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Hall's
Heroics
A member of the Louisville Bats for only one day, Noah Hall waited nearly
three years to exact some revenge on his former team.
Dan Hickling
Minor League News
 |
08.01.04 SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Infielder Noah Hall was not a Louisville Bat for all that long. In fact, Hall played in only one game for the Bats, at the tail end of the 2001 season. Nevertheless, even that flimsy connection was enough for Hall, who now patrols left field for the Syracuse SkyChiefs, to feel extra good about sticking the dagger into his old mates. |
Moreover, he stuck and twisted the blade not once, but twice in the same game, with his arm and with his bat, back on May 21, in lifting the Chiefs to an 8-5 win.
Hall gunned down Steve Smitherman at the plate in the top of the eighth to choke off a Bats rally.
Then in the bottom of the inning, Hall's two-run triple broke open a 5-5 tie.
It was a game that Louisville could have won comfortably, if not for Hall's heroics.
"It felt good to have a good game against an old team," said Hall, who has plenty of old teams from which to choose.
The 26-year-old Boulder Creek, Calif. native was drafted in 1996 by Montreal and then spent the next five seasons knocking around the Expos system.
From there he went to the St. Paul Saints in the independent Northern League, and had one of his best seasons in 2001, batting .313, with 37 steals and an OPS of .851.
That is where Hall's tale begins to get interesting.
"I was with the Saints, and the Cincinnati Reds ended up purchasing my contract," Hall said. " They said, 'You're going to Triple-A.' I thought, 'Great. I didn't even know they were looking at me'."
Hall joined
the Bats in time to get into one game, going hitless in two trips to the plate.
Afterward, then-manager Dave Miley --now skipper in Cincinnati-- summoned
Hall into his office for some unwelcome news.
"He said, 'Sorry but we have to send you to Stockton,'" Hall said.
That was the last Hall saw of Triple-A until this season, when he hooked on with Syracuse. It was also the last he saw of the Bats until the first game of Louisville's lone trip into the Salt City.
His first "remember me" moment came in the top of the eighth inning, when Louisville was threatening to blow open a 5-5 deadlock.
With runners at first and second and one away, Corky Miller laced a single to left, which likely would have scored Steve Smitherman from second.
Except that Hall charged the ball, gathered it off the artificial turf and hurled a perfect strike to catcher Paul Chiaffredo.
"I was hoping that the ball would get to me quick," said Hall. "Thank God it did. I got everything I could into (the throw). It got there."
Chiaffredo took the ball on a hop, and had the plate sealed off, leaving Smitherman out in the cold.
"He just attacked that ball," said Chiaffredo of Hall.
Hall picked himself off the carpet, and gave a celebratory fist pump. However, he wasn't done badgering the Bats just yet.
In the bottom of the frame, Hall teed off on Louisville reliever Mark Watson, driving in Brad Hassey and Shawn Fagan with what proved to be the winning runs.
Revenge, goes the saying is best served cold. Hall earned himself a double-scoop, with a cherry on top.
"This just feels good," he said. "I know some guys on that team, and it feels good to have a real good game against them."
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