Baseball: Moe Hill - Midwest League superstar

PART ONE

If ever there was a player who personified minor league baseball, it was Moe Hill.

Elmore “Moe” Hill was a hard-working, hard-playing young man from Gastonia, North Carolina who had one dream: to make it to the big leagues.

Unfortunately, he never got there. This is a story of Hill’s trials and tribulations along the way.

Hill, a hard-hitting outfielder who spent most of his fifteen-year minor league career with Class A Wisconsin Rapids, was never given a chance to perform at the upper echelon of the minor leagues. Oh, he had a “cup of coffee” for parts of two years at AA ball, but that occurred well past his prime in 1979-80.

Why didn’t Hill get the opportunity to show his talents at a higher classification? He had some awesome years in the mid-to-late 70s, but always returned to Wisconsin Rapids, a hick town on the minor league roadmap. Ironically, his professional career began in another small Wisconsin city.

Hill, who was born in 1947, signed out of high school with the Baltimore Orioles in 1964 for the princely sum of $1,000. He made his professional debut the following spring in Appleton, Wisconsin, playing for the Fox Cities Foxes of the Midwest League.

The eighteen-year old Hill had a decent rookie season, hitting .275 with seven home runs in 107 games. Not bad for a player who was playing one classification higher than he was supposed to be.

“Actually, I was supposed to go to “rookie ball” that year, but I got in a few ballgames and did pretty decent, so they kept me at Appleton,” said Hill.

The following season, Hill was promoted to Miami of the Florida State League, which was a higher classification of “A” ball. He performed poorly there and was demoted to Batavia of the New York-Penn League, and then to Stockton of the California League, and then back again to Batavia.

Basically, it was a wasted season.

“I didn’t do too well,” said Hill. “I got off to a rough start.”

The next two years (1967-68) Hill played for Miami and showed some power, but didn’t show enough potential to move up.

Hill sat out the 1969 season because of a stomach disorder, and then got the shock of his young life.

He was released by the Orioles.

During the 1969 off-season, he was signed by Minnesota, and that began a love-hate relationship that lasted for the next ten years. Hill spent the 1970 season in the Florida State League, this time playing for Orlando. He led the league in home runs with 22, and once again became a prospect.

Hill bounced around again the next spring.

“I went to spring training with the Triple A club, and I thought I had that club made, but they sent me down to Double A, which was Charlotte at the time,” said Hill. “I got there, and didn’t get a lot of playing time, (so) they sent me to the Carolina League, and from there I went to Wisconsin Rapids, where my long eight years started.”

Hill didn’t hit for a high average that late summer in Rapids, but did manage to crush eight home runs in just 78 at-bats. Some thought he showed enough promise in the late season performance to be promoted, but the management of the parent club thought otherwise.

“I kept the hopes alive that I would move up,” said Hill. “I had a really good spring that year (1972), but they kept telling me they wanted a veteran on the (Wisconsin Rapids) club to help out the younger players, so that’s what I did.”

So once again, Hill spent the summer in Rapids, and started to perform up to his vast potential. Although he only hit .245, he slugged 20 homers in 359 at-bats in a season that saw Rapids make it to the playoffs. They finished with a record of 70-56, and that was a portent of things to come.

The next season, Hill batted .271, but saw his home run total slip to seven for the year. All was not lost, however, as the Twins won the league championship for the first time in their eleven year history.

Next spring, Hill spent time with a couple of Minnesota players, and that time was well spent. Who were those players?

Tony Oliva and Rod Carew.

“I started talking to Oliva and Carew, and they told me to start looking for (certain) pitches in situations,” said Hill. “And that’s when the power started coming. I surprised myself that year by hitting thirty-plus (32) home runs. That’s when it all started.”

Did it ever.

Hill won the Triple Crown that year with those 32 dingers, along with 113 runs batted in and a .339 batting average; it was one of the best seasons ever by a player in the Midwest League. But it was still not enough to merit a promotion for the slugger.

So when the 1975 campaign began, Hill was back in Wisconsin Rapids, doing time in the Midwest League.

Again.

Even though Hill was one of the brightest stars in the Twins’ dismally dim galaxy, his exceptional season did not warrant a promotion, and that was a cause for confusion for the 27 year-old slugger.

“That’s what was puzzling,” said Hill. “They didn’t tell (me) anything until (I) went to them. That’s just the way George Brophy was.”

Brophy, who passed away in 1998, was the Twins’ farm director from 1970-1985.

There were several meetings between Brophy and Hill, and the Twins slugger usually walked away with a bad taste in his mouth. “I kept asking the question: why am I not moving up?” said Hill. “They kept saying, ‘We want you to go back and help the younger players.’”

It was about this time that Hill started to think that race had something to do with the Twins’ decisions. He didn’t think that the Twins were racist toward him, but rather that the Twins wanted Hill to be more of an “organization man.”

Wisconsin Rapids is a small community of 18,000 people. It is located in central Wisconsin, and is smack dab in the middle of the heartland. Back then, Consolidated Papers was the main employer for the city on the Wisconsin River. It was an area of hard-working, blue-collar workers.

Workers that happened to be mostly white.

“I knew that Wisconsin Rapids was an all-white community, from when I played with Appleton in ’65,” said Hill. “But I never heard a racist word from the fans in Rapids.”

Rumor had it that the Twins wanted Hill to keep playing in Rapids to help pave the way for the young African-American players that were making their professional baseball debuts. It is hard enough when you start playing every day, but add the fact that most of the spectators have a different skin tone than you do, and that makes it even tougher.

Enter Moe Hill.

PART TWO (next Friday at e-sports!)