CHICAGO – Koyie Hill may have been the happiest callup of all when the Chicago Cubs expanded their roster Monday for the final month of the season.
Just to be in a major league uniform, any baseball uniform really, seemed unlikely a little more than 10 months ago when Hill nearly lost three fingers and the thumb on his right hand in a table saw accident.
A specialist was able to reattach all four after they were severed and Hill made a miraculous comeback after hours of therapy and a long relearning process that included sessions with Triple-A Iowa hitting coach Von Joshua.
“I had to learn how to give high fives all over again. Everything is different,” Hill said.
Hill was so determined to play again he said he considered having his pinkie that had been greatly damaged amputated so he could grip the ball better when he threw, an essential part of a catcher’s game.
After a slow start in Triple-A that produced self doubts, Hill warmed up when the weather did. The first cold months were very difficult.
“I felt like I had frozen carrots for fingers,” he said.
Hill played 36 games for the Cubs in 2007. This season, as he fought his way back, he found a way to not only throw with his rearranged hand where the fingers are still discolored and crooked, he was able to hit well after working with Joshua.
He batted .275 with 17 home runs and 64 RBI in 113 games for Iowa, earning a call back to the majors.
“I sat in a doctor’s office here in Chicago in December and he looked right at me and said he didn’t think I was going to play again,” Hill said.
Hill’s dad is a carpenter and Hill had designs on being an architect. He’d used the table saw many times and on Oct. 16, 2007, was working on some wood for a window frame on his house when a part of it got stuck in the saw. The saw grabbed and Hill’s hand was in the way.
“It cut my thumb off first, went through all the muscle in my thumb and it went back and turned and cut all four tendons and all four fingers and all four ligaments,” he said. “They sewed them all back on.”
“I’m proud I’ve been able to overcome,” Hill said.