Jimmie Randolph Hall (born March 17, 1938) is an American former Major League Baseball outfielder and left-handed batter who played eight seasons in the big leagues. A two-time All-Star, Hall made his debut with the Minnesota Twins (1963–66), followed by stints with the California Angels (1967–68), Cleveland Indians (1968–69), New York Yankees (1969), Chicago Cubs (1969–70) and Atlanta Braves (1970).
Early life
Hall was born on March 17, 1938, in Mount Holly, North Carolina. By six years old, he was doing farmwork behind a plough. He was a star baseball player at Belmont High School, and in American Legion baseball under coach Lawrence "Crash" Davis. In 1954, his American Legion team was runner up in the American Legion World Series.
Baseball career
Minor league
Hall was signed as an amateur free agent by the Washington Senators on June 21, 1956 following his high school graduation, who had outbid the Baltimore Orioles, Chicago Cubs, Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees, and Pittsburgh Pirates for Hall's services. However, he would fail to build on, or even equal, this level of production at the plate and would languish for the next six full seasons in the minors before seeing the major leagues.), but he would struggle in the field at this new position and commit 24 errors in only 78 games. Hall would get off to an inauspicious start, hitting only .185 through the first 48 games, but a mid-June injury to Green would give Hall the chance to showcase himself for an extended period of time and he excelled with the opportunity. Hall started 125 games of the 143 games he played in, ultimately replacing Green.
Starting on June 8, Hall would be the starting centerfielder and he would sparkle, hitting .276 with 31 of his 33 home runs, 72 of his 80 RBI, and 72 of his 88 runs over the Twins' final 116 games. Hall's home run total would set a career high, and stood for more than 50 years as the AL record for home runs by a first-year player with not even a game of prior major league experience (topping Ted Williams' 31 homers in 1939) until broken by Jose Abreu in 2014. He is one of only two players in the modern era of major league baseball history, along with Dodgers outfielder Joc Pederson (2015), to have two streaks of home runs in four consecutive games or more in their rookie season.
In addition to being fourth in the AL in home runs, he was sixth in OPS (on base plus slugging) seventh in WAR (wins above replacement) among all AL players and seventh in runs, and fifth in slugging percentage. At the end of the season, he would finish third in the Rookie of the Year voting behind a pair of Chicago White Sox, third baseman Pete Ward and starting pitcher Gary Peters. Hall's breakout rookie season was more than enough for him to supplant Green as the Twins' center fielder going forward and Green would be traded early in the 1964 season to the Los Angeles Angels as part of a three-team trade with the Baltimore Orioles with the Twins receiving utilityman Frank Kostro and infielder Jerry Kindall in return.
1964
Handed the center fielder job to start the 1964 season, Hall had a decent sophomore season but did not quite reproduce his 1963 production. He was hit in the face by a fastball that season, the effects of which were severe enough to cause him to miss some playing time, but he had only nine less plate appearances than in 1963.
The Twins would also see a drop off, going from a 91 win, third-place finish in 1963 to 79 wins and sixth in the 10-team AL.
On May 2, 1964, Minnesota became the third club in the MLB history to hit four consecutive home runs in the same inning, as Oliva, Allison, Hall, and Killebrew all connected in the top of the 11th inning in a 3–3 tie game. With 3 home runs off Kansas City Athletics reliever Dan Pfister and Killebrew's off his replacement, Vern Handrahan, the Twins would pull out a 7–3 victory.
On May 27 versus the Los Angeles Angels, he led off the fifth inning and was hit on the cheek by a pitch from left hander Bo Belinsky, known for his overpowering fastball. Hall immediately exited the game, but returned to the starting lineup about a week later and then played well for the remainder of the season while wearing a special protective flap on his batting helmet. However, this beaning and his already feeble showing against left-handed pitchers - hitting .187 with only 4 of his 121 career home runs off them - arguably contributed to his being timid and ineffective versus southpaws, and could contribute to why he ended up finished as a productive player by his sixth season. In 1963, before the beaning, he hit .235 with one home run in 68 at-bats against left-handed pitching, while hitting .263 with 32 home runs against right-handers. In the year after Belinsky hit him, 1965, Hall similarly had a .240 average against lefthanders with one home run in 96 at-bats, while hitting .296 with 19 home runs against right handers; with career highs in batting average, on base percentage and RBIs.
1965
Hall was almost traded to the Mets before the 1965 season, but the deal fell through. His 1965 would basically be a carbon copy of the previous season and would see him hit career highs in average (.285), RBI (86), doubles (25), and stolen bases (14), but would also see another drop in home runs to 20. Showcasing both his power and speed, Hall not only hit 20 home runs in 1965 but also beat out 20 infield singles. Hall was sixth in the AL in RBIs, eighth in batting average, ninth in runs scored, 10th in stolen bases, 12th in slugging percentage, and 16th in home runs. He was 10th among AL position players in WAR.
He would be named to his last All-Star team in the July 13 game that was played at Minnesota's Metropolitan Stadium, along with five fellow Twins (first baseman Harmon Killebrew, catcher Earl Battey, pitcher Mudcat Grant, shortstop Zoilo Versalles and Tony Oliva), and went hitless with a walk and a run in two plate appearances after pinch hitting for pitcher Pete Richert in the bottom of the fifth inning and moving over to center field in place of starter Vic Davalillo to begin the sixth.
Hall's struggles against lefties in 1965 (a .240 batting average) continued in that year's World Series against the NL champion Los Angeles Dodgers. With five of the seven games started by southpaws Sandy Koufax, the 1965 Cy Young Award winner, and Claude Osteen, Hall would only play in the two games started by right hander Don Drysdale (in which he would strike out five times with one hit and one walk in 7 plate appearances). With no help from Hall's righthanded substitute the Twins would lose the Series four games to three.
1966
Hall would see a big drop in playing time in 1966 (from 148 games to 120) as the Twins would more often sit him against tough lefties. Rookie left hander Ted Uhlaender would be given significant playing time in center as Hall would play all three outfield positions, with most of his time being in left in place of ailing slugger Allison. With reduced playing time, Hall saw an across-the-board drop in all statistical categories, hitting only .239 with 20 home runs, 47 RBI, and 7 doubles (falling off a cliff from 1965's 25 doubles), but would still slug at least 20 home runs for the fourth season in a row. Deciding to employ the light-hitting Uhlaender full-time in center, the Twins traded Hall on December 2 to the Angels along with reliever Pete Cimino and first baseman Don Mincher for starter Dean Chance and a player to be named (which would become infielder Jackie Hernandez on April 10, 1967).
1967
Employed similarly in 1967, Hall would share time in a lefty/righty platoon with Bubba Morton, getting only 41 at-bats against left handers in 129 games (hitting a .098 with one extra base hit), and would put up similar numbers to 1966 (.249, 16 HRs and 55 RBI) and reaching double figures in home runs for the fifth consecutive season. However, he would be finished as a full-time player.
1968
Hall was batting .214 with one homer and eight RBI in 46 games when he was traded from the Angels to the Cleveland Indians for Vic Davalillo before the trade deadline on June 15, 1968. The change of scenery would not help Hall as he would hit only .198 in 53 games.
1970
Hall started 1970 with the Cubs but ended it with the Atlanta Braves.