Nick Hall (baseball)

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Nick Hall, (born January 10, 1984, Crystal Lake, Illinois) is a Minor League Baseball right handed pitcher for the Philadelphia Phillies. His nickname is "The Dust Buster"

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[edit] Coming to America

Hall is the youngest of 3 children. His father, Richard Hall was an exceptional curler and played professionally until the birth of his first child. At the tender age of 6 months, Hall's father moved the family to America. In their first two years in America, the Hall family lived in Maine, Minnesota, Maryland, Michigan, and Montana before finally settling down in Crystal Lake, Illinois. As a child, Hall had two heroes, Donald Whiteside and Frank Thomas. Hall considers himself American, and does not embrace his Canadian roots.

[edit] High School

Hall attended Prairie Ridge High School. While there he was a Pre-Season All-American Baseball Factory [1]. Hall was American legion teammates with current Florida Marlins pitcher, Scott Olsen. While at Prairie Ridge High School, Hall pitched a no hitter and hit three home runs in a game against Crystal Lake Central High School on April 19, 2002. Hall was also an outstanding high school basketball player, racking up Fox Valley Conference all-conference honors in his junior and senior seasons. In the 2001-2002 basketball season, Hall qualified for the Illinois High School Association three point shootout[2]. Hall was an outstanding three point shooter, especially considering his size, 6' 5", 225 lbs. At the IHSA three point shootout, Hall made it to the final round, eventually losing to Portland Trailblazers guard, Darius Miles. Hall was offered numerous baseball and basketball scholarships from such prestigious institutions as University of Louisiana, Lafayette, Mississippi State University, and University of Alaska, Anchorage. When Hall graduated from Prairie Ridge High School, he was one of the most decorated two sport athletes at Prairie Ridge and in the Crystal Lake, Illinois area. It has been rumored that Hall will be elected into the Crystal Lake, Illinois Hall of Fame in the 2009 elections.

[edit] College Career

Hall decided to stay close to home and excepted a scholarship to play college baseball at Northern Illinois University under coach Ed Mathey (baseball). He began his freshman year as a closer before cracking the weekend starting rotation. Finished his career as number one on NIU's career games started list, and second in innings pitched. Hall also won Mid American Conference pitcher of the week in March of 2006[3]. Although Hall did not continue basketball at Northern Illinois University, he was somewhat of a legend at the recreational center. It is said by many that Hall and former Northern Illinois University assistant basketball coach, Donald Whiteside never lost a pickup basketball game at the recreational center. They are rumored to have a record of 103-0 during the four years Hall attended the school. After Hall's senior baseball season at Northern Illinois University, he was expected to be drafted in the first 10 rounds of the Major League Baseball first year player draft. On May 2, 2006, just weeks before the draft, Hall was not phased by the attention he was receiving, and engaged in a slam dunk contest at the recreational center. Hall was attempting to mimic Vince Carter's "arm in rim" dunk when tragedy struck. He elevated for the dunk and executed it perfectly. While hanging from the rim by his armpit, Hall heard a loud "pop" in his right shoulder. The pop was the tearing of his right rotator cuff. Major League Baseball teams heard about the injury and took Hall off of their draft boards.

[edit] Major League Baseball

Although Hall was not drafted because of the freak shoulder injury, He signed as a Free Agent with the Philadelphia Phillies via the 2006 Major League Baseball Draft[4]. Hall was able to play the last quarter of the rookie ball season in Clearwater, Florida in the summer of 2006[5]. He consistently threw his fastball in the mid to high 90's and was on his way to excellence.


[edit] Accident

Just days after the end of his first season as a professional athlete, tragedy struck again. Nick was on his family ranch, outside of Billings, Montana, practicing for the rodeo, when he was bucked off of a notoriously dangerous bull, Petey. It is said by on lookers that Hall flew at least 15 feet in the air and landed square on his back. While on the ground, unable to move, Petey began kicking Hall in the ribs, further intensifying his injuries. When all was said and done, hall had fractured his back and had eight broken ribs. Although his baseball future was up in the air, the Philadelphia Phillies did not release him because of his great potential. Hall was told by doctors that with his excellent physical therapy he could be back into baseball in time for the 2009 season.

[edit] T3

While recooperating from his injuries, Hall created a text message sensation called Tuesday Trivia Time or T3. Hall had the idea for T3 one day while he was sitting in the hot tub at his physical therapists office. He began sending text messages to his friends asking them a strange but difficult question every Tuesday. His friends loved the T3 text messages and eventually, Hall began adding more and more people to the T3 contestant list. What started as a fun text message competition between friends, evolved into a trivia game played by nearly 1 million people nationwide.

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://niuhuskies.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl/mtt/hall_nick00.html
  2. ^ http://www.ihsa.org/activity/bkb/2000-01/2hapqual.htm
  3. ^ http://mac-sports.com/SportSelect.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=9400&KEY=&SPID=3800&SPSID=42953
  4. ^ http://philadelphia.phillies.mlb.com/index.jsp?c_id=phi
  5. ^ http://niuhuskies.cstv.com/sports/m-basebl/spec-rel/060906aad.html