It was an ordinary day. Leafing through a few sports books I have and found a baseball player by the name of John Preston "Pete" Hill whom I had known very little about until I began to read a bit more. "Pete" Hill was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in July of 2011. Now, the story about this gentleman had my full attention since I had never heard his name before, but yet he made it into the Baseball Hall of Fame. As I read his story I became aware that he was an outfielder and manager for the Negro Leagues, playing at first for the Pittsburgh Keystones. And...this guy was a fantastic player. He was born on October 12, 1882 in Culpeper County, Virginia to Rubin W. Hill and Elizabeth Seale Hill. He had two older brothers, Jerome and Walter. The Hill family later relocated to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He began his professional career at he age of 17 with the Pittsburgh Keystones which was one of the many all-black teams that existed before the first Negro Baseball League was founded in 1920.
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| Pete Hill batting left-handed. |
He remained with the team for two years before he joined the Cuban X-Giants and played for them in 1901 and 1902. He then signed with the Philadelphia Giants who were owned by newspaperman H. Walter Schlichter and managed by Sol White. He played left field and batted in the bottom third of the lineup during his first year. He was that good that he eventually. took over center field and batted third in the order. He played for the Giants until 1907.
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| Pete Hill in his Detroit uniform. |
He then moved once again to the Cuban Baseball League with Habana until 1912 when he returned to the United States and signed with the Brooklyn Royal Giants and then the Chicago American Giants when these teams were independent before the Negro Leagues in 1920. When the Negro League was established in the 1920's he played for the Detroit Stars, Milwaukee Bears and Baltimore Black Sox. He retired as a player in 1925 at the age of 43 and moved to Buffalo, New York where he was a porter on the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad. In 1906 he married Gertrude Lawson and had a son born in 1910 named Kenneth Hill. John Preston "Pete" Hill died on December 14, 1951 from coronary thrombosis in Buffalo, New York.
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| His plaque at the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery. |
He was buried in the Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Alsop, Illinois. In 1952, Hill was named the fourth-best all-time outfielder in Negro League history. Then in 2006 he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was considered one of the top three all-time best players in the Negro League. If only he'd of had the chance to play in the United States major leagues, he might have a name that is more recognizable to baseball fans all over the world.
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| His plaque at the Baseball Hall of Fame at Cooperstown, New York. |
In the Cuban League he led the league in batting average (.365) in 1910-11. Mr. Cumbeland Posey, owner of he Homestead Grays and famous black baseball player, manager and executive, once called Hill "The most consistent hitter of his time." In 1909 Jimmy Smith, a famous sportswriter of his time, put Hill on his 1909 "All-American Team." He did spend his 1919 season as both a player and manager for the Detroit Stars. He was 36 years old at the time and besides coaching, he batted .388 to lead the team. His final position in professional baseball was as the field manager of the 1924-25 Baltimore Black Sox. Any player who can be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, no matter what league they played in, must have been something special to watch play baseball. I only wish I would have known of him and would have had the chance to watch him play. It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.
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