Famous roads: the namesake for Don Mincher Drive

When I first moved here a few years ago, I was immediately curious as to how different roads got their names and for whom they were named. Who was Bob Wallace? What about Cecil Ashburn? Does everyone know who Carl T. Jones was (my wife, a Huntsville native, assumes so)?

Well, I plan on examining roads throughout the Huntsville area to find more about the namesakes for these streets, roads and avenues. This week, I’ll start with Don Mincher Drive.

Huntsville sports hero Don Mincher

Joe Davis Stadium, formerly the home of the Huntsville Stars Double-A baseball team, sits at 3125 Don Mincher Drive. And that’s a pretty apropos address for the former minor league stadium because the street’s namesake is perhaps the most famous baseball player to come out of Huntsville.

Huntsville native Don Mincher played 13 big league seasons, was a 2-time All Star and a World Series champion. He hit 200 home runs in the majors and amassed 1,003 hits.

But Mincher was more than just a ballplayer. He was a baseball pioneer.

He was the first president and general manager for the Huntsville Stars, and when the Rocket City was in danger of losing the Double-A team in the mid-90s, he was part of a group of local investors who purchased the team to keep baseball in Huntsville.

In 2001, Mincher became the commissioner for the Southern League, a position he held until the end of the 2011 season.

Mincher died in March of 2012. He was inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame in 2008.

Mincher’s Huntsville background, baseball career

Mincher graduated from Butler High School in 1956, where he was a multi-sport athlete, lettering in baseball, football and basketball. He signed a professional baseball contract with the Chicago White Sox right out of high school, turning down a football scholarship offer from the University of Alabama.

Before making it to the majors, Michner was traded from the White Sox to the Washington Senators in 1960 (who would become the Minnesota Twins the next year)

It was with the Twins that Mincher played in his first World Series, when he played in all seven games of the 1965 series. Unfortunately, the Twins lost to the Los Angeles Dodgers (Mincher actually homered off Hall of Fame pitcher Don Drysdale in his first at-bat of the series).

Mincher was traded to the Los Angeles Angels after the 1966 season, and he was selected for the 1967 All-Star Game representing the Angels. He also finished 21st in Most Valuable Player voting that season.

Mincher would again make the American League All Star team as a member of the Seattle Pilots in 1969. He went on to play for the expansion version of the Washington Senators, which became the Texas Rangers. And he finished his career with the Oakland A’s, with whom he won his only World Series ring.

Mincher and his wife, Patsy, had three children, six grandchildren and four great grandchildren.

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