Bobby Hill has been up, and he has been down.
That doesn’t just mean traveling back and forth between the Cubs and their Triple-A farm club.
After a disappointing spring training, in which he played himself off the big-league roster, baseball no longer was fun and games for the second baseman.
“It felt like it was a business,” Hill says. “I wasn’t having fun, and I had to finally start blocking a lot of stuff out of my mind, letting go of a lot of things. Once I started to do that, the game started to become fun again. I tell you what, the last 3 1/2 weeks have been the most fun I’ve had in a while.”
Indeed, Hill’s renewed enthusiasm corresponds with a recent hitting streak that has lifted his batting average from .230 to .253. Not exactly eye-popping numbers, but it’s a start.
“You tip your hat to the kid,” says Mike Quade, manager of the Iowa Cubs. “With all the hubbub surrounding him, I know it’s a difficult deal for him to come down here. But he got his head screwed on real quick.”
Hill, 25, desperately wanted to impress new Cubs manager Dusty Baker this spring. Veteran infielder Mark Grudzielanek missed most of spring training with an ankle injury, and the starting job appeared to be Hill’s for the taking.
But Grudzielanek is hitting .301 and playing good defense, with three errors and a .983 fielding percentage. Though Hill has no timetable to return to the majors, he looks forward to playing for Baker.
“He treated me like a man,” says Hill, a native of San Jose, Calif. “I’ve always said that I would love to play for that guy one day. I envisioned that growing up a Giants fan, watching them. I was still in high school then. Now I have an opportunity to do that.”
The 5-foot-10-inch, 170-pound Hill hit .253 in 59 games with the Cubs last season. He was hitting .182 with the Cubs when he was optioned to Iowa last June. After rejoining the Cubs in late August, he hit .314 in 29 games, sparking renewed optimism for the 2003 season.
But that optimistic balloon burst in the Arizona sun.
“I don’t even like to talk about that anymore,” Hill says. “I don’t even mention it or like it mentioned. It’s something that’s behind me. I’m putting the month of April behind me. The one thing I have to keep on doing is battling. Good things come to those who wait.”
Quade has found him to be a pleasant surprise.
“He had a tough spring defensively, so after my first look at him . . . I said, `Wow!'” Quade says. “I think he understands that there is continued work needed. [But] it’s like: `How good can you be? Well, how hard do you want to work?’ That’s the kind of commitment we’re looking for, and that’s the kind of commitment we’re getting.”
The White Sox chose Hill in the second round of the 1999 draft but did not sign him. The Cubs then selected him in the second round the next year and signed him.
An All-American at the University of Miami, Hill reached base via a hit or walk in 97 straight games at one point in his collegiate career. That sort of statistic led many fans to anoint him as the Cubs’ second baseman of the future.
But Hill continues to seek consistency.
“The high expectations don’t bother me,” Hill says. “I couldn’t care less. You have to go out and play the game. Yeah, I didn’t have a good spring training, but I know a lot of guys who didn’t.”
Baker insisted during spring training that fans and media had unrealistic expectations for young players such as Hill and Corey Patterson because of their relatively limited number of at-bats in professional baseball.
Yet Patterson seems to have blossomed offensively in the early part of this season.
“I’m just playing every day, trying to stay healthy,” Hill says. “This game is a roller-coaster, but as long as you can maintain confidence in yourself, you’ll be fine. The biggest thing for me staying on top of my game is learning to be patient when things aren’t going well. And to be patient when things are going well. This first 1 1/2 months down here has taught me a lot of that.”
Quade insists it’s too early to give up on Hill. And he asserts Hill’s offensive woes this spring may have contributed to his sloppy fielding.
“If you look at his minor-league career, and the number of at-bats in particular, he’s still a baby,” Quade says. “It isn’t that easy. It takes a very special person to make a little stop here and a little stop there in the minors and then become a big-league player. Especially a big-league player in the middle of the diamond on a club that has aspirations of winning a pennant. That’s asking a lot.”
For now, Hill is working on improving both at bat and in the field.
“I stopped trying to figure things out,” Hill says. “That got me in trouble. . . . The only thing I have to worry about now is playing for the Iowa Cubs and taking care of what I need to take care of. That’s coming out here every day working with [hitting coach] Pat Listach and working on my defense every day. I just want to work on the little things to get myself ready for whatever decision they would like to make.”
Hill also realizes he could resurface with the Cubs on a day’s notice.
“You just play your game and let things pan out by themselves,” he says. “I hope [the Cubs] win and I hope they make the playoffs. I’m still a Cub, so when they win, we win.
“That’s one thing people don’t understand. I may be down here, but we’re all part of the organization. We’re all pulling for them. Until they try to get rid of me or trade me, I’m a Cub.”
Hill by the numbers
Bobby Hill’s game-by-game stats at Iowa:
D. OPP. AB R H RBI AVG
4-3 Nashville 5 0 2 1 .400
4-4 Nashville 4 0 1 0 .333
4-5 Nashville 4 0 0 0 .231
4-7 Memphis 3 1 0 0 .188
4-10 Memphis 4 0 0 0 .150
4-11 Nashville 5 0 1 0 .160
4-12 Nashville 4 0 1 0 .172
4-13 Nashville 6 2 2 0 .200
4-14 Nashville 4 0 2 0 .231
4-15 Omaha 3 0 0 0 .214
4-16 Omaha 4 0 1 0 .217
4-17 Omaha 4 0 1 0 .220
4-18 Omaha 4 1 0 0 .204
4-20 New Orl. 4 0 0 0 .190
4-21 New Orl. 4 0 2 0 .210
4-22 New Orl. (1) 4 0 1 0 .203
4-22 New Orl. (2) 3 0 0 0 .200
4-25 Portland 4 0 1 0 .205
4-26 Portland (1) 2 0 0 0 .215
4-26 Portland (2) 4 1 2 1 .221
4-27 Portland 5 0 1 0 .214
4-28 Albquerque 4 0 0 0 .205
4-29 Albquerque 5 0 1 0 .204
4-30 Albquerque 4 3 2 0 .216
5-1 Albquerque 5 0 1 1 .216
5-2 Tacoma 5 1 3 0 .234
5-3 Tacoma 3 0 1 0 .236
5-5 Tacoma (1) 2 0 1 0 .241
5-5 Tacoma (2) 3 0 0 0 .235
5-6 Memphis 3 0 1 0 .237
5-7 Memphis 4 0 0 0 .230
5-9 Memphis 3 3 1 0 .232
5-10 Albquerque 5 0 3 3 .246
5-11 Albquerque 5 1 3 3 .259
5-12 Albquerque 5 1 2 1 .264
5-13 Albquerque 5 0 1 0 .262
5-15 Omaha 3 0 2 0 .270
5-16 Omaha 5 1 1 1 .268
5-17 Omaha 2 1 0 0 .265
5-18 Omaha 3 1 0 0 .259
5-19 Colo. Spgs. 4 1 0 0 .253
5-20 Colo. Spgs. 4 0 1 0 .253
42 games 166 18 42 11 .253
Also has 10 doubles, 2 triples, 1 home run.
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