MOVING ON UP: Former Southern University baseball star Rickie Weeks, tearing up minor league pitching with the AAA Nashville Sounds, was called up to his major league ball club, the Milwaukee Brewers, on June 10. The two-time Southwestern Athletic Confe-rence player of the year, who led the NCAA in hitting in back-to-back seasons and set the all-time mark of .473 for his career, swept all major college player of the year awards in his final year at Southern and was the second overall pick by the Brewers in the 2003 baseball draft, was hitting .320 with 12 home runs, 14 doubles, 48 RBIs, a .435 on-base percentage and .655 slugging percentage while hitting safely in 41 of 55 games for the Sounds. The second basemen's numbers were among the best in the Pacific Coast League (PCL) and all of minor league baseball. Through games on Monday, Weeks was hitting .290 (9-for-21) with four RBIs in nine games for the Brewers. He had a brief stay (12 at bats) at the end of the last season with the Brewers but this call-up is likely to be more permanent. One area of concern is Weeks' defense. He made ten errors at Nashville but has played reasonably well at the position since joining the parent club. He's been working with former Gold Glove second baseman Rich Dauer, a bench coach for the Brewers. "I'm working on a lot of stuff right now, but I'm feeling great out there," Weeks said on the Brewers' website of getting help from Dauer. "Honestly, I think of myself as a quick learner. I'm just trying to go out there and get my job done." "He's alright right now, but I think he has a chance to be a lot better than that," Brewers Manager Ned Yost said. "He's done a nice job, turned some good double plays, made some nice plays up the middle and with balls in the hole. Just a young guy that will make a few mistakes, but one that works real hard, and will get better and better defensively."

2005 MLB DRAFTEES: Only two black college players went off the boards in this year's Major League Baseball draft conducted last week, second basemen Corey Wimberly of Alcorn State and Carl Lipsey of Jackson State. Wimberly, the Southwestern Athletic Conference player of the year, a finalist for the Xanthus-Dick Howser Trophy and a first team all-America selection of the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA), led NCAA Div. I in hitting (.462), was the second toughest hitter to strike out and finished third in stolen bases (42). Wimberly, a sophomore from Jacksonville, Fla., was taken by Colorado in the sixth round with the 177th overall selection. Lipsey, a senior, went to Boston in the 23rd round with the 708th overall pick. The Fresno, Ca. product, who was also a first team all-SWAC selection who hit .431, fifth best in Div. I baseball, and was second in the nation with 55 stolen bases.

HICKS HITS NATIONALS: Florida A&M's sophomore phenom, Kevin Hicks heads back to the West Coast this week in search of the 800 meter title at the 2005 United States Track and Field Championships at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Ca. A win or a top-three finish in the 800 meter competition, which begins here Thursday evening, would earn Hicks a spot on the United States Track and Field Team. The U.S. Track and Field Team will compete at the IAAF (International Association of Athletic Federations) World Championships in Helsinki, Finland, August 6-14. Hicks ran the second-fastest 800 meter outdoor time in the U.S. this year by an American-born athlete (1:44.94) at the NCAA Outdoor Championships in Sacramento, Calif. on June 11. Texas Tech's Jonathan Johnson (1:44.86), ran the fastest time by an American this year on May 15. Both runners will be in this week's competition vying for a spot on the U.S. Team, a major step towards possible Olympic competition in 2008.

© 2005 Azeez Communications, Inc.

Return to Front Page