VADA PINSON

He always reminded me of a shiny red Impala - fast, sleek, stylish. He started young, coming up at age 19, straight out of class C ball, in 1958. (1959 would be his first full season, when he hit .316 on 201 hits, led the league in runs with 131, hit 20 homers and drove in 84 and for some reason lost the Rookie of the Year award to Willie McCovey who hit .354 but came to bat only 192 times. You figure that one out. One day we will discuss rules and awards committees.)

Anyway, the famous home run hitting '56 Reds got their 221 homers, but few RBIs, little speed and not much pitching, so the lead-footed veterans began moving on and younger, quicker players like Pinson came up. With kind of a shaky team they won the flag in '61, much to the delight of the visiting Nikita Khrushchev, who thought it very funny that the Reds were playing the Yankees in the World Series.

Pinson was usually good for around .300 in his 10 prime years with Cincinnati, played almost every game, had a beautiful, smooth swing and was speedy on the bases and in center field.

With him batting third and Frank Robinson at cleanup, the Reds were a mean offensive machine. Pinson and Robinson were very good friends off the field as well and in 1963 they were joined by another future star - Pete Rose. Rose became Rookie of the Year but alienated a lot of old time Reds by replacing Don Blasingame. Rose hung out with Pinson and Robinson and was admonished by the Reds' ownership for running around with a couple of black guys. That stopped nothing except that Robinson was traded to the Orioles for Milt Pappas. Pinson and Rose continued to be good friends, and Vada continued with his style and speed until he was injured (hamstring) and traded to the Cards in '69.

He bounced around for 6 more seasons with 4 clubs. He was still better than most, but not like the Pinson of the Reds with the 200 hits (4 times), .300 average (4 times, including .343 in '61), the swing, the speed and the style.