, working summers at the ballpark fills my tank for the rest of the year.

“This (bobblehead) filled my tank,” he added. “I saw how much much these people cared for me.”

Part of the team

Mertens says if you look closely, there actually is replicated beard stubble on the Bobblehead. In addition, the team added a nice touch by putting the initials of Mertens’ late father, Ed Mertens, on the back of the Bobblehead.

Ebert said it was time for a new Bobblehead.

Dr. Rob Rettig of Back to Basics Chiropractic Care is a big sponsor of the Dust Devils, and three years ago, Rettig helped sponsor that Russell Wilson Bobblehead that many people pose with for pictures.

“He’s always wanted to do something new,” Ebert said.

Rettig, said Mertens, “is one of my favorite Dust Devils fans.”

The Wilson Bobblehead is 4 years old now, and Ebert and team president Brent Miles felt it was time for another one.

And it didn’t take long to zero in on the subject.

“Erik was our logical choice,” said Ebert. “I joked with him had he won a Super Bowl (like Wilson did), he might have been the first Bobblehead. But Erik is a Dust Devil as much as Dusty the mascot, or any of the players.”

Ebert calls him an integral part of the team.

“When people come to the ballpark, a lot of them ask us, ‘Is Erik The Peanut Guy Around?’ ”

Baseball ambassador

Mertens joined the team in 2000, when the Northwest League came back after a long Tri-City absence, selling — you guessed it — peanuts as a young 18-year-old.

“He’s the longest-tenured employee the Dust Devils have,” Ebert said. “He’s worked all 19 seasons out here.”

Mertens is a self-proclaimed minor league baseball ambassador.

Every year, he travels to some part of the country to watch games in other minor-league parks.

He also owns over 400 hats of minor league baseball teams.

“He’s dedicated a large part of his life to minor league baseball and he’s a big joy to fans,” Ebert said.

Mertens has always made sure that his full-time job doesn’t interfere too much with his Dust Devils gig.

Late in the summer, August — when his job as part of the youth ministry at Gonzaga University picks up again — Mertens only gets to work the Friday and Saturday home games.

“This would have been my 20th season with the team,” said Mertens, who turns 38 next month.

But there is nothing he’d rather be doing in June, July, August — and hopefully in September. That’s when the playoffs are.

“I know exactly how long it takes to drive from Gonzaga’s campus to the front gate of Gesa Stadium,” Mertens said. “It’s 2 hours and 15 minutes, if I don’t stop to use the bathroom in Ritzville. I can get there right about time of the first pitch.”

Last year, the Dust Devils made it to the Northwest League finals, playing in every possible game there was.

Mertens worked his ministry job during the day in Spokane, bolted for the Tri-Cities in time for the game, worked the game, took a quick cat-nap at his mom’s house in Kennewick, then raced back to Spokane the next morning in time for work.

He did this for two solid weeks. And he loved it.

He has a lot invested in his Dust Devils job.

“It’s tough to put into words,” he said. “It’s the community, first and foremost. I’m very proud to be from the Tri-Cities. Our local sports teams are a conduit to this community. I’ve formed life-long friendships with some of the season ticketholders, as well as my co-workers.”

He says it all starts at the top with Miles and Ebert.

“You can see their love for people with their customer service,” Mertens said.

Mertens has lived in other communities — Hillsboro, Yakima and now Spokane. But there is nothing, he says, like living in the Tri-Cities.

“It reminds me of who I am,” he said.

And he expects to be Erik The Peanut Guy for a long time down the road too.

“I’m so happy,” he said. “You know, I thought that maybe decades from now, when I retire from this job, they might retire my apron. I seriously didn’t expect this.”

And now, during this summer of no baseball, Mertens will always be at the ballpark — even when he isn’t.

“My heart is always at the ballpark,” he said. “And now my life-size Bobblehead is out there.”

This story was originally published August 25, 2020 at 3:13 PM.