If you have been to Alex Box Stadium lately, you may have noticed a few of the LSU baseball players sporting shaved heads.
On the Friday night of the Tigers’ recent road trip at Vanderbilt, outfielder Jon Zeringue suggested the idea of the players shaving off all their hair and Zeringue, Matt Liuzza, Blake Gill, Ryan Patterson, Bruce Sprowl, Ty Jensen, Jordan Faircloth, J.C. Holt participated along with shortstop and unofficial team captain, Aaron Hill.
“It’s just hair,” a laughing Hill said. “I don’t care. It’s going to grow back. If the whole team does it, I’ll do it. We brought all the troops together, shaved the heads and came to the ballpark the next day, and everyone was like ‘ahhhh!!'”
In the meantime, Hill also is sporting a new goatee look to go with his shaved head.
“Got to do something,” he said. “We’ll see how it looks. With a shaved head, might as well grow something else different.
“I’m just having fun.”
This is the Aaron Hill the Tigers have known for the last two months of the season. The guy who is going to have fun no matter what and not let the game of baseball get to him.
Over the first month of the season, this was not the case. Hill, who began the season at third base but has since moved back to shortstop, began the season hitting .268 (11-for-41) and found himself stressed over the game.
“It’s just a game,” Hill said. “Baseball will kill you if you let it get to you. I’ve seen guys throughout my career who let the game get inside their head, and they think too much and worry about things. And they never play again. What’s good about these guys is I come out and make sure they’re smiling and focused and just know you’re going to strikeout, you’re going to pop out, you’re going to go 0-for-4, but the next day is a new day. That’s why you play 70 to 80 games. It’s just a game.”
Hill’s early season struggles were not a surprise to Smoke Laval. The second-year LSU coach anticipated Hill might struggle early because the shortstop would feel the need the carry the Tigers offensively, while the team found its offensive identity. He knew Hill would eventually come around.
“He’s as good as all of them,” Laval said. “He doesn’t have the power that [Albert] Belle had, but he can hit with Todd Walker and some of those guys. He’s an outstanding hitter.”
Somewhere down the road though, Hill found himself and his swing and is now one of the hottest hitters on the team. Over the last 29 games, Hill has hit a blistering .408 (49-for-120) and has regained the form he had in 2002, when he hit .329 with nine home runs and 47 RBIs. Currently Hill is second on the team with a .373 batting average and has four home runs and 39 RBIs.
“I’m just having fun and swinging the bat,” Hill said. “I’m just relaxed. Earlier in the season I was just stressed. I was trying to do this and trying to do that, instead of just reacting to the ball and fielding it and throwing it. I’m happy with the way things have turned out so far.”
And now, Hill is having fun.
The head-shaving night was just an example of having a good time and building team chemistry, Hill said.
“It’s just fun,” he said. “It’s just something for the team do to say we did it because it’s a team thing. This is us. We don’t care what everyone else thinks. This is us. We want to do it. We’re going to play how we want to play, and we’re going to win.”
Hill plans on having fun tonight against Tulane in the Superdome just like last season when he powered the Tigers to a 9-5 win with a 3-for-4 performance, including a two-run home run and a two-run single.
“I remember we had a lot of fun because we won,” Hill said. “I remember everybody swung the bats. It was just an awesome experience. I was just in awe coming in there and seeing close to 30,000 people.
“It was unbelievable, and I mean I was just so excited. Being in front of that many people, I think that just energized us. I’d love to play in front of 70,000 or 80,000 people. It’s still baseball. You still have to hit it, throw it, catch it. I’m going to have fun with it because it’s a game I’ve been playing for years.”