ABOUT THE AUTHOR
RICK WILTON's exclusive insights into baseball injuries have been published regularly online since 1996. He is the only current analyst with experience in sports medicine, radiology, pharmacology and physical therapy.
Sports Medicine Background
Rick started his sports medicine training as a student athletic trainer in high school in Massachusetts. Following graduation, he worked as the Athletic Trainer for the semi-pro football team, the Webster Colonials, for one season before enlisting in the U. S. Navy. After being honorably discharged, Rick attended the University of Utah as an Athletic Training major. He earned more than 500 hours of clinical experience there.
Medical Experience
While serving in the Navy, Rick served in Jacksonville, Florida at the US Naval Hospital, Athens, Greece (including the emergency room at the US Air Force Hospital-Athens) and the Naval Hospital in Portsmouth, Virginia. His experience included rotations through ICU, MICU, Physical Therapy, LAB, Emergency Room, Pharmacy and extensive training in Radiology.
Sports and Media Background
Rick served as co-host of the University of Utah's pre-game football and basketball shows from 1981 to 1984 on KALL radio in Salt Lake City. He was also a regular on Sports KALL, the weekly sports call-in show in Salt Lake City. Rick began baseball writing with free-lance articles for Baseball Weekly and Fantasy Baseball magazine.
From 1992-1995, Rick was the president of Sports Journal Publications, Inc. which published Fantasy Baseball Journal, Diamond Alert and the original Hot Sheet. SJP produced several firsts in the industry:
- The original Hot Sheet was fantasy baseball’s first source of regular player news information, the forerunner of current services like Rotowire and Rotoworld. Debuting in 1993, its “MASH” section was also the first source of injury information. The Hot Sheet was broadcast twice weekly via fax, then BBS, both industry firsts.
- Fantasy Baseball Journal was the first weekly fantasy baseball newsletter, starting in 1993.
- Rick founded the AFL/Fantasy Baseball Symposium in Phoenix, Arizona, fantasy baseball’s first annual conference. It is now known as First Pitch Arizona, sponsored by Baseball HQ, and entering its 12th year in 2006.
- Rick is co-author of the book, Forecasting Pitching Careers, fantasy baseball’s first research on predicting major league pitching.
Rick worked with Ron Shandler in launching Baseball HQ, one of fantasy baseball’s leading information services. Rick served as Director of News and Analysis from 1995-1999.
Rick was STATS, Inc.’s Fantasy Baseball Analyst from 1999-2000. He currently serves as Sports Weekly Hot Sheet’s Senior Baseball Analyst, a role he began in 2001.
Rick has appeared on sports radio all over the country, from New York’s WFAN, to ESPN-1000 Chicago (he was the fantasy baseball expert for WMVP Chicago during the 1996 season), to radio stations in California.
He appears annually as a featured speaker with First Pitch Forums in cities including Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Detroit, Cleveland, Boston, New York, Washington/Baltimore, Philadelphia, Tampa and Phoenix.
Baseball Career
Rick’s early baseball career showed promise. He was known as an above average defensive first baseman with gap power but below average speed. His career came to a quick end once Babe Ruth league pitchers discovered he couldn’t hit a curveball. He moved on to softball where the 12 inch ball was much easier to hit and didn’t curve! To this day, he feels the pain of minor league players who have trouble hitting a breaking ball.
