The chapter describes Jim Host’s early childhood through his high school years. He was born in Kane, Pennsylvania, on November 23, 1937, to Wilford and Beatrice Host. His early childhood included moves to small mountain towns in New York, Virginia, and West Virginia before his family settled in Ashland, Kentucky, when Jim was in junior high school. Host developed a deep love of baseball and became a successful pitcher for Ashland High School’s baseball team. After graduating from high school in 1955, he turned down a $25,000 signing bonus with the Detroit Tigers, opting instead to accept one of the first two baseball scholarships ever offered by the University of Kentucky.
