Boys and baseball just go together in St. Louis. Kirkwood High School senior Conor Bickham remembers going to Cardinals games when he was little, looking at the players on the field, and thinking that’s where he wanted to be when he was older. And he’s well on his way. The 17-year-old just signed with Aurora University in Aurora, Illinois, and still has dreams of playing in the big leagues.
Bickham, who also was on the varsity swim team all four years of high school, started playing baseball in the first grade through a local CYC league with Saint Peter Catholic Church, and he says it quickly became a huge focus of his. “It’s just always been my sport,” he says. “Baseball and soccer were what I excelled at, but I thought baseball was more fun. It has more pressure with it, which I like.”
The fact that Bickham can handle pressure—and actually thrives on it—helped propel him to the pitcher’s mound, a position he started playing in middle school. “I took private lessons and just kept going with it,” he says. “Pitching makes me feel like I can control the game, like I can change what’s going to happen.” Two of his favorite memories from high school baseball involve his ability to take charge. “When we played SLU High my freshman year, we were down by five runs,” he says. “I came in to pitch, and we came back to win the game. And my sophomore year, I threw a no-hitter against Cahokia. That felt really good!”
Bickham says one of his strengths is focusing on what needs to be done in order for his pitch to go how he wants. “I always tell myself, though, that if I have a bad game, there’s always another game, another pitch.”
Practices for the spring season start this month, and games are scheduled through early May. “Before the season starts, we practice unofficially during open gym every day,” Bickham says. “The team does a lot of weight lifting, running, throwing, fielding and hitting to be up to par in order to play.” He says while the team wants to make it to State, they all ultimately just want to have a winning record. As for his personal goals for the future? “I would love to play in the major leagues.”