Mariners prospect Nick Hill living "unreal experience"

PEORIA, Ariz. — Nick Hill knows that a rough first inning is merely a hazard of his job on the mound.

The Mariners pitching prospect will gladly shake that off, as he did this week in his Arizona Fall League debut, realizing it's preferable to the hazards he could be facing with fellow graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. Hill is now an inactive first lieutenant in the U.S. Army and benefited from a special program that let him fulfill military service obligations stateside in the offseason while pursuing a professional baseball career.

His West Point classmates never had that choice and one of them, Michael Girdano, 23, was killed by a roadside bomb in Afghanistan on Aug. 1, 2008, just as Hill was finishing up his season for Seattle's Class A High Desert affiliate.

"Any time something like that happens it hits home," said Hill, a 24-year-old left-hander who spent last season in Class AA. "It makes you appreciate the things that you have over here, and what those guys are doing over there."

Hill only knew Girdano in passing. But the similarities between them are a daily, haunting reminder for Hill of how fortunate he is.

Both had been star athletes in high school: Girdano as a football captain in Pennsylvania, Hill as a baseball player in Tennessee. But Hill's athletic prowess was that much better and, after a standout career at Army, good enough to get drafted by the Mariners.

Just weeks before Girdano was killed, the Army revised its Alternative Service Option program, which allowed officer-athletes drafted by pro teams to keep playing right after their West Point graduation. It also enabled them to serve only two years of active duty instead of five, as well as get posted to recruiting stations near where they'd be playing, rather than combat zones overseas.

The changes still allow athletes to serve just two years, but it can't be interrupted by pursuing their sport. Hill had completed a year of duty when the change occurred, and faced the possibility his baseball career would be significantly delayed.

"I was ready for it, whatever happened," he said. "I can't complain about anything that I've had to do. I've been fortunate to have this opportunity, and if it was taken away from me tomorrow, I couldn't be bitter because this has been an unreal experience. Something I'll always remember."

Hill caught a break in that he had a bunch of unused leave saved up. He used it to finish off that 2008 season, reported for duty at a West Point recruiting center after that, then used more leave to attend spring training this year. He wound up leaving AA West Tennessee in May to return to West Point and complete his final month of service obligations.

Hill thinks the lost month of baseball actually helped him, providing an in-season rest. He was released from active duty in June and wound up 5-6 with a 3.10 earned-run average in nine starts and 27 relief outings for West Tennessee.

The Mariners like what they've seen, despite a fastball many scouts describe as only slightly above average. Some in the organization quietly suggest Hill could, like Shawn Kelley this past season, surprise people next spring and actually make the major-league team.

"The one thing we like about him first of all is, he's left-handed," said Pedro Grifol, the Mariners' director of minor-league operations. "Those guys are hard to find. When you add the makeup, which is very strong, and the willingness to compete, sometimes it makes the 'stuff' better."

Hill says he's best when he attacks the strike zone, gets ahead and uses the sink on his fastball to secure ground outs. An admittedly nervous Hill didn't do that in his opening inning Thursday, yielding a leadoff double, a single, a run and a walk.

But Hill rallied to strike out Houston Astros prospect Jason Castro to end the first, picked off a runner in the second inning and got the grounders he needed after that.

Hill is now on the Army's inactive reserves list and must report in every six months. He also has to return about $100,000 of prorated tuition to West Point for the three years he didn't serve, and the Mariners are leaning toward paying it.

The Army's policy toward its pro athletes program states there's "a strong expectation they will provide the Army with significant favorable media exposure likely to enhance national recruiting or public-affairs efforts."

That's a responsibility Hill takes very seriously.

"I've been thankful that I've had a lot of people pulling for me, working for me to get me this opportunity," he said. "Hopefully, I can make something of it. Hopefully, I'll get to the big leagues and have that light shed on the Army doing good things and show that this program has a lot of benefits, lots of positives."

Geoff Baker: 206-464-8286 or gbaker@seattletimes.com