Ed Hickox (umpire)

Infobox Person
name = Ed Hickox


image_size = 200
caption = Hickox on September 14, 2008
birth_date = July 31, 1962 flagicon|Florida
birth_place = Deland, Florida
occupation = MLB umpire, Detective

Edwin William Hickox (born July 31 1962 in Deland, Florida) is an umpire in Major League Baseball who has worked in the American League from 1990 to 1999 and throughout both major leagues beginning in 2005. He officiated in the 2007 National League Division Series.

Hickox graduated from Deland High School and St. Johns River Community College, where he played baseball, and became an Eagle Scout in 1979. After graduating from the Harry Wendelstedt Umpire School in 1983, he went on to umpire for several of baseball's minor leagues, and worked regularly as a substitute in the AL before his formal promotion to the league's staff in 1999. He resigned his position following the 1999 season as part of a failed union bargaining strategy, and continued working in the minor leagues before resuming major leagues games in 2005 following the adoption of a new union contract; [cite news |title=Six more will split $2.3M in severance pay |url=http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=1953109 |publisher=Associated Press via ESPN.com |date=2004-12-24 |accessdate=2007-10-03 ] he again became a full member of the major league staff in 2007, while being 44 years old. Hickox worked the inaugural World Baseball Classic in 2006. In the off-season, Hickox – a sworn police officer who received a 2004 degree in Criminal Justice from Seminole Community College – lives and works in Florida as a detective with the Daytona Beach Shores Police Department.

Ed is known for wearing his Plate Coat over his chest protector, when he is behind the plate. He forgoes the Pullover Shirt or Pullover Jacket. He also wears the new hockey-style mask. In fact, he might be the only MLB umpire that wears a hat under the new hockey style mask.

Minor league umpiring career

*Gulf Coast League (1983)
*Florida State League (1983-85, 2004)
*Southern League (1986-87)
*Dominican Winter League (1988)
*International League (1988-1997)
*Puerto Rican Winter League (1989)
*Pacific Coast League (1998)
*New York - Penn League (2002)
*South Atlantic League (2003)

References

External links

* [http://mlb.mlb.com/mlb/official_info/umpires/bio.jsp?id=3061 Major league profile]
* [http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/H/Phicke901.htm Retrosheet]