PHOENIX − Rich Hill reached into his pocket, grabbed his cell phone, looked at the text message from an old acquaintance and started laughing.
“Rich, is that really you?’’ he asked. “Are you playing?’’
Yes, that’s Hill all right, 44 years young and pitching for Team USA in the Premier12 international baseball tournament, where most of his teammates are young enough to be his own kids.
This is a team filled with current and former prospects who aren’t on any major-league 40-man rosters, and where Hill is scheduled to start their final Group A game Thursday night against Mexico.
If they win, USA will have the opportunity to qualify for the Super Round next week and win a medal in Tokyo.
Lose and their tournament is over.
“I’ve never been on a team that won the World Series,’’ Hill tells USA TODAY Sports in an hour-long interview in Phoenix before departing for Mexico, “but winning a gold medal, wearing the uniform representing your country, that’d be pretty darn close.
“It would be amazing.’’
The ultimate dream for the only man in baseball who has pitched at least one game in each of the past 20 years − pitching for 13 different teams − would be winning a gold medal now, win a World Series title in 2025 and then win a gold medal for Team USA in the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
“It’s funny, I was talking to my wife about the Olympics in four years,’’ Hill said, “and she said, “‘Well, maybe you could just be a coach.’’’
Hill, who pitched three shutout innings in USA’s first game of the tournament, always wanted to pitch one day for his country. He has watched teammates and good friends play in the World Baseball Classic, but he never got invited.
He informed Team USA officials this past summer that he was interested in pitching for the Premier12 team since he’d be free. He turned down three major-league contract offers during the winter and spring so that he could coach his 12-year-old son Bryce’s Little League team in Milton, Mass.
“It was his last year in Little League,’’ said Hill, who had seen his son play in only four Little League games the past three years. “I couldn’t pass that up. I’m thankful I didn’t miss that. It was too important to me.’’
So, he hung out all summer with the kids in Milton, coaching on the same field where he pitched 32 years ago, helping lead the Milton Reds to the District championship game as their pitching coach and first base coach. When the season ended, he informed Major League teams he was open again for business.
“I know I passed up some good opportunities,’’ said Hill, who has a career 90-73 record, going 8-14 with a 5.41 ERA with the San Diego Padres and Pittsburgh Pirates in 2023. “But I would do the same thing over and over again. We had great moments we’ve been able to share. Watching him be able to play and get that opportunity is the reason why I stayed home.
“It was everything I hoped.
“I don’t regret a single thing.’’
The Boston Red Sox, his hometown team, came calling with a minor-league offer in August. On Aug. 29 at Fenway Park, he was back in the major leagues, pitching for the Red Sox against the Toronto Blue Jays. He became the oldest player to appear in a major-league since 45-year-old Ichiro Suzuki for the Seattle Mariners in 2019.
But, suddenly he was ineligible to pitch for Team USA since he was on the Red Sox, and their 40-man roster.
Yet, 12 days later after pitching in just his fourth game, he was unceremoniously released, reminding him once again that this can be a cold-hearted business.
Halfway through September, and still unemployed with no major league team showing interest for the stretch run, he put in a call into LaTroy Hawkins. He was his former teammate from 20 years ago, and the current Team USA bullpen coach. Hill wanted to let them know he still he was interested in pitching for them if they wanted him.
“We had reached out to a few guys, and six or seven had said, ‘no,’’’ Hawkins. “When Rich reached back out, I was like, ‘You in?’ He said, ‘Yes, I’m all in.’
“It’s been great. It’s always good to have a veteran presence on a team like this because he’s a natural leader. Guys watch everything that he does, how he carries himself, everything.’’
So, there was Hill, back on the mound again, joining a bunch of kids he never heard of, working out in Phoenix before the tournament opened in Mexico where his family joined him. Team USA has gone 2-2, and their last scheduled game in pool play is Thursday in Tepic, Mexico with hopes that a victory can vault them into the final round in Tokyo.
Still, no matter what happens, no matter if Hill never throws another pitch after Thursday, he says he wouldn’t trade this journey for the world, eager to see what next is in store for him. This is a man who has earned everything in his career with no short cuts. He was selected by the Chicago Cubs in the fourth round of the 2002 draft out of the University of Michigan, spending the rest of his career bouncing from coast to coast and making 386 appearances for 13 different teams. He has pitched everywhere from the Tigres de Aragaua of the Venezuelan Winter League to the Long Island Ducks of the Independent League to starting three games in the 2017 and 2018 World Series for the Los Angeles Dodgers, and has become one of the oldest MLB pitchers since World War II.
“I don’t know what the next step in my baseball career is going to be,’’ Hill said, “but you always want to be around the younger guys and see what they’re doing and stay atop of the training, stuff like that. But it still comes down to just competing and competition.’’
Hill never lit up the radar gun in his prime, and doesn’t throw harder than 89-mph now, but with his curveball, his finesse, his astuteness and his brilliant in-game strategy, is still one of the finest competitors in the game. You know you’re doing something extraordinary when you’ve got 14 years of major league service time, earned more than $75 million, and still have teams coveting you when you’re older than the last eight MLB general managers who have been hired.
“I obviously love the game of baseball, I love the work and competition or I wouldn’t be doing this,’’ Hill says. “But we’ll see what the future holds as far as playing. I’m not sure if this will be it or not. I think we’ll probably know in a month or so.
“I’d love to play another year and have an opportunity to get into the postseason and win a World Series. That’s everybody’s dream. I’ve been close a couple of times, but it’s not like anything I’ve experienced in the game. Playing in the postseason, there’s nothing like it. Nothing at all like it.’’
Hill may never have gotten that World Series ring after winning back-to-back pennants with the Dodgers, but when they won it all this year, he felt part of that euphoria, excitedly texting former teammates like Clayton Kershaw, Austin Barnes and Kike Hernandez throughout the postseason.
“It’s really cool to see just the joy on their faces,’’ Hill said. “Seeing other players experience that, you’re just genuinely excited for them. And you want that. One more time.
“So hopefully, that will come around. I still feel that I have a lot to offer. I think baseball is at a crossroads where were need to start developing starting pitching again, and not just relievers who are chasing velocity at a young age. I know I can still provide innings.
“But, if not, and that’s it, I can call it on my own terms, knowing I’ve been fortunate to have a lot of really cool experiences in this game.’’
If Hill steps away as a pitcher, well, you could soon see him on a coaching staff, in the front office, in player development, or just as an adviser. He’s not shutting the door on any opportunity. And plenty of doors will be wide open for him.
“Organizations want to have somebody who understands what it is to win,’’ Hill says, “what it looks like, how it walks, how it talks. If I get into coaching, that’s something I can take with me and understand what that makeup of a roster looks like.
“How do you construct a winning championship roster? Why do you bring certain guys in? What do you leave certain guys out? That’s something being around a lot of really, really good teams, I’ve been able to see how that works, and how that doesn’t work, too.
“You can have the most talented team, but you need the right people in places to succeed, and that supersedes talent.’’
One day, Hill wants to be that ultimate difference maker, but then again, considering the lives he has already touched along his journey these past 20 years, his impact has already been indelible.
“I’m so glad he’s here,’’ Hawkins said, “because he’s done everything in this game but except pitch for Team USA. I know he wants that World Series ring, but he’s got a chance for that gold medal.
“And, as I told him, there’s a whole lot more people that have a World Series ring than have a gold medal.’’
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