By Steve Heath | Daily Reporter
NEW PALESTINE — Jason Hall-Manley’s world had turned upside down.
Two days before Christmas in 2017, he lost his best friend.
Ron Manley, Jason’s dad, was gone. He had taken his own life.
It took its toll on Jason, a former standout baseball player at New Palestine High School. He helped the Dragons win back-to-back sectional titles in 2014-15, along with a 2014 regional crown. He proved he was talented enough to play at the next level. He was in his sophomore year at Anderson University when his dad died.
After his father passed, Jason dropped out of college and took time off away from school and baseball. He returned to AU this past school year.
“I didn’t know what would happen next (in my life),” Jason said after the tumultuous 2017. “I didn’t know if I could go back to college or if I was going to go work.”
The journey back hasn’t been easy, but it’s been helped with support from others.
Through all of the difficulties of dealing with his father’s death, he is back on the right track. He is also wanting to help others that may be going through similar situations. His mother, Kathy Hall, said, Jason recently reached out to a New Palestine student that had lost his father.
“It was rough. I am real proud of Jason,” Kathy Hall said. “He was in a bad spot, but he’s a fighter and he doesn’t give up easy.”
Jason said his dad had lost his father and often fought with depression.
When Jason’s dad was a young boy (1974), his father, also named Ron Manley, was a police officer killed in the line of duty.
Jason’s dad loved baseball and he passed that love to his son.
“My dad was my best friend. He went to every game and got me into baseball,” Jason said.
Hall-Manley was a big home run hitter, clouting 100 home runs during his youth and high school baseball days. He’s got those baseballs, thanks to his dad.
In fact, it appears dad may have had a hand in No. 101.
“He’d catch them, climb over fences (to get my home run balls),” Jason recalled. “He even would go into restricted areas to get them. He recorded all of my at bats.
“He would take me hitting, then we’d go fishing, play video games, he was my best friend growing up.”
In hindsight, Jason said he wishes he had never left Anderson University. The coaches, teammates and teachers are all a big reason why he returned.
They kept in touch with him when he was out of school. His mother said the coaching staff called frequently.
“Once a week for a year, they’d call just to check up on him,” she said. “That was awesome.”
Jason said he knew if he was ever going to play again, it would be at AU.
He had come to the NCAA Division-III school in Madison County with a big class of freshmen and had made some close friends, who like the coaching staff would check on him regularly to see how he was doing.
He finally got the urge to play again and it had to do with something his father had told him long ago.
“My mom, family, friends and coaches were there for me every day,” Hall-Manley said. “It was a matter of finding that passion for baseball again.
“I started thinking of something my dad said when I was growing up. He always used to tell me I could be anything if I worked on it.”
The decision was made to return working on baseball.
“I reached out to (Anderson baseball) coach (Matt) Bair and asked him what would it look like for me to come back,” Jason said. “He was open and didn’t hesitate to bring me back.”
Bair recalled, “He asked one day if he could come in and talk. We talked and cried for two hours. He said he wanted to come back to AU and we welcomed him back, no question.
“We’re glad to have him back in our lives, and he’s glad we are back in his.”
Playing baseball is nothing like riding a bike. You can’t just flip a switch and return to your former form.
Both player and coach admitted the return has had its challenges.
“It hasn’t been without frustrating days, for him and us,” Bair said. “He has the support system, coaches’ love and positives in his life.”
“I thought I was in pretty good shape, but my whole body was sore for weeks,” Hall-Manley said.
He had worked on hitting, but he hadn’t hit live college pitching in a long time.
Though a big-time power hitter in high school, he had to play behind upperclassmen much of his 2016 freshman season, too. There was some rust to work off.
“You want to be ‘The Dude’ on the team, but I learned that wouldn’t be the case taking two years off. It’s going to take some time,” Jason said.
The Ravens and Hall-Manley were just starting to see some of those signs when the baseball season ended abruptly due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Anderson was able to get nine games in before the season came to a close.
In a mid-February doubleheader at Spalding, a program receiving votes in the national D-III poll, located in Louisville, Hall-Manley showed some of what he hopes will be a frequent occurrence in his return to the Ravens.
After going hitless in a start in Game 1, Bair called on Hall-Manley to pinch-hit in Game 2.
As you might expect in a mid-February game in Louisville, conditions, at least for playing baseball, were not ideal.
“The wind was blowing in and it was 35 degrees,” Hall-Manley said. “I’d been sitting the whole game and they told me to get warmed up and take a couple of swings.”
Hall-Manley’s biggest swing came when he got to home plate. To straight away center field in the awful conditions, he hit one out of the park. It was his first hit of the season and first college home run.
“He hit a bomb to center field,” Bair said. “It was cold. It was windy. You had no business hitting it out that day and it went 425 feet.”
“Sure enough, I got contact,” Hall-Manley said. “I hit it dead-center. Home runs were always my dad’s thing. When we would go hit, we always played Home Run Derby. When I hit it, it flooded me with memories. It was an emotional time. I think everyone in the dugout hugged me.”
Jason said people came up to him afterwards and said it was the best baseball moment they’d ever been a part of. They all knew what he had been through.
“It was an awesome feeling that I’ll never forget,” Hall-Manley said.
Kathy didn’t get a chance to go to the game. She said she was following online and was in line at White Castle when she let out a big scream, which led to a few stares.
She got a call from her son right after the game, “He said, he felt that his dad was there with him.”’
Hall-Manley is a Sport Management major at AU. He said teachers at the school have been great about offering one-on-one time to get him back on track on the academic end, too. He said his GPA was good for this past semester.
Later this summer he has plans on playing in a baseball league at Grand Park in Westfield, which will include NCAA Division I players from Indiana and Purdue.
“I feel like I’m right where I am supposed to be and I am getting things going in the right direction,” he said.
“He’s never been one to quit, that’s Jason’s personality,” Kathy said. “That would make his dad proud.”
