STARKVILLE — Hunter Hines has heard all the stories.

After little league games while munching on orange slices and chips. After home runs during his high school career at Madison Central. Probably during family dinner trips to the “Main Street Cafe,” too. 

There wasn’t a time growing up where Hines, now a sophomore on the Mississippi State baseball team, hadn’t heard about the folklore of his dad, Richey Hines.

It’s what happens when you grow up in the shadow of a local legend – as the son of one of the best college hitters in Mississippi history. 

That is what Richey Hines once was during his career at Mississippi College. 

From 1982-85, nobody in Mississippi was a better hitter than him. Almost 40 years later, Richey Hines, who was inducted into the school’s Athletic Hall of Fame in 2014, still holds program records in runs (181), career home runs (57), career RBIs (229), total bases (458) and walks (105). 

Tucked away inside boxes somewhere in the Hines’ house might be some old balls, some plaques and other memorabilia that remind Hunter of the baseball royalty in his family. And if that wasn’t a good enough reminder, the local baseball community had that covered. 

“He would hear, ‘Your dad is better than you,’” Richey Hines told The Dispatch in a recent phone call. “Or, ‘You are gonna be better than your dad.’ “ 

How’s that for pressure?

For the younger Hines, apparently not much. In two seasons, he has put his name in rarified air, among the top power hitters in MSU baseball history. His 22 home runs so far this season, with two weekend series left, sit just seven short of the program’s single-season record held by Bruce Castoria (1981).

Then there’s Palmeiro and Clark. 

Rooker and Raffo.

And then Hunter Hines. 

“When you got your name mixed with those guys,” Richey said, “that is a great place to be with your name.”

A good foundation

Richey’s baseball career was built on natural ability at the plate. 

Nobody taught him how to swing, to stay on his backside longer or to drive through the ball. By his own admission, he was a front-foot hitter. 

Whatever knowledge the elder Hines had about hitting, he attempted to pass along to Hunter. 

Hunter, it turns out, was a quick study.

“He has great instincts and hands,” Richey said of his son. “All that goes together to be a great hitter.” 

Before Hunter was pounding baseballs out of Dudy Noble Field, he was hammering wiffle balls in his yard. As he grew (and grew quickly) Richey continued throwing to his son and teaching him the basics. 

“I always told him he had to have a good foundation,” Richey said. “If you don’t start with a good foundation, you might as well not even swing. We just started from the ground up.” 

If Hunter wasn’t hunting or fishing, he had a bat in his hand. 

Around his early teens, his dad upgraded from their own yard to the city parks in Madison. Then to the batting cages at Madison Central High School, where they were often joined by fellow MSU teammate, Bryce Chance. By then, Hunter was taking upwards of 200 swings a day, five times a week throughout his high school career. 

Patrick Robey, Hunter’s high school coach at Madison Central who also coached MSU freshman catcher Ross Highfill, rarely recalls a weekend he didn’t see Hunter in the school batting cage with his dad, where Richey would challenge him by throwing a heavy dose of offspeed pitches with both hands. 

“That’s what it took,” Robey said. “And when he was not (practicing with us), he was practicing on his own. That is what separated him from other kids is the amount of time he practiced, (especially) with his dad.

“He was a blue-collar kid and had fun while he did it,” he added. “But when he got on the field it was all business and he certainly put his time in it, and that’s one of, if not the biggest reason he’s having this success now.” 

Mississippi State was always Hunter’s dream program. But toward the end of his high school career, he was still under-recruited, according to Robey. 

In an effort to change that after Hunter’s sophomore season, Robey, Hunter and Richey went out to a local field and shot a video of Hunter taking swings and mashing balls beyond the fence. Robey sent that video out to schools he thought would be interested. 

One of them was Mississippi State. 

”(Hunter) is such a student of the game and a relentless worker that I was really pushing for them to recruit Hunter,” Robey said. “Eventually they got on him because that is where he wanted to go all along.” 

Mississippi State had recruited numerous players under Robey at Madison Central, so there was an established trust between him and Chris Lemonis’ staff. 

Throughout the process, Robey had long conversations with assistant coach, and recruiting coordinator Jake Gaeutreau about Hunter, touting his strikezone awareness, ability to handle the bat and hit for power until the point where Hunter had his dream offer, one he quickly accepted. 

Chasing Richey’s records

Within Hunter’s relationship with his father is a healthy rivalry. 

Richey knows his youngest child (Hunter has two older sisters) wants to be better than him in every way. 

In one way, Hunter already is, given the fact he is producing at a high level in the toughest conference in college baseball.

With two weekend conference series left in the regular season, beginning Friday night at No. 2 LSU, Hunter ranks seventh in the SEC in slugging percentage (.736), eighth in RBIs (57) and second in home runs.

None of that comes as a shock to Dad. 

“Last year (Hunter’s freshman season) was more of a surprise,” Richey said. “I told him if he hit .280 with 10 homers, that would be a great year. He ended up hitting .300 with 16.” 

Nearly four decades after his college career ended, Richey enjoys being the one in the shadow, gladly watching from the Dudy Noble stands as his son rounds third and up the program leaderboards. 

“That (would be) the proudest moment,” Richey said. “For him to break away, stand on his own. He passed me. He took what little bit of knowledge I have given him and has grown in leaps and bounds.” 

Richey still has pride in what he accomplished on the baseball diamond — even more if his son is the one that bests him. 

That wouldn’t surprise him either. 

​”… He has more power (than me), hits the ball longer,” Richey said. “He’s just better, and that was my whole goal, for him to be better than me and be the best he could be.” 

Justin Frommer is the Mississippi State sports reporter for The Dispatch.