Player Earns His Stardom The Hard Way

Ray Riggin was almost embarrassed to ask, so he was certain Tyler Hall would be too embarrassed to agree.

The request?

Repeat freshman baseball.

Kids are asked to repeat classes. Sometimes they have to repeat grades. But to be held back in sports is a truly foreign concept in a culture that overvalues athletic prodigies, underrates sacrifice and indulges egos to an absurd extreme.

Or doesn’t anyone remember Garry Templeton protesting fan balloting for the All-Star Game one year by insisting, “If I ain’t startin’, I ain’t departin’?”

Today is a big day for Tyler Hall: He turns 18.

Saturday is bigger still: With seven straight victories to his credit, he’ll try to pitch West Valley past Eastmont in a Regional AA playoff game at Seafirst Stadium, as the unlikely Eagles try to win their way to state.

But Hall’s biggest day may have come two years ago, when Riggin and Bob Johnson of the WV baseball staff suggested he do-over freshman baseball.

Hall’s recollection is a revelation itself.

“They gave me an opportunity,” he said, “and I think that was my big break.”

An opportunity.

An opportunity to endure the taunts and teases of classmates promoted to the JV, perhaps. Or an opportunity to evoke resentment in a freshman hotshot wondering what this old goat was doing taking up his innings, maybe.

“It is embarrassing,” said Riggin, WV’s head coach, of the notion. “I thought he would have quit. Most kids would have.”

But then, baseball isn’t a passion with most kids.

“I love the game,” Hall said. “I like being around it. It’s fun. It’s fun to watch - even if you do get stuck in the dugout.”

So he wasn’t crushed when Johnson, the freshman coach, gave him just eight at-bats that first year at WV. He wasn’t insulted when asked to stay back as a sophomore. He didn’t mind being a junior on the junior varsity - in part because he had company.

“We had a bunch of seniors last year, some talented kids,” said Riggin, whose Eagles won three straight Frontier League titles before winding up second this spring. “It was a tough situation for these guys, being stuck behind them. I told them last year, ‘You guys are going to get your shot.”’

But only one shot.

With six seniors on the squad who had never played varsity baseball, the Eagles started out 2-5. They scored in bunches - averaging nearly nine runs a game - but gave them right back with erratic play in the field. Practices top-loaded with fundamental drills helped bring the glovework up to speed with WV’s hitting and pitching.

Now the Eagles have won 12 of their last 14, including a 6-5 decision over Frontier champ Cheney in Tuesday’s district championship game. Seven of those wins belong to the 8-1 Hall, who gave up just 23 runs and 42 hits over that span.

“This whole team has changed my outlook on coaching,” said Riggin. “I thought this was going to be a long year, that we just try to have some fun and play hard and hope for the best. I didn’t give us much hope.

“I’ll never think that way again. You’ve always got a chance.”

Sometimes, a chance is all a kid needs.

Riggin looks around his infield and sees Beau Macarty, who underwent shoulder surgery that ended his football season “so he could play baseball - and I wasn’t sure he was going to make my team,” the coach said. “And Kevin Risley - he was a non-starter coming into the year. Now he bats second and is hitting .370. Where’d he come from?”

And Tyler Hall.

A broad-shouldered left-hander, Hall took up pitching in eighth grade - on the junior varsity, natch - upon deciding that “I wasn’t going to be a speed demon or a power hitter.” He truly threw himself into it - rigging up a tire on a rope in the backyard, trying to compensate for the experience he wasn’t getting in games.

He’s not overpowering - a fastball in the mid-70s, a curve he can throw for strikes.

“Tyler is what I call my Bill Knapp story,” said Riggin. “Bill was a kid who came through here a few years ago, played on the JVs through his junior year - hardly even started as a junior. Then he was MVP of the team his senior year. Once in a while you get a kid like that.

“At a bigger school, Tyler would have been cut. I saw a big, left-handed pitcher and figured it wouldn’t hurt to keep him around. To say he’s an inspiration is a little sappy, but he is.”

At the very least, he’s an advertisement to other kids to never give up - even if you’re a sophomore on the frosh team.

“Even if you don’t ever become super successful, you can still play the game and enjoy it,” Hall said. “I was kind of worried about being made fun of and stuff, but it was not a big deal. It didn’t happen - at least not to my face. I don’t know what they might have said behind my back.

“I know they’re not saying too much now.”

On the contrary. They can’t say enough about Tyler Hall.

, DataTimes MEMO: You can contact John Blanchette by voice mail at 459-5577, extension 5509.

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