Erik Visits an American Grave, Part 1,750
By This is the grave of Kevin Hickey.
Born in 1956 in Chicago, Hickey grew up on the south side. He was a good but not great athlete and a terrible student, expelled from his Catholic high school for never showing up for class. He eventually got it together and graduated from the local public school. He was just a kid who played fast-pitch softball and worked dead end jobs. But he was pretty good at softball and in 1978, a guy who worked for the White Sox saw him play. Said, hey, you should try out. So Hickey did. There were 250 people at the tryout. Hickey was the only one who got signed to a minor league deal.
There’s not a ton to say about Hickey’s career. But he not only made it to the majors, but he stuck around a few years. The White Sox used him as a starter for the first couple of years in the minors, but converted him to a reliever and he had enough juice to be a marginal major leaguer. He made his debut in 1981 with Chicago and was there through 1983. He didn’t do much. He was a relatively effective middle reliever in his first two years and a rather bad one in his last year.
The White Sox sent Hickey back to the minors in 1984 and then released him and he floated around the minors for a few more years, finally signing with the Orioles. He then found enough stuff and the Orioles were bad enough in those years that he spent the 1989-91 seasons moving back and forth from AAA and Baltimore. He was pretty good in 89, bad in 90, and unplayable in 91. By that time he was 35 and he hung it up. Using Baseball Reference’s WAR statistic, his career WAR was 1.1. Not much. But hey, he went from being a softball player to a major league pitcher in 6 different seasons!
After his retirement, Hickey was just a regular guy mostly. He sold cars in Columbus, Ohio. He did appear in Major League II, which I am not sure I ever saw. He also became a fanatical golf player, known to thoroughly clean his club after every shot. In fact, it seems Hickey had some level of OCD. At one point, he volunteered to help clean balls but would go wash his hands between each baseball, leading to team to tell him maybe don’t do this. Whatever. The White Sox eventually brought him back into the organization and hired him as their batting practice pitcher in 2003. In 2012, he was with the team as they were starting the season at Texas. But in his hotel room, he suffered some kind of a brain issue. It’s not entirely clear, but he was diabetic so it may have been related to that. In any case, he was found before he died, but never recovered consciousness and died in the hospital a month later. He was 56 years old.
Sad Hickey died young, but here’s to the absolute dream of being a schlub on the street and making it to the majors from your softball league!
Kevin Hickey is buried in Holy Sepulcher Cemetery, Alsip, Illinois.
If you would like this series to visit other relief pitchers, you can donate to cover the required expenses here. Rod Beck is in Scottsdale, Arizona and Hoyt Wilhelm is in Sarasota, Florida. Previous posts in this series are archived here and here.