Catching up with Brooks Kieschnick

If you follow Texas baseball, you know the name Brooks Kieschnick. Kieschnick, widely regarded as one of the best two-way players ever to play college baseball, played three seasons at The University of Texas under head coach Cliff Gustafson. Notably, he won the Dick Howser Trophy twice, which is awarded to the national college baseball player of the year, and was a three time All-American at Texas.

Kieschnick led the Longhorns to the College World Series in 1993, and was drafted 10th overall by the Chicago Cubs in the 1993 Major League Baseball Amateur Draft. A member of the inaugural College Baseball Hall of Fame class (2006) and his jersey, Kieschnick’s number (#23) was retired by the University of Texas in 2009.

As an exclusive to HornSports, Brooks shared some thoughts on life and baseball:

Aaron Carrara: How different was growing up in Corpus compared to coming to Austin?

Brooks Kieschnick: Growing up in Corpus, in that time – in the 80’s – you left your house at daybreak and didn’t come home until dark. Nowadays you can’t do that anywhere just because of all the crazy stuff going on, but it was definitely a little bit of a culture shock. In Corpus you go from being on the water and on the beach to Austin and the hill country. It was a different change for sure.

Aaron Carrara: How difficult was the transition from playing high school baseball to baseball at the college level?

Brooks Kieschnick: The main differences were the amount of games you played and also the crowds. The competition – you are playing at a powerhouse Division I school and you play a bunch of other powerhouse Division I schools… In high school every now and then you would run into a stud pitcher. In college every team you played against had at least one, if not four stud pitchers. So there was a definite deal there where you were “on” 24-7 because there were not any letdowns.

Aaron Carrara: What were the biggest differences you saw, both on the minor league and major league levels?

Brooks Kieschnick: In all honesty – you are going to think I am crazy but as far as talent-wise, yeah, there is a jump there, but I also played with a lot of guys in the minor leagues that given a shot, could have been in the big leagues as well. They always say you are a pulled hammy or a broken leg away from being in the big leagues and that’s what a lot of us were in the minor leagues. You also have to have a sponsor – you have to have someone that wants you there as well and that is a big thing. You see so many guys that play well and ask yourself “why isn’t he in the big leagues yet?” You have to have a little bit of luck too.

Aaron Carrara: You talked about sponsors. Who your player-mentor in the big leagues?

Brooks Kieschnick: My main guys when I was with Chicago were Mark Grace and Brian McRae. Those guys really took me under their wing and showed me the ropes. When I got to the Reds, Barry Larkin was really cool to me. With the Rockies, I had Todd Helton who was a little younger than me and I also hung around with Larry Walker there. When I got to the Brewers, it was almost like I was a veteran, if that makes any sense – I had been around for 10 or 11 years at that point (not all of it was in the big leagues). One of my best friends when I was with Milwaukee was Dave Burba.

Aaron Carrara: What advice would you give a high-school player looking to play college baseball?

Brooks Kieschnick: In all honesty, first and foremost: “have fun.” There is such a small percentage of people that play college ball let alone go to the big leagues. Enjoy your time there. Odds are, and this is just being flat-out honest, you aren’t going to have an opportunity to play at a school like Texas or in the minor or major leagues. Have fun and enjoy it. Trust me because I know – it happened to me, it’s over before you know it. You don’t want any regrets in the time you have to play baseball. Have fun and enjoy your teammates. Winning takes care of everything. I don’t care if you go 5-5 with 2 homers and your team gets beat 10-2. People get too wrapped up in stats when they should be worrying about how many wins they have under their belt. Coaches, more so than not, look at teams that are winning and not teams that have one stud on it and lose consistently every night.

I’ve told many high school kids that there may be a guy who is a little bit better than you but you are better than him in school and they are going to weigh that. Keep your grades up. Colleges don’t want to give a kid with poor grades a scholarship and have him fail out after a year without doing anything for them. If you put good grades up and can play ball, you are probably going to get a chance to play somewhere.

Aaron Carrara: Looking back, if you had to do it all over again, what would you do differently, if anything?

Brooks Kieschnick: There’s not a whole lot. I wasn’t a superstar at anything but I was pretty good at everything. I wasn’t going to win a batting title and I wasn’t going to win a Cy Young but I could go out there and compete at the highest level doing both. I would have liked to have had 500 at-bats in the big leagues to see what kind of numbers I would have put up, but it didn’t happen. Maybe pitching was my route. In my eyes I was a throwback – basically just give me a glove and put me somewhere and let me play. I consider myself a ballplayer, not a pitcher, not a hitter. Just let me play.

Aaron Carrara: We hear you have a restaurant/music venue with Charlie Robison (Alamo Icehouse) in San Antonio? Tell me about life after baseball…

Brooks Kieschnick: It’s going good. We actually had a winter in San Antonio with the cold and rain so that slowed it down a bit but last weekend was packed and I’m sure this weekend will be packed as well with the beautiful weather. It’s not my every day thing – it’s a fun thing to have. It’s not how I feed my family but it is how I have fun.

Aaron Carrara: What’s the best memory you have of playing baseball at The University of Texas?

Brooks Kieschnick: My last game when we beat USC to go to the World Series and Coach Gus addressed the crowd afterwards, as he always did. He brought me up to the mic to say goodbye to the fans, and I could barely get words out because I was so emotional. It was a really, really awesome feeling to be able to thank what I consider the best fans in college baseball after playing 3 years there. That was the last time they were going to be able to see me play at Disch-Falk and that was a really special moment for me in college.

Aaron Carrara: What are your thoughts on what Augie and Skip have done to turn the program around lately with changing who and how they recruit?

Brooks Kieschnick: You can’t argue with W’s. Last season the team definitely overachieved and you’ve got 80% of them back if not more. I look forward to them being better than they were last year. I think they have done a tremendous job of bringing in the style of players they like and the style of pitching they like and meshing it all together.

Aaron Carrara: Do you think the team gets back to Omaha this year?

Brooks Kieschnick: I can’t see why not. If you do the math with all the returners…they might have overachieved last year but they are just as hungry if not hungrier now because of how deep they went last year. I think it is a definite possibility for them to ride Parker French’s arm back to Omaha.

Aaron Carrara: Thanks for the time, Brooks.

Brooks Kieschnick: I appreciate it and give me a shout anytime.