USMA IN THE NEWS

Honoring ghost of Army's past

By Wayne Coffey
Daily News
April 22, 2007 

WEST POINT - Sacrifice does not mean a bunt or a fly here. In the Army baseball Team Room, in the dugout of Doubleday Field, indeed all over the campus of the U.S. Military Academy, it means something much more. You need only ask Nick Hill, a high-kicking lefthanded pitcher with a Tennessee twang, a record-setting resume and the number 20 etched into his psyche, and stitched onto his sleeve. 

At 22, Hill, of Bluff City, Tenn., has an excellent chance to make some history this June, when he figures to go higher in Major League baseball's amateur draft than any player in Army annals. His dream is to make it to the big leagues, something no other West Point graduate has accomplished. His other mission is to honor the memory of Maj. Steve Reich, who isn't so much a West Point baseball brother as a southpaw soulmate, a man whose life seemed to move in lockstep with his own, until it ended in the mountains of eastern Afghanistan two years ago. 

"For me to be compared to him, it's a huge honor in every way," says Hill, sitting by a display case in the Team Room that has Reich's No. 20 pinstriped Army uniform, along with an array of baseball, keepsakes and photos. "He obviously was a standout ballplayer, and even more of a standout as a person." 

Nick Hill never had a chance to meet Steve Reich, but you can't blame him for feeling as if he had. Like Reich, Hill is a 185-pound lefthander from a small town. Like Reich, Hill has broken bunches of Army records and made All-American, and completely dominated Navy - Reich was 4-0 against Army's biggest rival, and Hill is 3-0 after getting a no-decision in yesterday's 4-3, eight-inning Army win over Navy at Doubleday. Hill tossed seven innings, giving up three runs on eight hits while striking out eight. 

Army baseball has had only two players selected to Team USA: Steve Reich and Nick Hill. When Hill made the team last summer, he wore No. 20 in honor of Reich - until the number was retired at a ceremony at Durham Bulls Athletic Park, Hill literally taking the jersey off his back and handing it to Reich's parents, Ray and Sue. It was a hot night. Tears flowed hard. 

"It was a moment I will never forget," Hill says. "To wear that jersey before it was retired was an honor that's hard to put into words." 

Says Ray Reich, "It was a very special time for us. Nick has been so supportive to Stephen and so willing to appreciate his achievements. For a college kid to come along and recognize that he's standing on the shoulders of others - not just our son - tells you a lot about how he was raised." Ray Reich pauses and composes himself. 

"We're very touched and very proud that Army has continued with the remembrances of Stephen." The number 20 has a major presence in the world of Army baseball. Walk into the Team Room and the first image is a framed painting of Reich, No. 20, in mid-windup. In the locker room, the number takes up most of the wall leading to the showers. A placard with coach Joe Sottolano's motivational sayings has the number in the background. 

"He made the ultimate sacrifice for his country," Hill says. "Steve's presence is always with us - and so are all the players and soldiers who have served." 

Steve Reich, of Washington, Conn., graduated from West Point in 1993. He won 19 games in his baseball career, struck out a record 17 batters in his last game and could've easily transferred to a Top 25 baseball school after two years at the Academy, with a pro career, and maybe a handsome payday, awaiting him. 

Reich stayed at West Point, virtually ending any viable shot at the big leagues - he pitched briefly in the Orioles' system in 1996. He wanted to honor his commitment, and test himself against the unrelenting rigors of military life. Those who knew him best speak of a movie-star smile, and his common-man goodness. 

"When you have such a sure thing as this place, it just doesn't make sense to throw it all away for something that's a long shot," Reich said at the time. 

In the spring of 2005, Reich, a helicopter pilot, said goodbye to his new bride, Jill, and headed to Afghanistan for his fourth tour of duty, all of them voluntary. He was commanding a Special Operations Unit, a task that demanded secrecy, even with family members. When one of his sisters asked about what he was doing, he said, "I'm in a place with a lot of sand." 

On June 28, 2005, Reich was flying a MH-47 Chinook into an area teeming with al-Qaida forces. The mission was to rescue a team of Navy Seals. The enemy launched a rocket-propelled grenade. Reich's helicopter was hit. Army accounts say that he managed to get the helicopter down safely, to a cliff near the Pakistan border. The cliff gave way. All 16 service members on board died. Two days later, a uniformed Army major knocked on the door of the Reich home, and said, "The Secretary of the Army regrets to inform you that your son . . ." 

Stephen Reich was 34. Nick Hill's original plan, as a senior at Sullivan East High in Bluff City, was to accept a scholarship to East Tennessee State. He set a Tennessee record by throwing 56 straight scoreless innings, and signed a letter of intent. Then he found out he was admitted to West Point, and everything changed. 

"Some of the best people in the world are here," Hill says. "I wanted to serve my country." If ever a kid was cut from Academy cloth, it is Hill. He had all A's and a single B in high school, and pushed himself just as hard in baseball. When Hill threw a ball over the roof of the family home at age 4 - "It was a ranch house, but still," father Lee Hill says - it was clear the kid had an arm. He turned out to be a workaholic before he even got out of elementary school, spending hours throwing into a cage in the family basement. It was no different when he got to high school and West Point. 

"His work ethic is why he's gotten where he is," says Stacey Carter, his high school coach. Joe Sottolano has seen Hill's drive from the time he was a plebe, perfecting his "Yes, sirs" and "No, sirs." Hill's biggest problem may be the demands he places on himself, his propensity for overtraining, his refusal to be satisfied. 

Says Sottolano: "Anyone who knows Nick knows he is a perfectionist. Every pitch, every sprint, every time he does everything - he analyzes it and expects it to be great. He's the type of kid who will strike a hitter out and be ticked off because it wasn't exactly where he wanted it." 

Hill has a slightly slump-shouldered physique, and a prematurely balding head. "If you had 500 guys in the room and had to pick out the lefthander who throws in the 90s, he'd be the 499th guy you'd pick," Sottolano says, laughing. The coach has long since learned not to underestimate him. 

A two-time All-American, Hill won 20 games his first two years, posting a 1.21 ERA as a sophomore. His numbers weren't as good last year, but he still held hitters to a .223 average, and draws packs of scouts to every game - Doubleday Field was saturated with them yesterday. Hill used to hit 91 or 92 mph on the radar gun regularly, and though one scout expresses a bit of concern that he's been topping out at 88 mph more recently, the consensus is that it is more a function of cold weather and the physical demands of West Point life than anything to do with his arm. 

"He's got great command of three pitches, poise and he's a heck of a competitor," says Navy coach Paul Kostacopoulos. "I don't know what else you need to be an outstanding pitcher." 

Says one NL scout, "He's a kid with good movement on his fastball, and a major-league changeup right now. I've seen games where he could've told guys it was coming and they still couldn't hit it." With Hill's feel for pitching and service-academy intangibles - focus, competitiveness and resilience - the scout is certain he'll be drafted inside of 10 rounds. Nick Hill, for his part, isn't concerned about where he's chosen, or interested in talking about himself. "He takes pains not to be noticed," his father says. Hill's favorite game is any game that Army wins. His best memories are when all nine guys are competing hard, pulling together. 

"You can't win by yourself. There are eight guys behind you," Hill says. 

He wants to finish the year strong, help Army push into the Patriot League playoffs. Maybe more than anything, though, Nick Hill wants to keep alive the memory of No. 20, Steve Reich, his big brother in arms, making lefthanded pitches that somehow move at the intersection of beginning and end, of life and death - pitches that don't just get people out, but that pay tribute to a good man he never met. 

"Hopefully, I'll be able to do that," Nick Hill says. Military easing restrictions on athlete service commitment 

Military easing restrictions on athlete service commitment

Nick Hill has a gifted left arm, and possibly even better timing. If Hill, the Army ace, had come along in any other era, his aspirations to play pro ball would've likely unraveled like a bad seam, done in by West Point's five-year, postgraduate military service commitment. 

But under a new program called the Alternative Service Option (ASO) - instituted two years ago by the Deptartment of the Army - Hill would be eligible to start playing pro ball as soon as he signs. Assuming he gets approval for ASO, he would be stationed wherever he's assigned to play ball, and serve as a reservist and a recruiter for 10 years, working between 30-40 days a year. 

He would also be responsible for repaying a pro-rated share of his four-year scholarship to West Point. Some hard-liners have assailed the policy, but Lt. Col. Bryan Hilferty, an Army personnel spokesman, says the critics "need to see the big picture. 

"It's not a get-out-of-the-Army card," Hilferty says. "You are still serving your country. You're just doing it in a different way. It allows soldiers to leave active duty to pursue activities that are of benefit and recruiting value to the Army." 

Says Hill, "If that's the role the Army wants me to play, serve as a recruiter, I'd be more than happy to take it on." The Army isn't going soft, Hilferty says, it is just going realistic, and proactive, in a wartime era when recruiting new soldiers is difficult. There are 6,600 Army recruiters around the country. Who better to attract customers than a pro ballplayer, a brand name? How much mileage did the Navy get out of David Robinson all those years? 

"If Kelly Clarkson were in the Army, would she serve us better (in combat), or singing songs to people about how much she loves the Army?" Hilferty says. 

Says Army baseball coach Joe Sottolano, "It's intended to help with recruiting. It's not intended to let people out of commitments. You lose one active soldier, but you might gain 10 more." 

Josh Holden, class of 2003 and former baseball star at West Point, was the first to take advantage of ASO, as an outfielder in the Reds organization. "Athletes before me have had the ability to play professionally, but lacked the opportunity because of their military commitment. Now that opportunity will exist," Holden told a reporter last summer. 

Hill acknowledges that it would be hard to be playing ball while his classmates could be deployed in Iraq or Afghanistan - "I'd love to be over there with them," he says - but if the Army decrees that he'll be a recruiter, that will be fine. 

"I just want to do my part in whatever way that might be," Hill says. Says Sottolano, "These guys are the best recruiters you could ever ask for."