Making a Pick

Having the choice of playing baseball or football in college, Birmingham Brother Rice senior Jimmy Pickens decided that life on the diamond will be his future at the next level. This past week, Pickens an all-state performer and four-year starter in both sports, accepted a scholarship offer to play baseball at Michigan State University.

Pickens is a first class athlete and a first class kid. As trite as it sounds, those are sometimes a rare combination these days. On the baseball diamond he is a big slugging catcher who hits for speed and average and possess a lethal arm behind the plate, throwing out opposing base runners like his name is JOHNNY BENCH! The Spartans got themselves a gem in Pickens, the most recent in a long line of Pickens brothers to star in multiple sports at Brother Rice.

Like his older siblings, Pickens is just as good as a football player than he is a baseball player and could have easily accepted one of a series scholarship offers to play in college on the gridiron. Whether it was running the ball as a top-of-the-line tailback, hitting the holes in the line like he does fast balls coming down the plate in the spring, or leading the defensive secondary as a hard- hitting strong safety, doling out vicious hits and snaring critical interceptions like his life depended on it, he proved a thorn in the side of every opposing coordinator the Warriors faced in his time wearing good ole' No. 38 for the Orange and Black.

Oh, did I mention he's an out-and-out winner too? During his freshman year, he was an integral part of the Warriors' state championship baseball squad and just in these last few weeks he almost single handedly sparked the school's football team from a 1-3 start to a 6-3 finish that went along with a CHSL championship.

For you youngsters and parents out there, Jimmy Pickens is everything any aspiring student-athlete should strive to be!!!!!

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