[Terry D]

Outfielder Albert Hall is another story of a career frustrated by bad management, in this case by the Atlanta Braves organization of the 1980s. A high school draftee out of Birmingham, Alabama, Hall as a young prospect was fast, could get on base, and had some doubles and triples power. After three straight years of high OBP in the low minors, Hall was called up to Atlanta from AA Savannah in 1981, where he had compiled a mid-numbing .830 OPS. Hall got into only six games with the Braves in 81, and next year he started off at AAA Richmond. Hall would spend the next five (!) seasons yo-yoing between Richmond and Atlanta, usually hitting very well in AAA but never getting enough playing time in Atlanta to establish himself. Hall had a down year in 1985, but he bounced back strong in '86 (.373 OBP in AAA). By this time the Braves had fallen out of contention and so were finally willing to give a real chance to AAA players whom they had been neglecting, such as Hall and Gerald Perry. Hall played quite well for the '87 Braves (.780 OPS, 33 SB and just 10 CS), but 1988 was a different and sadder story. Hall hit just .247 for Atlanta that year and in the spring of 1989 he sought treatment for a drug problem. The Braves released Hall in March, 1989, just before the salary deadline. Hall filed a grievance, alleging that he had been released unjustly, but he didn't win his case. Hall was now 30 years old. He might have had a substantial ML career if the Braves had brought him up to stay earlier in the 80s, but they were now rebuilding with the younger players who would be the foundation for their 1990s success. Anyhow, Hall signed with the Pirates in May of 1989. Sent to the Pirates' AAA Buffalo club, Hall once again had a fine season, posting a .361 OBP (.767 OPS). But Hall got into only 20 major league games for the Pirates that year, hitting .182, and that was it. The Astros drafted him that winter, but Albert Hall never played again. Attached is a 1989 shot from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, the only image I have seen so far of Hall as a Pirate.