Baseball Is In Hill’s Blood

Jim Hill sits in the stands during the 12-Year Old Cal Ripken Southwest Regional Tournament Friday, July 19, 2013, at Tyson Recreational Complex in Springdale.
Jim Hill sits in the stands during the 12-Year Old Cal Ripken Southwest Regional Tournament Friday, July 19, 2013, at Tyson Recreational Complex in Springdale.

SPRINGDALE — Jim Hill didn’t need to worry about a parent screaming in his ear as he sat in a lawn chair behind home plate.

He had picked a secluded spot at the Tyson Sports Complex to watch baseball.

A self-described “country boy,” Hill spoke poetically about his nearly 60 years of being involved in youth baseball in Arkansas. He had plenty of stories to share, as well as a few photographs he keeps in his bag.

The 80-year-old Hill watched Pine Bluff natives Mike Jeffcoat and John Barfield show the type of command that helped them break into Major League Baseball. And Hill served as an umpire for many of five-time All-Star Torii Hunter’s youth baseball games.

“I called lots of strikes on Torii,” Hill said, adding that he still keeps in touch with Hunter.

Hill remains busy despite retiring in 1991 after 40 years with Arkansas Power and Light Company, where he began as a store keeper in Lonoke.

The Babe Ruth League sends an official to each of its tournaments to assist in any way possible and dispel any fears people might have about local favoritism taking place.

Hill was the official sent last week to Springdale for the 12-Year-Old Cal Ripken Southwest Regional Tournament.

He has helped oversee the tournament as an Assistant Regional Commissioner, though his official title sounds more threatening than he did while talking about his lifelong love of baseball.

“It gets in your blood just like a lot of other things,” Hill said.

Hill grew up playing baseball on a field that had cotton and corn growing on it in Lonoke. But he jokes that he wasn’t much of a player in high school and during his time competing in American Legion.

“Believe it or not, I was a pitcher. I was an old, roundhouse curve pitcher that couldn’t break a window pane,” Hill said. “But we had a good time.”

After finishing high school, Hill said he was asked in 1950 if he could start a youth program in Lonoke. He accepted, beginning his long association with youth baseball in the state.

Hill served as an umpire in 15 World Series of different age groups, and he plans to attend an upcoming World Series for 18-year-old players in Alabama.

As he got older, Hill admitted it became more difficult for him to umpire games. But the Babe Ruth League made sure he still had a role, even if it was no longer on the field.

“I got so old I couldn’t see,” Hill said. “They took me out and then they put me on the task force.”

Hill said his true “calling” is as the groundskeeper for Taylor Memorial Field, the former Minor League Baseball stadium in Pine Bluff. He talked like a doting father about how he maintains the field, mowing it once a week in the offseason and twice a week during the season.

Hill recalled how Los Angeles Dodger great Steve Garvey was so impressed with how green the grass was at Taylor Memorial Field for a 1996 tournament that he asked Hill what type of dye he used.

“To me, that’s a 24/7 job,” Hill said of maintaining Taylor Memorial Field. “I just see it’s there, that it’s locked up every night. I love the grass.”

It’s in his blood.

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