Post by Rog on Mar 9, 2015 8:19:02 GMT -5
Southern University has announced that it is building a new baseball dormitory that will be named ... Cody Hall. Hall did his college pitching at Southern and says he was one of about five Caucasian baseball players at the predominantly black college.
(Taking the lead of the Giants' front office, I fibbed about the first part, just for the Hall of it.)
Cody's story is unusual. After not playing much his freshman and sophomore years in high school, he quit the team. Later, he went into electrical work while attending junior college. There he went out for the baseball team, playing a mean far right side of the infield but not getting to first base with his hitting.
His coach noticed his strong arm and suggested he go into either pitching or enforcing, depending on which side of the tracks he was from. Hall pitched well enough to receive one college offer -- Southern. Despite having quit his high school team, Hall says he wanted to be a major leaguer since he was five years old. With his late start on the mound, he is still learning -- more than the average 27-year-old pitcher. Like Tim Lincecum, he received pitching lessons from his father.
Apparently learning from fellow rookie Hunter Strickland, Hall has allowed two home runs in his two innings of work this spring. He looked good Saturday though, even though in his one inning of work he allowed one of those two home runs. Throwing a low-90's fastball and an honest to goodness change up, he struck out three. Taking a page from Lincecum's spring training book, he now has four strikeouts in his two innings while sporting a 9.00 ERA.
The Giants' 19th-round draft pick in 2011, Hall has a 2.31 career minor league ERA over 187 innings, striking out 11.5 batters per nine innings while walking 3.1. He was co-closer at Richmond last season with Hunter Strickland and will likely be promoted to Sacramento along with Strickland and a few starting pitchers.
At his advanced age, Hall will need to continue his relatively fast progress down his very long track. But as would be expected from a Southern college student, he appears to be a relatively fast learner and now knows his family's entire genealogy as well as his pitching repertoire.
(Taking the lead of the Giants' front office, I fibbed about the first part, just for the Hall of it.)
Cody's story is unusual. After not playing much his freshman and sophomore years in high school, he quit the team. Later, he went into electrical work while attending junior college. There he went out for the baseball team, playing a mean far right side of the infield but not getting to first base with his hitting.
His coach noticed his strong arm and suggested he go into either pitching or enforcing, depending on which side of the tracks he was from. Hall pitched well enough to receive one college offer -- Southern. Despite having quit his high school team, Hall says he wanted to be a major leaguer since he was five years old. With his late start on the mound, he is still learning -- more than the average 27-year-old pitcher. Like Tim Lincecum, he received pitching lessons from his father.
Apparently learning from fellow rookie Hunter Strickland, Hall has allowed two home runs in his two innings of work this spring. He looked good Saturday though, even though in his one inning of work he allowed one of those two home runs. Throwing a low-90's fastball and an honest to goodness change up, he struck out three. Taking a page from Lincecum's spring training book, he now has four strikeouts in his two innings while sporting a 9.00 ERA.
The Giants' 19th-round draft pick in 2011, Hall has a 2.31 career minor league ERA over 187 innings, striking out 11.5 batters per nine innings while walking 3.1. He was co-closer at Richmond last season with Hunter Strickland and will likely be promoted to Sacramento along with Strickland and a few starting pitchers.
At his advanced age, Hall will need to continue his relatively fast progress down his very long track. But as would be expected from a Southern college student, he appears to be a relatively fast learner and now knows his family's entire genealogy as well as his pitching repertoire.