Red Sox's Rich Hill Names Team He Still Wishes To Play For Before Retirement
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Red Sox pitcher Rich Hill has suited up for 11 Major League Baseball organizations including three stops in Boston, but he still has one more jersey he'd like to don before calling it a career.
The 42-year-old would love to participate in the 2023 World Baseball Classic as a member of Team USA.
"It would be the opportunity of a lifetime as far as being able to play for your country, Hill told MLB.com's Ian Browne. "I think that would be extremely exciting and very humbling if that opportunity were to come around. As a kid, you would watch the Olympics or anything that would be tied to the United States as far as playing on a large stage for the country."
Hill would consider it to be a huge honor to go out and compete for his country.
"It’s bigger than all of us to play for your country," Hill said. "It’s the definition of a team when you all come together and are looking forward to accomplishing something together as a whole. That is pretty special."
Red Sox manager Alex Cora was the first to allude to Hill's interest in playing for Team USA earlier in September.
“We were talking about the WBC next year, (Hill) really wants to do it and I actually talked to Mark DeRosa (who is managing Team USA) and I said ‘Hey he can open, he can get lefties out, He can give five solid innings,’ so we’ll see what happens in the end,” Cora told reporters, as seen on NESN’s postgame coverage on Sept. 12.
Hill does not light up the radar gun, but has enough craftiness to be an effective pitcher on any stage. The southpaw is not an ace but he'd be more than capable of getting outs at the WBC.
The lanky lefty is 8-7 with a 4.41 ERA, an impressive 103-to-36 strikeout-to-walk ratio and 3.82 FIP in 118 1/3 innings across 25 starts. He'll have one more start to make his case for DeRosa and company this season.
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