Valley product enjoys success with Toronto

Published online on Monday, Jul. 27, 2009

Aaron Hill is proud of the man he has turned out to be, which is maybe not the first thing most of us would point out if we were living Aaron Hill's life these days.

This is, after all, a ballplayer who has hit more doubles in a season than any second baseman in the 32-year history of the Toronto Blue Jays.

This season, he crushed the team's single-season home run record for second basemen by the All-Star break, though he's not really a statistics nut.

"He definitely knows he's had a great first half," says his dad, Walt. "But we don't say, 'Hey, Aaron, it's great you got your 20th home run today.' "

He's hitting them so fast, Hill is up to 24 homers since Walt spoke those words, even popped four in the past four games. He now leads all second basemen in home runs.

He was an All-Star for the first time this season, voted into the game by his peers. He started at second base in St. Louis, then got three at-bats.

At the game, he met President Barack Obama. "How often do you get to meet a president?" Hill says.

For most of us, zero. For Hill, at least twice. He met George W. Bush at an airport when he was in the minors.

You don't have to worry about any of it going to his head. The local kid who grew up in Visalia and graduated from Redwood High isn't wired that way. His dad always told him to leave it on the field, that he shouldn't act any different after a game in which he was 4 for 4 than one he was 0 for 4.

He was so nervous for his first All-Star at-bat he decided beforehand to swing at the first pitch no matter what. (He hit a grounder and ran it out.)

They asked him to be in the Home Run Derby and he declined. Who does that?

"Anyone who watches my [batting practice]," he says, "I really don't hit many home runs. I wasn't going to make a fool out of myself."

The Tigers' Brandon Inge gladly accepted an invitation, didn't hit a single home run, and told Hill afterward he would come back every year until they stop asking him. And still Hill had no regrets.

"I had fun videotaping it and watching the other guys," he says.

There's no doubt he's a San Joaquin Valley kid, humble as wood paneling. He even married his high school sweetheart, Lizzy Kenfield, and they're expecting their first child in mid-September, a little girl who will be Walt's first grand-baby. Guess it shouldn't be any surprise Hill is most proud of the man he's turned out to be.

"My brother and I have always gotten compliments on how we treat people," he says. "I'm not taking anything away from my dad, but everyone's mom has a huge impact."

Vicki Hill gave birth to Aaron Hill on a March 21 and then two years later had his little brother Michael on the same date. Their dad jokingly tells people they planned it that way to save money on birthday parties.

In the summer of 1997, the family was in Utah for one of Aaron's soccer tournaments. Aaron and his dad were in one car. Vicki and another soccer mom were following in another. A college student swerved across the center line. Walt veered out of the way. Vicki's car didn't swerve in time and both women were killed.

It was the only moment in Hill's life when he briefly questioned the worth of sports, whether he even wanted to keep playing. Eventually a high school football teammate and his mom's sisters convinced him Vicki would have wanted him to keep playing.

It is not something he dwells on or talks about much. Hill never went back to the crash site, never found the college student years later in search of some sort of closure. (There were no drugs or alcohol involved.)

"There's no reason to dig a hole, crawl in it and be miserable," he says. "She was a very happy person."

It has driven him to work harder, to not take days for granted, surely part of what pushed him through the minor leagues so quickly and into one of the fastest rising stars in baseball.

It also made last season even tougher than it should have been. Hill was injured early in the season on a play in Oakland, in a meaningless blowout when he was, of course, trying to make a tough catch to preserve his pitcher's shutout. He and David Eckstein collided in shallow center; Eckstein's elbow hit Hill in the temple.

"Even when that happened," Hill says, "I got up and it was OK, and I thought I'd be in the next day."

By that night, though, he had flown to Anaheim and was out to dinner with his agent, wife and mother-in-law when Hill went white as notebook paper and nearly passed out at the table.

It took a month of dizziness and spinning rooms before the doctors and trainers convinced him he should put his feet up for the rest of the season.

"I couldn't understand not doing anything," he says. "I've never taken it easy before. Doctors told me to do nothing, and I couldn't really put my mind around that."

By winter, he was finally feeling better and came back to spring training as the old Aaron Hill. Which is to say, crushing the baseball and feeling lucky to be where he is.