HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WHNT) — When talks of professional baseball coming to town began, Don Mincher knew he wanted to be involved.
Those around Mincher said he was willing to be the color commentator, public address announcer or even the official scorekeeper.
Rick Davis, the first voice of the Huntsville Stars, even asked Mincher to be his right-hand man on the radio broadcast. But, Mincher already had a prior commitment: he was going to be the general manager.
Mark Mincher, Don’s son, remembers driving to Nashville for his dad to meet with Stars owner Larry Schmittou.
“I remember going up there, of course, number one, we didn’t know what the name was going to be, I mean nobody knew,” Mincher said. “Dad, he was just happy with ‘just put me on the radio, I can be the color guy on the radio.’”
The Mincher family dropped Don off at the Nashville Sounds stadium to meet with Schmittou, who had bigger plans for the former major leaguer.
“I said, well, my first plan is to get you to be the general manager,” Schmittou said. “He said okay, and you know, he had a few health problems, so I told him I’ll get you a good staff. It’s not impossible.”
“He was a little surprised at the general manager thing,” Mincher said. “But, when you go back and you look and you think about it, he knew baseball, that’s what he had done, now he knew it from a player’s side. He was successful in business. He and Mom had run a successful business, so he had some of the skills that it took. He just needed to learn the business of baseball.”
Huntsville sports writer Mark McCarter said Schmittou picking Mincher as his general manager helped the franchise have immediate success. Mincher took the job by storm, but it became a family affair.
Many people recalled the entire family working in different roles for the franchise and how it was a lot like a family business.
Cynthia Giles, who worked for years as the Stars’ ticket manager, said the Minchers made sure all of their employees felt like family.
“We were very close, we were very close. I love Don. In fact, his daughter was our matron of honor when we got married. I still love the family,” Giles said. “I can’t say enough nice things about Don.”
Mincher stepped away as general manager due to health issues, but he wouldn’t be gone long. About a year later, Schmittou was ready to sell the team. He knew exactly who needed to buy the Stars.
“Huntsville needed Don Mincher to take my place,” Schmittou said. “Not some guy from Kokomo, Indiana.”
Mincher, along with a group of local investors, including Randy Owen, bought the team. He owned a part of the Stars for a while and served as team president. His peers in the Southern League voted for him to be the league’s vice president. And just like the general manager job, another surprise was coming.
“One day he gets a call that the president of the Southern league had resigned, and it put Don in kind of a good mood for a minute,” McCarter said. “Don goes, uh oh, the vice president becomes the president of the Southern League.”
Mincher sold his share of the Stars and stepped into the role as the Southern League’s president, one he flourished in.
In 2010, he was awarded ‘King of Baseball’, Minor League Baseball’s highest honor. Along the way, his better half, Pat, was named ‘First Lady of the Southern League.’
The Minchers’ dedication to the game of baseball is a true testament to the beauty of sports, with Don’s lifelong motto being “God, family, and baseball.” He passed in 2012 after a life dedicated to baseball.
Mark said bringing professional baseball to town was something his dad was deeply proud of.
“If you go over to Maple Hill and you see Dad’s headstone, you know he’s got listed on there his priorities, which were God, family and baseball. I think if you put a fourth one on there, it would be Huntsville,” Mincher said. “When you are able to put those two things together, I think he was just real proud of what happened here.”
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