Published: October 28, 2009 09:02 pm      

MARK MAYNARD: Host emotional about honor 10/29/09

For Jim Host, baseball was always a joy. It was also a means to an end.

Without baseball — and particularly baseball in Ashland’s Central Park — Host can’t imagine how different his life may have turned.

That’s why when he was inducted into the University of Kentucky Hall of Fame last weekend, the moment carried some emotional fire with it.

“I got very emotional and I’m not an emotional type,” he said.

Host, who lives in Lexington, links his baseball success to a college education that made him a success in life as a communications mogel.

The UK Hall of Fame wasn’t the first award Host has received. There have been a number of them, including a place in the Kentucky Sports Hall of Fame and the International Naismith Hall of Fame as a Chairman’s Award winner.

But none compared to this one.

“This one was so meaningful to me because I couldn’t have gotten anyplace without having gotten one of the first two full baseball scholarships at UK and without that I couldn’t have gotten the education I got.”

Host was the first person on either side of his family to graduate from college. “I had 71 first cousins,” he said. “I was the only one to ever go to college at the time.”

And Host’s ticket to college was baseball.

He was a hard-throwing right-hander out of Ashland, a pitcher who blew it past hitters.

“It all links back to Central Park, it all links back to Ernie (Chattin) and Bo (McMillen),” Host said. “That’s why I put the bricks there (in the park) in memory of Ernie and Bo.”

It was McMillen who got Harry Lancaster — best known as Adolph Rupp’s top assistant but also UK’s baseball coach — to take a look at Host. He liked what he saw and offered Host a full scholarship.

Host not only excelled in baseball but he also excelled in school. Claude Sullivan, the voice of UK at the time, heard Host on UK’s student station and hired him to do high school games on WVLK when he was 18.

“That wouldn’t have happened if I hadn’t got a baseball scholarship,” Host said.

His education allowed him to form a one-person startup company that he called Jim Host & Associates — despite the fact that there were no associates — into Host Communications Inc., a collegiate sports marketing and production services giant.

At its peak, the company had more than 800 employees, 24 offices across the country and $140 million in annual revenue.

The company held lucrative contracts to the radio rights for UK football and basketball games. It had become nationally known for marketing and association-management services it provided to other universities, collegiate athletic conferences and corporations. And it had a management relationship with the National Tour Association, a trade group for tour operators and related businesses.

Without baseball, it never would have happened. Host is convinced of that.

The 71-year-oild Host was in heaven last weekend with the hoopla surrounding the Hall of Fame inductions.

“The induction and the introduction at midfield at halftime, just the whole weekend, probably the best weekend of my life other than getting married to my wife (Pat),” he said. “It was so, so meaningful to me personally.”

Host’s wife had an event for him on Thursday and invited several friends, including Jon Zachem, who moved from Greenup to Ashland in high school to play football for the Tomcats.

He ended up being a good baseball player too.

“He’s the guy who hit the home run in the bottom of the seventh inning against Wheelwright (in the region finals),” Host said. “His family had a restaurant in Greenup for many years. Terry McBrayer lived across the street from the Zachems.”

When Host got the scholarship to Kentucky, his best friend Zachem followed him to UK as a walk-on and ended up starting first base for four years.

Host said the only thing that would have made the night better was if Brandon Webb could have attended the ceremony.

Webb, the Arizona Diamondback star, was also inducted into the UK Hall of Fame. He is rehabilitating his shoulder and couldn’t make the trip.

“He goes about three hours every day and they didn’t want him leaving even for one day,” Host said. “They did a really nice video that he taped. He was very appreciative of being named.”

Phil Webb accepted the award on his son’s behalf and told Host how disappointed Brandon was not to be there.

“I was looking forward to meeting Brandon Webb and maybe getting a picture with him, something he could sign for me later,” Host said. “He saw Jim Bunning when Arizona was playing the Washington Nationals. Bunning said ‘I’ve got another friend from Ashland who could pitch’ and Brandon said ‘You mean Jim Host?’ Brandon knew who I was, both being from Ashland.

“Two right-handed pitchers from Ashland, 40 years apart, going into the UK Hall of Fame,” Host said. “It’s a crazy story for our hometown. It tells about the love affair we have for the game. I don’t think there’s another place like it in the country that loves baseball like Ashland does.”

MARK MAYNARD can be reached at mmaynard@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2648.