Left on Base in the Bush Leagues by Gaylon H. White

Author:Gaylon H. White
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Published: 2012-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Pinkston got off to a fast start in Columbus with an 8-game hitting streak. Through 24 games, he was batting .321, with 4 homers and 13 RBIs. “They didn’t have no other choice but to bring me back,” he said. “But, then, I got hurt.”

He broke his left arm sliding back to first base on an attempted pickoff play and was sidelined for six weeks. “Came back and tried to play; I couldn’t,” he said. “My batting average started to fall.”

Pinkston ended up hitting .300, but that wasn’t good enough. “In this game, you’ve got to be in A-1 condition,” he reflected. “I wasn’t myself.”

The spring of 1955 was the closest Pinkston came to playing in the majors.

He appeared in only 12 games for Columbus in 1956, batting .182, mostly as a pinch-hitter, before he was sent to Columbia, South Carolina, in the Sally League. “I had no business down in A ball,” Pinkston insisted. “I got down there and didn’t care. I was a bad influence on the younger guys. I didn’t hustle.”

The sulking Pinkston finished the season in Jacksonville, Florida, with four homers and a batting average of .293—the first and only year he missed the .300 mark.

The A’s virtually gave up on Pinkston, assigning him to Abilene, Texas, of the Class B Big State League.

“He never did develop in the minor leagues,” Boudreau said. “He didn’t get started the way I thought he would. His hitting didn’t come around.”

“I’m sure I’d made some owners in the major leagues real happy over my performance,” Pinkston said. “But when you don’t get that real good chance, there’s nothing you can do.”

He didn’t make it to Abilene, hooking up instead with the Amarillo Gold Sox of the Class A Western League. The manager of the Gold Sox in 1957 was Eddie Bockman, a former big-leaguer and shrewd judge of talent who went on to scout for 45 years.

“Skip, don’t worry about me hitting against lefties,” the left-handed Pinkston told Bockman soon after joining the club. “Don’t pinch-hit for me or move me in the lineup. I can hit ’em.”

“And he did,” Bockman added. “I left him alone and let him swing.”

Pinkston made a believer out of Bockman in the Gold Sox’ season opener at their new ballpark, Potter County Stadium. The Gold Sox trailed the Pueblo Dodgers, 6-0, going into the bottom of the ninth. Pinkston began the inning by popping out.

“We started chipping away,” Bockman said, “and I’m thinking to myself, ‘God, there’s some way I’ve got to get Pinkston to hit again.’”

The score was 6-5 when Pinkston returned to the plate with two runners on base. The first pitch was a fastball up around his cap. He clobbered it over the center-field fence for a three-run homer to win the game, 8-6.

“He hit the ball downtown,” Bockman said, using a baseball term for long home runs. “People started sticking money through the fence.”

Pinkston held up both hands stuffed with cash and hollered at Bockman, “Hey, Skip, look-ee here. This is more than I make in an entire month.

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