Herman Hill

Herman Alexander Hill

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 2", Weight 190 lb.
• High School Southern Freehold Regional High School
• Debut September 2, 1969
• Final Game October 1, 1970
• Born October 12, 1945 in Tuskegee, AL USA
• Died December 14, 1970 in Valencia, Carabobo, Venezuela

BR page

Biographical Information

Herman Hill spent parts of two seasons with the Minnesota Twins, playing mainly as a pinch runner. He drowned while on break from winter ball in 1970 when he seemed ready to become a major league regular.

He was born one of 13 children in Tuskegee, AL in 1945 but went to high school in New Jersey and signed with the Twins as a free agent in 1966. He began his career rather inauspiciously in the Gulf Coast League that year, batting .222 in 45 games with the GCL Twins. Moving up to the Florida State League in 1967, he was named to the All-Star team after hitting .292 with 58 stolen bases in 126 games for the Orlando Twins. He moved to the Wilson Tobs of the Carolina League in 1968, hit .341 in 23 games and was quickly promoted to the AA Southern League. There, playing for the Charlotte Hornets, he hit .245 in 102 games, while stealing another 36 bases. In 1969, he was promoted another level, this time to AAA and the Denver Bears of the American Association. There, he hit .300, scored 90 runs and stole 31 bases in 135 games to earn his first call-up to the big leagues.

In September of 1969, with the Twins on their way to clinching the first-ever American League West division title, Hill played 16 games, but only went to bat twice, and played only 5 innings in the field. The rest of the time, he was a pinch runner, scoring 4 runs, stealing a base, but being caught stealing twice. In the winter, he played for Caguas in the Puerto Rican League. He started 1970 in AAA, this time with the Evansville Triplets of the American Association. In June, he was called up to Minnesota and spent three weeks with the big club, and again was mostly used as a pinch runner. He did also pinch hit a few times and was also used in centerfield, but a .105 batting average cut his playing time short. He went back to Evansville, where his batting average fell to .248 in 112 games - moving away from hitter-friendly Denver exaggerated the drop in batting average. He got one more taste of the Show in September as the Twins repeated as AL West champions, and again was mainly a pinch runner.

On October 20, 1970, the Twins traded Herman Hill and minor leaguer Charlie Wissler to the St. Louis Cardinals for pitcher Sal Campisi and infielder Jim Kennedy. He was considered likely to make the Cardinals' roster in 1971 as a back-up outfielder, but tragedy struck. He went to play winter ball for Magallanes of the Venezuelan League and on an off-day, went swimming with his wife and some of his teammates. He was pulled out to sea by a powerful wave, and drowned in spite of his teammates' efforts to rescue him. He was just 25. His career batting average of .083 does not reflect Hill's tremendous speed and athleticism.

Further Reading

• Clifford Blau: "Leg Men: Career Pinch-Runners in Major League Baseball", in The Baseball Research Journal, SABR, Volume 38, Number 1 (Summer 2009), pp. 70-81.

Related Sites

• Herman Hill at the SABR Bio Project
• BR Minors page