Turner Hill’s transition to the major leagues as a 27-year-old rookie with the San Francisco Giants has gone about as smoothly as he could have hoped.
He picked up his first hit — a single to right in his second game – and he went 3-for-4 against the Cincinnati Reds on Aug. 26. And while he’s enjoying every new experience, there has been some tough, but humorous, lessons.
One in particular: how to explain to the 100-plus family and friends in the stands it’s not OK to give him a standing ovation following a double in the ninth inning when his team is down 7-1 with two outs against the Cleveland Guardians. He probably could put some of the blame on many of the Cleveland fans who were excited to see the Ohio-born Hill with a big hit.
“It was nice and I really appreciate the support,” said Hill ’22, a two-time All-American at Marietta College. “However, I did have a few teammates ask me about that, in a joking way. They thought it was odd that I got a standing ovation for a double in the ninth inning while we were losing on the road.”
The support isn’t going to stop any time soon. The Marietta Times provides regular updates and the volume of social media posts related to Hill is at an all-time high. During the three-game series in Cleveland, there were at least a dozen folks wearing No. 52 Turner Hill jerseys, including Owen Brockmeier, the young son of Evan Brockmeier ’13.
“I don’t think it has really sunk in that Turner is playing in the big leagues,” said Brockmeier, who is Turner’s uncle. “He honestly had faith in himself and he put his faith in God. Look where that has got him.”
Brockmeier was one of about 35 family and friends gathered in the parking lot of the Hilton Garden Inn, no more than a football field away from Progressive Field on Aug. 19 when the Giants won 1-0. Unfortunately, Hill didn’t see any action that day.
Also in attendance was another familiar face to Marietta College baseball fans and alumni: former assistant coach Mike Mulvey ’13, who is now the head baseball coach at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia.
Mulvey made the 8½-hour drive the day before the game, but drove back immediately after the game.
“I’m here to support Turner,” Mulvey said. “There is an obvious connection since I coached him at Marietta, but I don’t think people really understand the magnitude of how hard this really is. He has earned this opportunity and everyone in the Marietta Baseball Fraternity is proud of him. Turner represents all of us now and we are going to show our support.”
Alex Toth ’13 got to know Turner when he was a 12-year-old attending Marietta games as the Pioneers won back-to-back NCAA Division III championships. He is a Vice President for Finance at NNI Construction in Cleveland, and he wasn’t going to miss watching Turner in the big leagues.
“I’ve known Turner since my playing days with his uncle Evan (Brockmeier). He comes from a great family and I became close with everyone. So, it was a no-brainer to be here,” Toth said. “It’s incredible. John Snyder ’11 and I have texted weekly about how Turner’s been doing and climbing up the minor league ladder, and also how he’s been hitting, especially the last two months in Triple-A. Everyone here is representing, in some ways, Marietta College. But we are also here representing Turner and everything he has accomplished.
“The community, the school, the closeness, the support. That’s what The Long Blue Line is, right?”
Turner wishes he could return every text and phone call, which he says is more than 300. But the transition to The Show has not afforded him the time to respond.
“It has been kind of a whirlwind of just everything that’s going on. It’s been craziness,” Turner said. “There has been a lot of texts, a lot of phone calls, and now moving city to city — I’ve traveled to three different cities in the last four or five days. So, it’s been a lot, but I’m trying to still stay locked in and do my job and play good baseball.”
When Turner was called up to the majors, he was tearing up the Pacific Coast League as a member of the Sacramento River Cats, the Giants’ Class AAA affiliate. He had hit safely in his last 26 games, a streak that broke a franchise record that had stood for 19 years. This year, in 97 games with Sacramento and Class AA Richmond, Turner batted .352 with nine home runs and 24 stolen bases.
As of Aug. 30, Turner is hitting a respectable .258, including four doubles and six RBI in 12 games.
He tried to block out any thoughts about reaching the big leagues, but he said it got tougher as he continued to enjoy success in Sacramento.
“It was something I tried to stay away from thinking about and just tried to stay focused on my day-to-day in AAA. It was important to be where my feet are and being the best version of myself every day,” Turner said. “But you still have those thoughts in the back of your mind. I was kind of paying attention to what the big-league makeup looked like, and when I had the ‘Player of the Month’ and then I kind of kept it going for the first couple weeks of August, I started to think it might be possible.”
Turner realized late in a game on Aug. 12 that his dream to play in the majors would come true. Running in from center field following the final out in the seventh, Turner was notified by Sacramento manager Dave Brundage that he was pulling him from the game.
“Then he told me why: I was being called up,” Turner said.
His parents, Steve and Nicole Hill, were watching the game from their Marietta home. However, when Turner called to share the good news his dad didn’t answer.
“I was at a church meeting earlier in the day and I turned my ringer off. I forgot to turn it back on,” Steve said. “It was like 1:30 in the morning, but he called his mom and she put him on speaker phone so he could tell us. I think I was still processing everything and his mom started screaming.”
Still, Nicole felt her reaction could have been better.
“We were hoping this would happen, and when you are hoping it will come true, you try to think of what it would be like to get that call,” said Nicole, who has worked at Marietta College since 2017. “And then it happened and it was so surreal that I think I was in shock. I still feel bad that my reaction wasn’t better.”
The next few days were even more surreal.
Steve and Nicole, along with their other children Kail ’24 and Adi ’25, flew to San Francisco (courtesy of the Giants) to be there for his MLB debut on Aug. 15. The Giants defeated the Colorado Rockies 7-1.
“I’ve been more jacked up than him,” Steve said. “To see him as calm as he is, it’s been unbelievable.”
Having played with many of the current Giants big leaguers in the minors helped.
“There's a lot of guys that I’ve played with on this team that I played with this year in (Class) AAA and other years in the minor leagues,” he said. “And, you know, there’s a handful of guys that I’m pretty close with.”
Three years in the minor leagues also helped him become accustomed to the lifestyle.
“I think part of it was just getting enough minor league at-bats under my belt,” Turner said. “In baseball, especially hitting, there are so many ups and downs. That’s the hardest part of it, the minor league grind of every single day you have to show up, you’re facing a good pitcher every single night.”
He also worked hard in the offseason and he made it nearly impossible for the Giants not to promote him.
“I got stronger in the weight room and I made a couple minor approach changes,” he said. “And, this year, I got to a point where it just, it felt like a groove and there was no thinking. I was just going out there, trusting myself and playing.”
Turner also credits his unusual path to the majors as a big reason why he’s so comfortable.
Before his two seasons wearing the Marietta pinstripes, Turner starred at NCAA Division II Malone University. Despite hitting .441 over two seasons at Marietta and earning All-America honors twice, he wasn’t drafted and professional options were limited.
Hill found a home in the MLB Draft League and led all hitters with a .391 average while playing for the league champion West Virginia Black Bears in Morgantown. He signed with the Washington (Pa.) Wild Things of the independent Frontier League.
His time there didn’t last long as the Giants signed him before the Wild Things had completed spring training.
“I’m so proud of Turner,” said his father. “It’s not just because he made it, but because of his work ethic and his dedication. There was nothing easy about how he got to the major leagues. Turner has always been undersized his entire life. When he was in T-ball he was the smallest player and people questioned if he could play. Then the next year was coach pitch and everyone wanted to see if he could hit the ball. The next year was kid pitch and everyone wanted to see if he could hang. He dealt with the same thing in high school. Then he wasn’t recruited by any colleges. He just keeps proving to everyone he belongs. Now that he is a major leaguer I realized there are no more levels to climb.”
Now that deserves a standing ovation.