Don Mincher obit

Baseball star Don Mincher dies

 

He was not on the list.

HUNTSVILLE, Alabama -- Don Mincher, the gentlemanly figure synonymous with Huntsville baseball for a half-century, died Sunday after a long illness. He was 73.

Crowned in 2010 as "King of Baseball," the highest honor in Minor League Baseball, he was unique in baseball history in the various roles he held, from player to team owner to league president.

"I'm proud of my career," he once said, "but I'd like to be recognized not only for what I did as a player, but doing other things in the game."

Mincher, a 12-year major league veteran and two-time American League All-Star, would ultimately become the face of the Huntsville Stars' franchise as general manager, broadcaster and owner.

From the spring of 2000 until last October, he served as president of the Southern League. Upon his retirement, the league named him President-Emeritus.

He played in the majors from 1960–1972 for the "original" Washington Senators and Minnesota Twins, California Angels, Seattle Pilots, Oakland Athletics, and the expansion Washington Senators and Texas Rangers, all of the American League. The native of Huntsville, Alabama, batted left-handed, threw right-handed, and was listed as 6 feet 3 inches (1.91 m) tall and weighed 205 pounds (93 kg). He was a member of the last editions of each of Washington's two 20th Century American League teams and their first-year squads in their new locales, Minneapolis–Saint Paul (1961) and Dallas–Fort Worth (1972).

Mincher's professional baseball career began when he signed with the Chicago White Sox after graduating from Huntsville's S. R. Butler High School in 1956. He steadily rose through the Chicago system for four years, but was traded to Washington on the eve of the 1960 season, along with young catcher Earl Battey, for veteran Senators' slugger Roy Sievers. He became a regular for the Twins in 1964, and in 1965, he appeared in 128 regular-season games for the pennant-winning 1965 club, including all seven games of the 1965 World Series. He collected only three hits in 23 at bats, but his first hit was a home run off Don Drysdale in the second inning of Game 1. It scored Minnesta's first run of the Fall Classic. The Twins won that contest, 8–2, but Drysdale's Los Angeles Dodgers would ultimately prevail in seven games.

Mincher belted more than 20 homers five times in his first seven years as an everyday player. All told, over all or parts of 13 MLB seasons, Mincher batted .249, with 1,003 hits, 176 doubles, 16 triples and 200 homers. He collected 643 runs batted in and was elected to the American League All-Star team twice (1967 and 1969). As one of two representatives for the Seattle Pilots in 1969 (their only season in existence before becoming the Milwaukee Brewers), he also holds the distinction of being the only player to ever play in an All-Star Game as a Pilot; Mike Hegan also was selected to the team as a reserve, but did not appear in the game. The following season, Mincher slugged a career-high 27 homers as a member of the 1970 Oakland Athletics. His playing career ended after the 1972 season, which saw the 34-year-old Mincher hit only .148 , mostly as a pinch hitter, after Oakland reacquired him from the Rangers on July 26. But in the 1972 World Series, Mincher's ninth-inning pinch single in Game 4 off Clay Carroll drove home the tying run, as the Athletics came from behind to defeat the Cincinnati Reds, 3–2. Mincher's name appeared in the box scores of two other games, but he never officially batted in either contest when he was replaced by a right-handed pinch hitter. Oakland defeated Cincinnati in seven games, earning Mincher a World Series championship ring.

Mincher is survived by his wife Pat, son Mark, daughters Lori Lumpkin and Donna Hopper and six grandchildren. He is preceded in death by his parents, George and Lillian.

Arrangements will be announced Monday.