King to retire Pickering’s number

Posted Mar 1, 2010 by Adam Adkins

Updated Mar 1, 2010 at 06:38 PM

Former major leaguer Calvin Pickering will become the sixth player to have his jersey number retired by the King High baseball program, longtime Lions coach Jim Macaluso said Monday morning.

Macaluso said Pickering, who wore No. 35, will be honored during a ceremony prior to King’s matchup with Leto on April 3, which is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.

Pickering spent just one season with the Lions after coming to the U.S. from the Virgin Islands, but showed enough promise on the field that Baltimore selected him in the 35th round of the 1995 MLB draft. He worked his way through the Orioles minor league system and cracked into the majors in 1998, and he went on to spend parts of five seasons in the big leagues with the Orioles, Cincinnati Reds, Boston Red Sox and Kansas City Royals.

Pickering is now retired and living in California, Macaluso said, but he will be in attendance for the ceremony.

Macaluso added a pre-game gathering, in which players, family and friends of the 1995 Lions team are invited, will be held beginning at 11 a.m.

The other former King High players/coaches to have their jersey numbers retired include Derek Bell, Ty Griffin, Tim Crews, Jim Morrison and Carlos Tosca.