Man, did I ever want to be pissed at him. Those of you watching the game will remember that he was brought in to run for Chipper in the 12th after Chipper hit a lead-off double (the 500th of his career, by the way). Brian McCann, batting next, hit a little dribbler to the first base side of the mound. The Padres’ pitcher, Cory Luebke, made a nice play to field the ball and threw to third, where Hicks was called out, effectively killing the Braves’ chance to score. I wanted to scream at the TV that you either had to break on contact or else wait and make sure that the ball got past the pitcher before taking off for third. It looked to me like Hicks hesitated just a bit, then took off. Joe Simpson, base-running guru, said that he would have been out on that play too, as he would have done the same thing. I’m still not sure, but I am pretty sure that Chipper would not have made the same mistake. And, while Hicks is indeed much faster than Chipper, Chipper has already shown that he can score from second on a single. Plus, taking Chipper out guarantees only that you won’t have him around to hit again. So, I guess that I really can’t be too mad at Hicks; he’s fast and he lacks experience and did what most guys with his background would have done. Rats!