Chris Sidick isn't even 30-years old, and he's retiring.
Must be nice.
Actually, the former Marietta College baseball and football standout is hanging up his professional baseball spikes with the Washington Wild Things, a team in the independent Frontier League.
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Chris Sidick
In 2008, the 29-year-old Sidick became the Wild Things' first player to wear the uniform four seasons. He ended up playing in seven with them, and setting several league career marks, including most hits.
The Wild Things incidentally play their home games at CONSOL Energy Park in Washington, Pa. - about an hour-plus drive from Marietta. Wheeling, W.Va., is not too far away, and neither is St. Clairsville, Ohio.
Over the years, several Marietta College baseball players have played for the Wild Things with right-handed ace Mark Williams, who helped the Etta Express win the NCAA Division III national championship last spring, being the most recent.
Williams is now in the Milwaukee Brewers' organization.
Some other Pioneers who wore the Wild Things uniform were Mike Eisenberg, David Bradley, Jay Coakley, and Jarrod Klausman.
Kent Tekulve, another MC alumnus, was both a Washington Wild Things coach and front office executive.
When Sidick, a Cecil Township, Pa., native, was an undergraduate at Marietta, he was one of those special student/athletes, who, along with his studies, was able to compete in two college sports. That's not an easy thing to accomplish.
In baseball, he was coached by the late Don Schaly and current skipper Brian Brewer.
In football, Sidick's coach was the late Gene Epley and then Todd Glaser.
Baseball, of course, is where Sidick made his mark. Twice, he was an All-America honoree, and in 2002, he was a member of the runner-up Pioneer team at the World Series in Grande Chute, Wis.
Very fast, Sidick was primarily a center fielder - but he really could play anywhere on the field. In fact, during the 2010 season at Washington, he played every position in a game at Lake Erie.
In 2008, Sidick was featured on the cover of April's WHIRL, a luxury lifestyle magazine published in Pittsburgh, Pa.
Last August, he was honored by the Wild Things on Chris Sidick Night at CONSOL Energy Park.
While Sidick will be retired from pro baseball, he will still be a busy guy with his duties at C-Side Sports Academy and as co-owner of Sunkissed by Liss, a spray tanning company.
Ron Johnston is the Marietta Times sports editor, and can be reached at 376-5441 or at rjohnston@mariettatimes.com
