A few weeks before I turned 13 years old, I received what I considered a bonus birthday present. My beloved Chicago Cubs spent a first round draft pick on a player I had watched in one in College World Series and would see again in another.
Brooks Kieschnick was that player. And as a 12-year-old college baseball fan, I thought he was Superman. His superpowers weren’t the ability to fly or disappear. Rather, he controlled college baseball games from both the mound and the plate. And to say he did that well is an understatement.
Kieschnick is the only player in the 24-year history of the Dick Howser Trophy – considered the Heisman Trophy of college baseball – to win the award twice. He is among the Longhorns career leaders in:
- batting average (.360; 7th)
- slugging percentage (.676; 2nd)
- hits (237; 10th)
- doubles (67; 2nd)
- home runs (43; 3rd)
- runs batted in (215; 3rd)
- total bases (445; 3rd)
- games started (179; 9th)
- walks (140; 7th)
But those are just his numbers at the plate. He was a star pitcher for UT, too, with a place among the school’s leaders in:
- starts (48; 7th)
- wins (34; 9th)
- shutouts (7; 7th)
- innings pitched (345; 5th)
He helped lead the Longhorns to Omaha twice, in 1992 and 1993, the two seasons for which he earned the Dick Howser Trophies. Kieschnick was named to the 1992 CWS All-Tournament Team as a designated hitter, having hit .400 with 2 home runs and 5 RBI in 4 games. Then, in 1993, he threw 172 pitches in a 6-5 win over Oklahoma State. That’s not a typo. One hundred seventy two pitches in one game. He also hit .333 in 3 games in that CWS.
He has been back to the College World Series three times since: for his induction into the College Baseball Hall of Fame in 2006, to watch Texas play in the 2009 best-of-three championship series, and this week for the CWS Legends Team festivities.
Some of you may not know much about Kieschnick, in part because his baseball career crested in those two trips to the CWS. He played outfield and first base in 64 games over two seasons for the Cubs, and 49 games in parts seasons with Cincinnati and Colorado. He resurrected his professional career by returning to the mound in Milwaukee, where in 2003 and 2004 he pitched in 74 games, played the outfield in 6 games, and was the designated hitter for 4 games.
But consider the company he keeps as a member of the CWS Legends Team: Barry Bonds; Dave Winfield; Fred Lynn; Bob Horner; Burt Hooton; Pete Incaviglia; Pat Burrell; Mark Kotsay; Will Clark; J.D. Drew. The list continues, but you catch my drift. Kieschnick was a star.
WBR caught up with Kieschnick one night after he joined some of these legends during the College World Series Opening Ceremonies.
Adam Streur / White & Blue Review
WBR: What were your expectations personally and as a team when you came to Omaha for the first time in 1992?
Brooks Kieschnick: When you go to the University of Texas, you don’t hope to go to Omaha. You’re expected to go to Omaha. I joke around that in college, as baseball players, we didn’t get to join fraternities, but we had our own that we started: UTO, or University of Texas-Omaha.
In 1991, in the regional, we lost and didn’t advance to the CWS. We were crushed, and we played all next season with the vow that we wouldn’t miss out on Omaha in ’92. We would fight, scratch, and claw … do whatever we had to do … to get there. So when we got here, which we expected to do, we were focused on winning a title.
WBR: You said you came back last year for the title games. What was that like?
BK: It was really enjoyable, to actually come back and go to CWS games as a fan. To be able to sit and watch my team and hoot and holler like everyone else, in this environment, it was great.
WBR: What does it mean to be a part of the last year at Rosenblatt?
BK: Well, obviously I was rooting for UT to get back here so I could come and watch them again. But to be involved [with the CWS Legends Team] is just a real honor. It is humbling to be mentioned in the same breath as guys like Barry Bonds, Spike Owen, Will Clark, and Bob Horner. It was cool to be on the field last night, with the fans cheering and the fireworks going off. It is really special, and it is something I will always remember.