Nov. 20, 2006
Former UTPA baseball All-American Jim Hickey was announced as the pitching coach for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays on Monday (Nov. 20).
For the previous two seasons, Hickey served as the pitching coach for the Houston Astros where the squad finished second among all National League teams in earned run average with a 3.51 ERA in 2005 and 4.08 ERA in 2006. In each of his two seasons with the squad, Hickey coached the ERA champion in the National League in Roger Clemens (2005) and Roy Oswalt (2006).
During the 2005 season, Hickey was part of an Astros' organization that advanced to the World Series where Houston fell to the Chicago White Sox, but still produced three hurlers that finished among the top seven in earned run average and posted the fewest runs and walks in the National League. This past season, the Astros' tied the New York Mets with the most shutouts (12) and ranked second in fewest runs allowed and third in walks.
Hickey served seven seasons with the Astros' Triple-A affiliate New Orleans where his pitching staff were considered some of the best in all of the minor leagues. During the 2002 and 2003 seasons, the Zephyrs led the Pacific Coast League in ERA, and the squad finished with the second lowest ERA in the league during the 2001 campaign.
The newly-named Tampa Bay pitching coach spent 14 seasons as a pitching coach in the Houston organization where he was selected as the Houston Astros' Player Development of the Year award winner and served as the pitching coach during the Major League Baseball Futures Game during the 2002 season.
A former first team All-American selection in 1983 with the Broncs, Hickey finished the season with a 16-2 record with a 1.66 earned run average. He started 18 games for the Broncs that season, completing a school record 16 under former UTPA head coach Al Ogletree, while striking out 109 hitters in 130.1 innings of action.
With Hickey in the pitching rotation during the 1983 season, UTPA set a school record by winning 64 games and advancing to the NCAA Central Regional Tournament where he captured the victory in the first game of the tournament with a 5-0 shutout of Grambling State.
Following the season, Hickey was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 13th round where he posted a 7-4 record in his first season with the Niagara Falls, NY, squad. He spent eight seasons in the minors with the White Sox, Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros before returning to the bench as a coach.
Hickey replaces Mike Butcher on the Tampa Bay Devil Rays' coaching staff, who accepted the same position with the Anaheim Angels. Hickey and Florida Marlins' first base coach Perry Hill are the only two former UTPA players to be currently coaching in the Major League Baseball ranks.
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