This week, The Post’s Andrew Marchand caught up with YES Network studio host Fred Hickman. Hickman, 45, worked at CNN for almost two decades before joining YES in November.
Q: Who is the best athlete you have ever dealt with?
A: Muhammad Ali. With his illness [Parkinson’s disease], he is difficult to speak to, but he is just a tremendous, tremendous person. He is very funny. [Hickman estimated he had interviewed Ali 25-30 times.]
Q: Who is the worst?
A: The year the Orioles got off to that horrible start [0-21 in 1988], CNN sent me in to follow those guys. I remember Tito Landrum was on the team, who I knew from the Springfield Redbirds back in Triple-A. We were friends. Frank Robinson was the manager of the team.
Eddie Murray wanted to hit me with a bat. It wasn’t me. They were terrible, and here is CNN showing up.
Q: In 1983, you overcame a cocaine addiction. What was that experience like for you?
A: It was part of growing up, I guess, more than anything else. The funny thing is, until people mention it I don’t even remember it. It’s been that long ago. Not that I don’t feel comfortable talking about it. I don’t even think about it anymore, to be honest with you.
Q: What will you be doing with the Nets?
A: I’ll be doing pre- and post-game. We haven’t gotten around to figuring out exactly how we are going to format that yet.
I like the [YES] network. I think back to the old ESPN days when they first started. I kind of see a lot of the same things only a little bit better. As we move forward in the next 10 to 15 years, I think we are going to see some special things here.
Q: When you left CNN in September, you didn’t have the YES job. If YES didn’t call, what would you have done?
A: I was thinking about doing some things with golf, perhaps with the Senior Tour. One of the other things I plan on doing is more voice-over work, maybe doing cartoons. I could be in the next “Toy Story.”
You know what? It is very hard work. I did some stuff for the Cartoon Network and it is a lot harder work than people realize. You are talking to things that aren’t there.
