Rich Hill is a pitcher who has played for many, many teams during his career. The $30/month Patreon support tier is named after him.
September 2015: In Episode 735, listener James first brought up the question of a potential contract, after Hill return to the majors with three good starts for Boston in late 2015 after a long stint in the minors. Sam said 3 yrs/$30M, and Ben 1 yr/$10M. This began the podcast's long fascination with Rich Hill and in particular predicting his future value.
November 2015: In Episode 769, Ben and Sam discuss Rich Hill's one-year $6 million contract with the Oakland A's.
May 2016: In Episode 890, Ben and Sam start projecting Rich Hill's 2016-17 free agent contract. This is a recurring topic throughout the season; they ended at 3 yrs, $65M.
September 2016: After Dodgers manager Dave Roberts pulled Hill after 7-perfect innings (and 89 pitches), Ben and Sam recorded an Emergency Weekend Podcast (Episode 952), during which Andy McCullough, hesitant to offer him a more than two years, said "I want to believe in the magic of Rich Hill . . . he seems like a nice guy, the best pitcher I've ever seen."
December 2016: In Episode 986, Ben and Sam discuss Hill's final contract with the Dodgers of 3 yrs/$48M.
Rich Hill suffered an arm injury in June 2019 and remained on the disabled list until September.
January 2020: In Episode 1481, Ben notes that Rich Hill signed with the Minnesota Twins, which sets up the possibility (albeit remote) of a Hill/Astudillo battery, which would combine two of the podcast's folk heroes into a single spectacle.
September 2020: The unlikely has happened: Rich Hill and Willians Astudillo formed a battery on September 6 and September 12. This event passes without any notice from the podcast.
December 2021: In Episode 1780, Rich Hill was the subject of a Stat Blast when Ben noted that Rich Hill joined the Red Sox for the fourth time, and the seventh contract he signed with them and investigated whether this is a record.
July 2022: Rich Hill was a guest on Episode 1880.
December 2022: In Episode 1944, Rich Hill was the subject of a Stat Blast when it was discovered that he holds the record for the longest gap between 30-start seasons, at 13.
July 2023: In Episode 2030, Rich Hill was the surprise answer to a Stat Blast about the "ultimate up-and-down guys".
August 2024: In Episode 2210, the podcast shared a number of Rich Hill fun facts triggered by his first appearance in 2024.
In the Facebook group[]
Hill remains alive and well in the Facebook group, frequently ruining or improving user polls (depending on your point of view) by others adding his name as an option, regardless of the topic.
Hill's nickname of "Dick Mountain" is also a recurring source of amusement.