The 47 Best Players from the 1998 Chicago Cubs - #4 Glenallen Hill

4. Glenallen Hill
Objectively, Glenallen Hill is too high on this list. But this is not a list of WAR contributions. There has to be some subjectivity involved, and subjectively, it is really tough to find a cooler member of the 1998 Chicago Cubs than Glenallen Hill.

Hill is a guy who bounced around, starting in Toronto, heading to Cleveland, then to the Cubs for his first stint in 1993, over to the Giants, followed by the Mariners, back to the Cubs in 1998, before stops with the Yankees and Angels before wrapping up his career. But let's just focus on that second stint with the Cubs that started in 1998 when the Cubs selected him off waivers from the Seattle Mariners.

He would put up eight home runs with a line of .351/.414/.573, and he hit a nearly unbellievable .459/.524/.973 at home. I wouldn't believe those numbers if it were anyone but Glenallen Hill. As great as those numbers are, Hill has his place this high on this list because of how he got to those numbers. This man, more than any other player in baseball history, crushed baseballs like no other.

Good God, that is a thing of beauty. You can tell just by how hard he hits and how confidently he drops the bat that not only was it a home run, but there was now way the friendly confines of Wrigley Field were going to keep that ball within its premises. He crushed it to the street, because that's just what Glenallen Hill did.

Since baseball is awful at YouTube, let's look at a home run from 2000 since it is probably what Glenallen Hill is most remembered for.

I'll be honest. If Glenallen Hill had hit that home run in 1998, he might have been number two on this list.

Somehow, since the Cubs felt it necessary to challenge my fandom, Glenallen Hill only played in Game 2 of the NLDS. He went 1-3 which made him one of the Cubs best hitters during the playoffs. In the top of the tenth inning, he made his impact felt even more when he led off the inning and did this.

At first, he takes the base because he knows it was what was good for the team, but after walking a few feet down the line, he gives the pitcher a look as if to say, "You just made the best decision of your life by not giving me something in the strike zone." Even though Hill couldn't make an impact with his bat in extra innings, he wasn't going to let Braves pitchers off easy.

This big, burly man stole third base in extra innings of a tied game, and who could blame him? It's not like he could trust Jeff Blauser to knock him in. Hill made it so all Blauser had to do was put the ball in play and he could score. Blauser, of course, struck out, and Mickey Morandini was called out at second base for a strike out double play to end the inning.

That following year with the Cubs, he hit .300/.353/..581. In 2000, he split time with the Cubs and Yankees and hit .293/.336/.600. He went to the Angels in 2001 and 16 poor games was enough for the entire league to decide he didn't deserve a spot on an MLB roster anymore.

Most importantly, I was able to meet Glenallen Hill at a Cubs convention before the 2004 season. They had a dual signing with him and Kevin Tapani, so I was more excited for this than any sexual encounter I have experienced. First was Tapani, and I expressed that the 1998 team was my favorite team of all-time, and he kind of blew me off. Whatever, Kevin Tapani, your ERA was a far better indicator of your performance than your win-loss record. But then, I told Glenallen Hill the same thing, and he replied, "Man, if we would have beat the Braves, we would have won it all." I KNOW, GLENALLEN HILL, And that is why I am still proclaiming it 20 years later. Glenallen Hill is the coolest player in baseball history, and nobody will ever convince me otherwise.

In case you missed it:
Introduction
#47 - Matt Karchner
#46 - Jose Nieves
#45 - Rodney Myers
#44 - Justin Speier
#43 - Tony Fossas
#42 - Kennie Steenstra
#41 - Chris Haney
#40 - Bob Patterson
#39 - Pedro Valdes
#38 - Derrick White
#37 - Ben Van Ryn
#36 - Terrell Lowery
#35 - Don Wengert
#34 - Kurt Miller
#33 - Jason Maxwell
#32 - Kevin Foster
#31 - Mike Morgan
#30 - Felix Heredia 
#29 - Jeff Blauser
#28 - Jason Hardtke
#27 - Dave Stevens
#26 - Manny Alexander
#25 - Marc Pisciotta
#24 - Kevin Orie
#23 - Sandy Martinez
#22 - Terry Adams
#21 - Matt Mieske
#20 - Amaury Telemaco
#19 - Tyler Houston
#18 - Geremi Gonzalez
#17 - Orlando Merced
#16 - Scott Servais
#15 - Mark Clark
#14 - Lance Johnson
#13 - Brant Brown
#12 - Jose Hernandez
#11 - Steve Trachsel
#10 - Henry Rodriguez
#9 - Kevin Tapani
#8 - Mickey Morandini
#7 - Gary Gaetti
#6 - Rod Beck
#5 - Terry Mulholland