HOUSTON

A silver Porsche sedan pulls into the parking lot next to Reckling Park.

It’s 7:30 on a muggy October morning when Lance Berkman steps out of the car dressed the part of college student: blue cargo shorts, button-downed shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a white mesh cap with sunglasses tucked in the front.

He flings a backpack over his right shoulder and begins the 10-minute walk, along the tree-lined sidewalks of Rice University, to his first class of the day.

After 17 years away, Berkman is back on campus this semester, part of the transition from retired major league baseball player to just another undergraduate — albeit a 38-year-old one with millions in the bank — trying to finish his degree.

Berkman is taking a full course load this fall, a four-day-a-week schedule toward his degree in kinesiology, which he is on pace to complete next summer. His return to school also allows Berkman to weigh his post-baseball career options while serving as a student assistant on the Rice coaching staff.

On the way to class, Berkman bumps into one of his professors, Jimmy Disch. The two talk about the baseball playoffs from the previous night, which featured one of Berkman’s former teams, the St. Louis Cardinals.

No regrets about retirement

Since announcing his retirement in January, Berkman said he has no regrets, calling the change in routine a “small adjustment” as he begins the next chapter of his life.

He’s no longer that Berkman — the sixtime National League All-Star; the hero of Game 6 of the 2011 World Series; arguably one of the best switch hitters in history, with 366 home runs; and one of the most popular players in Astros history.

Now, he said, “I’m just a regular student.”

Berkman walks into a classroom Tuesday inside the Baker Institute for Public Policy. He’s 15 minutes early and the first student to arrive for his class, Theories of High Level Performance. He takes a seat on the first row and pulls out a notebook and pen from his backpack.

Once class begins, Berkman and 23 other students — many of them Rice athletes — review for a test that will come two days later. Berkman is attentive and routinely answers questions.

“Anybody other than Lance know the answer?” asked Disch, an associate professor in the department of sports management.

Berkman will pack a lot into the next couple hours in Theories of High Level Performance, which is how to coach high-level athletes; and Introduction to Sports Analytics, which studies statistical trends in pro sports and how they are used to enhance performances on the field and establish business models in the front office.

Early in the semester, Rice baseball coach Wayne Graham and former Astros managers Larry Dierker and Phil Garner stopped by class for a panel discussion.

“Lance was the moderator,” Disch told the Houston Chronicle.

As class ends, Ford Stainback, a senior infielder for the Owls, pulls out two baseballs from his backpack. He asks Berkman to sign them for a family friend.

Berkman puts his hands on his face and buries his head in amazement before obliging.

“Thanks, Lance,” Stainback said.

Berkman earned more than $120 million in his playing career with the Astros, New York Yankees, Cardinals and Texas Rangers.

So why return to school?

Why not enjoy retirement and spend time with his wife and four daughters — ages 13, 11, 8 and 5?

Keep options open

A degree will allow Berkman to keep his options open, namely whether he is serious about a full-time coaching job, possibly at his alma mater.

“Regardless of your playing credentials, there are certain opportunities that you can’t take advantage of unless you have your diploma,” said Berkman, a two-time All-American at Rice. “The other part of the equation is trying to figure out what I’m going to do post-playing career. This is a step in that direction so that I’m not inhibited by a lack of a degree if I find something I want to do that requires a degree.

“Most high schools and colleges are going to want you to have your degree to even consider you as a candidate.”

Berkman spent two weeks working with Rice hitters as a volunteer during fall practice in 2012. He has always had an open invitation to join Graham’s coaching staff. Those plans were put on hold when Berkman signed a two-year contract with the Rangers.

Over the summer, Berkman began to seriously think about joining the Rice staff. To do so — and satisfy NCAA rules — Berkman had to enroll in school and be a full-time student.

“If I’m ever going to come back and get my degree, it just made a lot of sense to go ahead and get started in that direction,” he said.

Just the other day, Berkman had a talk with Rice junior pitcher Blake Fox about staying motivated after a long layoff from school.

“If I was someone of his status, I would be, ‘Why am I doing this?’ He obviously wants (his degree),” Fox said. “It’s cool to see a guy like that stick with something even though he doesn’t necessarily need it.”

Does Berkman miss baseball?

“I feel like I’ve made the transition pretty seamlessly,” he said. “I haven’t had any withdrawals or anything like wishing I was still playing.”

There have been a lot of changes on campus since Berkman was last an undergrad in spring 1997, when he was named college baseball’s player of the year and left early for the MLB draft, where he was selected in the first round by the Astros.

“None of those buildings were here,” Berkman said as he points to an area on the north side of campus.

Berkman goes unnoticed as he walks around campus Tuesday morning, even though he’s arguably Rice’s most famous current student.

On the first day of classes, social media was buzzing with Berkman sightings.

“In the middle of a lecture, I look over and there’s a kid with his phone and he’s sneaking a photo of Lance Berkman,” Fox said. “After class I heard him talking to his friends. ‘This is going straight to Facebook. This might be one of my biggest posts. I’m in class with Lance Berkman.’ People definitely know who he is.”

Celebrity status, however, only gets you so far.

On the way to his next class, Berkman passes Valhalla, the Rice graduate student pub.

“Undergrads aren’t allowed in there,” Berkman said.

Berkman is taking a full 15-hour course load this semester, a schedule that includes: Theories of High Level Performance, Introduction to Sports Analytics, Biomechanics, Exercise Epidemiology and Business Communications.

There are tougher academic paths at Rice, he admitted, but Berkman intends to take his studies seriously. He has come a long way from years ago when a reporter asked him what his major was in school: “Eligibility,” Berkman said jokingly at the time.

“I think you have to (take things serious), especially at a place like this,” Berkman said. “The academic rigors are such that it’s not rocket science, but you have to be committed with your time and your energy if you are going to be successful at a place like Rice.”

Rice president David Leebron said when student-athletes leave school early “to pursue those dreams, we hope and expect that they will return to complete their studies.”

“At Rice, we admit and nurture true student-athletes,” Leebron said in an email from a universityrelated trip to China. “We’re happy when they find an opportunity for professional success in their chosen sports. The Rice community has been thrilled by Lance’s success on the baseball diamond; we’re ecstatic that he, like almost all of our student athletes, will match that success by earning a Rice degree.”

With his morning barely getting started, Berkman makes a quick stop in between classes at Brochstein Pavilion for a cup of coffee.

It’s 9:30 a.m. when Berkman walks into a computer lab for his Introduction to Sports Analytics class, which takes a look at the “Moneyball” concept.

A few weeks ago, Berkman and his classmates took a field trip to Minute Maid Park for an analytics presentation by Sig Mejdal, director of decision sciences for the Astros.

Upon seeing Berkman walk in, Mejdal told MLB.com “it was like Rodney Dangerfield in ‘Back To School.’”

Analytics is a part of baseball Berkman had little, if no, use for during his 15- year career and admittedly doesn’t understand. For now, he plans to stick with the class but is unsure if he will survive the semester.

“Maybe it changes the way you play some defensive positioning, but at the very base level, for a baseball player, analytics don’t mean anything,” he said.

In a breakout room on the fourth floor at McNair Hall, Berkman meets up with two other students — Fox and Ben Tour, a sophomore math/economics major — to work on a project in Business Communications. The group begins to rehearse the 12-minute presentation when Berkman’s attention wanders off.

“We going to wear threepiece suits for this presentation or what?” Berkman said.

“Do you own a Rice polo?” Fox said.

“I have to check the bowels of my closet,” Berkman said.

“Let’s go tuxedos, straight formal. That would set us apart,” Berkman said. “Why not?”

He then suggests longsleeve dress shirts with bow ties.

“Look good, you play good,” Berkman said.

Berkman is one of the most engaging students in class, his teachers said, the same type of personality that made him a popular player in the clubhouse and earned him the reputation as one of the best storytellers in baseball.

“He’s the most talkative person in class,” said Dr. Rick Schell, a senior lecturer in management at the Jones Graduate School of Business. “He’s a real asset to class. He’s a very strong contributor.

“He doesn’t raise his hand every time, and I don’t call on him every time.”

Berkman, who these days has a hint of gray in his hair and beard, tells his study partners, both nearly half his age, that he is “old school.” When he was at Rice in the mid-1990s, he tells them, “We didn’t even have email.”

“If you had a Rice email account, you were considered on the very, very leading edge of technology,” Berkman said. “I never had one, obviously.”

Through all of Berkman’s one-liners, Tour remains serious, focused on the project and tight deadline.

“Whenever you graduate, look me up,” Berkman said. “I’ll hire you for whatever you’re doing. I like your attitude and your work ethic.”

It’s Thursday, and Berkman is facing his busiest day so far this semester. He already has taken two exams and his project is up next.

For his playing career, Berkman was accustomed to making adjustments in crucial moments at the plate. But the chaos of the day may finally be catching up.

He arrives at Room 218 at McNair Hall, where Fox and Tour are sitting at a table. The presentation is minutes away, and Berkman’s group is in the leadoff spot.

Berkman can’t seem to fix his bow tie. All the fashion talk is for nothing as the group walks to the front of the room wearing khaki pants and crisp white dress shirts with open collars.

Each student takes a turn making a pitch — in front of a mock group of senior school administrators — on a $10 million proposal, money that a benefactor has earmarked specifically to enhance the undergrad student experience at Rice.

The presentation goes smoothly.

Berkman receives high marks for having a “clear, strong, resonant voice” and “great presence on stage,” Schell said.

Graham, who has led the Owls to 19 consecutive conference regular-season or tournament titles, plans to monitor Berkman’s academic progress just like any student.

“We’re keeping track of his grades,” Graham said with a laugh. “I think he still counts against our GPA.”

Before a recent practice, Berkman is sitting on the top step of the home dugout at Reckling Park. He’s wearing a gray shirt with “Owlmaha” on front, a nod to Rice’s seven appearances at the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., although it has been six years since the last trip.

Graham is sitting in a chair as the two talk baseball. This is what Berkman had in mind when he decided to come back.

“To be able to learn from the best, that’s what I like to do,” Berkman said. “It’s great to just listen to him talk and try to adopt a little bit of that philosophy myself.”

Graham has seen immediate results with how Berkman interacts with the players, how his teaching method is easily received, how his major league success commands instant respect.

“It’s another set of eyes, and a very educated set of eyes,” Graham said of Berkman joining the staff. “He can pick up things that we might have missed.”

Berkman said his coaching style is hands-on and he wants to be considered a player’s coach. He’s also not afraid to embrace some technology, using an iPad to video each hitter’s swing when he spent time as a volunteer.

“I don’t worry about blurring the line with being on the field with them and being in the class with them as one of their peers,” he said. “They have respect for me and I respect them as human beings. I think that’s a good and healthy relationship, and I think it can work.”

At practice, Berkman roams the outfield. He watches batting practice.

This is what he enjoys.

This, he believes, may be his calling.

“It’s like I never left.”

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