By Paul Suellentrop

The 1990 Wichita State baseball team featured an infield with three future big-leaguers – Mike Lansing, P.J. Forbes and Pat Meares. All three started for the 1989 College World Series champions.

Their departure after 1990 opened vacancies on the infield that all of college baseball wondered about entering 1991.  Coach Gene Stephenson had to replace the entire infield and the losses seemed likely to limit the team's upside.

As second baseman Billy Hall remembers those days, the overhaul was not as overwhelming as it appeared. The reserves on the 1990 team showed their talent in scrimmages.

"We knew in 1990, the guys that were sitting, we knew we were actually pretty good," Hall said. "I'm like 'We've got some dudes who can play. They just didn't get an opportunity.'"

In 1991, those Shockers took what they learned in 1990 and turned the Shockers infield into a powerhouse of speed and athletic ability. Hall, a member of the 2026 Pizza Hut Shocker Sports Hall of Fame, produced a season full of speed, hits and stolen bases that lifted him from backup to All-American.

"The great thing about Billy was attitude and his speed," Stephenson said. "He had a great heart. I knew he had talent that nobody had seen yet."

Hall, from Wichita Northwest High School, earned first-team All-American honors from Collegiate Baseball in 1991 after helping the Shockers finish second in the College World Series. He led the nation with 59 stolen bases while hitting .364 with 14 doubles, three triples and four home runs.

His honors, which also included All-Missouri Valley Conference and All-Midwest Region, don't fit neatly onto a T-shirt. His father, Bill Hall, Sr., summed up his son's journey with a shirt reading "From pinch-runner to All-American."

The speed is what Shocker fans will remember. When Hall got to first base, fans would chant "Double," because they knew what was coming.

"I was blessed with speed," Hall said. "In my mind, every single time you get on the basepaths – run. It's complete excitement."

Shortstop Chris Wimmer, who moved from the outfield, stole 54 bases and hit .401. Both walked more than they struck out. They blended into a top-of-the-order force that gave the Shockers the nation's lead for runs (708) and hits (914) on their way to a 66-13 record. Hall earned NCAA Midwest Regional MVP honors after hitting .529 with six steals in wins over East Carolina, Baylor and twice over California.

"They struck great fear in people," Stephenson said.

Hall came to Wichita State in the fall of 1989, a few months after the Shockers won the College World Series. Nobody paid much attention to an infielder from Butler Community College joining the national champions and he played in 24 games in 1990.

Hall broke his hand 19 games into his sophomore season at Butler, which threw his college recruiting off course. His father knew Stephenson, so he asked for a tryout for his son. Billy Hall remembers his father telling him while he watched "Scooby-Doo" in the family den.

"You would have thought I won the lottery," Billy Hall said. "In my mind all I needed was chance."

Hall got that chance, motivated by what he remembers as an attitude of doubt. He leveraged his natural gifts to improve his fielding and concentrate on base hits and drawing walks.

"My whole thing was to prove them wrong," he said. "I had everybody and their grandma saying it was a mistake – 'You're never going to play.' I've always thought I could hit. I worked twice as hard on defense."

Hall did prove them wrong. His father has the shirt to prove it.

Pizza Hut Shocker Sports Hall of Fame weekend 

 A dinner is set for 6:00 p.m. on Feb. 13 at the Aetna Multipurpose Center at Charles Koch Arena, while the induction ceremony is scheduled for halftime of Wichita State's Feb. 14 (6 p.m.) men's basketball game against Tulsa.
 
Cost for the dinner is $50 per person, and paid reservations can be made online at goshockers.com or by calling the Shocker Ticket Office at 316/978-FANS or in person at the WSU Ticket Office located on the south side of Charles Koch Arena.
 
The addition of this year's class brings the total of former coaches and student-athletes in the Hall of Fame to 168, while there are 14 at-large selections.