Kevin Hickcox

Current West USC Player

As a huge Braves fan, has it been frustrating to see them win so many division titles and do poorly in the post-season?

Well it’s hard to be frustrated when your team has won every NL East title (that includes some NL West titles) for the past 13 years—in fact, it makes me quite happy.  And I’ll continue to be happy if Bobby Cox and John Schuerholz give us a chance to be a part of October every year.  A chance to be playing in October is all you can really ask for as a fan because anything that happens in October can’t be predicted—it’s a crapshoot.  That’s why I think the Braves have the best organization in the league.  To be successful and to sustain that success is the mark of a champion—just ask John Wooden.   

Don’t get me wrong, though.  The Angels are a great organization as well.  I mean, they have that cool dancing monkey and all.  And all their fans have great taste.  Like Matt Underwood, for example.  His favorite movie is Major League 3 (which was so goodn’t that it skipped the theaters and went right to video).  So, you have to trust his choice for a winner. 

Plus, the women that are in country music, as well as the ones that listen to and attend country concerts, are absolutely amazing.   

Plus, you can literally relate every real life interaction you have to something that happened on an episode of Seinfeld.  And, you can draw comparisons between anyone you meet and a character from the show.  That’s why I support Elaine’s proposal for a law that would make it mandatory for everyone in the city to wear a nametag.  The only difference being that I would require that they put their Seinfeld character name on the nametag—that way, you already know so much about a person within the first three seconds that you meet them. 

I’m absolutely ashamed and embarrassed that I took part in the making of Major   League 3-a movie that I consider the worst film ever made.  –Corbin Benson 

That’s a very tough question.  For me, the hard part is deciding between two people-Josh Fogel or Matt Underwood.  However, some people may not agree.  You see, I’ve been blessed to be on the inside of many of Josh Fogel’s jokes; I’ve seen a side of him that some people don’t realize is there.  So, for some, Undy might be the clear-cut choice for biggest joker since they haven’t fully been exposed to the hilarity of Josh Fogel—and because Undy is of course a huge joker and hilarious himself.  So, you can see the choice is a tough one.   

In the end, I don’t think anyone will ever really agree as to which is the bigger joker; however, I do think that there is one thing most people can agree on for sure.  And that is the fact that there is no being in this galaxy that could make you laugh harder than those two queebs. 

But, I think my favorite baseball memory is from my 12 year old year in Little League (which is for straight kids—unlike that Colt, Bronco nonsense).  We were playing Orange-O (that was their team name) and I came up with the bases loaded, two outs in a tight ball game.  Of course I hit an absolute seed to right center; however, there was some confusion as to whether or not the ball had left the park.  So, as I was rounding first I was looking around to see what the heck the ruling was.  And, as I was scanning my surroundings for an answer the umpire must have made the ruling that it was in fact a homerun because, out of the corner of my eye, I saw my dad absolutely come unglued and do this really weird jump thing out of his seat.  He like jumped and threw his arms up all in one motion—it was really awkward.  But it was just really awesome that he was so happy.  It made me really happy that it made him really happy because I knew that, for him, it wasn’t about me hitting a homerun—he was happy because he knew how happy I was going to be about hitting a homerun and that was what made him happy.  You follow?

Moments that should also be noted: 

-celebrating the anniversary of that T-ball game every July 11 with my T-ball coach, Kevin Holmes

-playing in my first high school baseball game as a freshman and getting 2 knocks

-throwing a no-hitter against Muir high school

-hitting an absolute pis-rod into the left centerfield gap in Cuba

-Josh Fogel hitting that seed off that lefty queeb from Orgegon State for his 1^st collegiate hit

-my high school baseball coach coming to the mound to get me in my last high schoolgame (which was just before I drove in the winning runs to beat the much hated Tornadoes of Hoover High School)

-my mom being @ all my games 

I wouldn’t trade my high school baseball experience for anything in the world—much like I wouldn’t trade my collegiate baseball experience for anything.   

I think my experience was somewhat unique because when I went to Glendale High as a freshman I didn’t really think that I would be there the next year.  I always figured that I would transfer to St. Francis, or Loyola or maybe move to the La Crescenta area to play at Crescenta Valley.  The only reason I was going to go to Glendale was because I thought I had a chance to play varsity as a freshman and thought that would be the best deal for me.  However, while at Glendale I got to play for first year head coach Jay Chadwick.  Playing for him was awesome.  If there’s a better high school baseball coach than him—in the entire nation—than I’m unaware of it (except of course for Casey Burril, Brad Fogel, Darwin Smocker and Eric Shibley—see below).  So, I stayed at Glendale and got to develop a good relationship with Coach Chadwick and made some great friends at Glendale that will someday be in my wedding.  Hopefully, Coach Chadwick will come to my wedding as I went to his.  So, I would say the experience was one that I’m very thankful for because I got to play for a guy that I really admire a lot—as well as for our assistant coach Eric Shibley, who I also have always looked up to. 

There’s one thing that every high school player absolutely has to do—that’s why everybody has the same answer to this question.  You have to perform in the classroom.  It opens so many doors.  Just take me for example—the only reason that I get to play for the best baseball program in the nation is because I got into the school on my own.  Coaches can help you get into a school, but not in everyone’s case—and not in most people’s case.  In fact, there wasn’t one coach at the University of Southern California that had ever heard of Kevin Hickcox before I walked onto the field in the fall of 2002.  But, because I had done well in the classroom, and I got into the school I had the opportunity to try and walk-on.  And I’ve been blessed by having the opportunity to be part of the program—an opportunity only possible because I did well in school. 

Also, hit everyday after practice.  You don’t realize it because you’re the best player at your school, or in your league, but there’s somebody out there that’s better than you-and he’s hitting everyday after practice.  So, you can only catch him if you take more hacks than he does.  Lastly, get as many at-bats over the summer as you possibly can. 

Second, I would invite George Washington.  I would grill him on all the details of all the Continental Congress meetings and ask him who disliked who and why.  I’d ask him if there were every any fights in there and then I’d ask him about the details of all the battles he took part in—what he saw, what he was thinking.  But, most importantly I would want to know what it was, in his opinion, that he had that made everyone want to put the well-being of an upstart nation in his hands—especially considering the fact that the people had revolted to rid themselves of monarchy rule.  Figuring out what “it” was that he had could prove very useful in business and in life. 

Lastly, I would invite Ghandi—so I could have seconds.