Breaking Amish-ish

HE'S THE TurkeyPig, and he flies. It took a decade for devout Mennonite and devoted father Erik Kratz to make it to the major leagues full time, and, as the Phillies' backup catcher, he has displayed the tools to stay for a few seasons longer, even as other catchers his age plot retirement.

He is bright and well-spoken, with 10 minor-league seasons in 10 cities - and now with a taste of filet mignon, big-time, big-bucks ball with the Phillies. That makes Kratz a perfect candidate to become a typical baseball lifer . . . except he wants some stability for his young family, with three children ages 6 and younger. Besides, there might be much more playing to be done.

Kratz is a low-mileage 33-year-old who watches his diet, stretches religiously and, of course, consumes only the finest cuts of meat. He talked with Daily News sports columnist Marcus Hayes.

Q Your dad, Floyd, co-owns Godshall's Meats in Telford, just 40 miles north of Citizens Bank Park. As such, you acted in a memorable commercial starring you, an animated turkey dressed as a pig and a plate of turkey bacon. Surely, you must be teased without mercy.

The guys on the team didn't give me that hard of a time - just every once in a while. Either they didn't see it, they didn't like it and they're being nice, or I did an OK job.

Q As a local guy, you must be inundated with ticket requests. How many tickets have you distributed in the 66 home games so far?

Whew. At least 120. Not bad. You know, they're not free for us. (Kratz makes $496,000.)

Q You have the qualifications to coach and manage. Where will you be in 10 years?

Whatever it is, it'll have to be something more stable for my family. If you're a coach and you're planted in one city for a while, it's OK. Road trips are OK. All those places I played, it wears on my family. It wears on me. I've been missing times that are very precious to me, to my kids, to my wife. I'd love to stay in baseball, but it would have to be the right situation.

Q You're a giant for a catcher: 6-foot-4, 255. How do you stay fresh?

Outside of stretching, the workouts, the diet, being fit, is where you were early in your career, ages 20 to 30. I didn't play a ton of games. . . . While on paper my age is 33, I'm a pretty young 33.

Q Are you a practicing Mennonite? What is a practicing Mennonite? Do you have a buggy? Seems like a long buggy ride for a road trip to, say, LA.

It would be a long ride. I'm a Christian. I grew up in the Mennonite church. A lot of people think when you're Mennonite, you're Amish. That's old-order Mennonite. I don't have anybody who's Amish in my family.

I feel more, for me, just being a Christian, it's about my relationship with God. That's outside of the Mennonite faith, even.

I think too many people get into, "Mennonite is this, or that, and you can't use electricity." And that gets away from what our relationship is supposed to be.

Though, you know, I did have a pro scout working me out at college who asked the same sort of thing. After the workout, while I was filling out some paperwork, he asked me: "Uh, if we draft you, do you think you'd be able to, you know, fly? You know, go on a plane and stuff?"

I told him, "Yeah, I get where you're coming from. It won't be a problem."