Pinkley never let it go unsaid

Don Cantrell

Alvin “Pink� Pinkley was a three-time mayor of Costa Mesa and

favored many things in life, but one of the major loves was sports, local

and national.

Before he passed away Dec. 8, 1998, he once made his opinions loud and

clear during numerous mid-’40 basketball games at Harbor High.

The late Ralph Reed, who once coached Tar basketball for almost three

decades, probably looked at Pinkley with mixed emotions when he appeared

for one of the Tuesday or Friday night cage battles on campus.

On the bright side, Reed could reflect on the many times Pinkley would

serve free malts to all the championship basketball players at his drug

store on Newport Boulevard.

On the raw side, Reed would cringe sometimes thinking of Pinkley’s

loud, sour commentaries when things weren’t going right for Newport.

With amusement, many fans often looked surprised at the outbursts

because Reed would never look up into the stands and they knew that

Pinkley’s shouting would fade by the time the game ended.

Reed never chose to address any of the negative remarks, but knew his

professional stance would get him through another decade. With good

humor, people knew Pinkley was a gentle fellow in life, but he could be a

boisterous fan on the local basketball court.

There were special occasions when Pinkley called for a huge ice cream

feed in one facility or another to salute a football or baseball team .

It required a pickup truck to cart the huge load of ice cream, fruit,

nuts and whipped cream.

He also supported Costa Mesa Merchants baseball on summer Sundays for

many years and often wound up attending the games so he could serve as

the announcer.

One highlight came one Sunday when a talented municipal team from Los

Angeles came to Costa Mesa’s Lion Field to challenge the locals.

The visiting manager had no doubts his players could knock the Mesans

out of the park. Pinkley met the manager first and smiled to say that the

locals had a great left-handed, 6-foot-4 pitcher named Frank “Lassie�

Hamilton. The visitor laughed at Pinkley and expressed the belief his

fellows could humiliate Hamilton.

By the seventh-inning stretch, Hamilton had struck out most of the LA

players and found the Mesans rolling to a high score.

It prompted announcer Pinkley to stroll down the bleachers and

confront the manager. He sat down, then leaned over and exclaimed, “Do

you want I should get you a tennis racquet?�

Years later, this corner related this to Hamilton. From his home in

Florida, Hamilton laughed and said that Pinkley’s jab at the manager was

one of the funniest things he had ever heard in sports.

As we recall, Pinkley had not told the visitor that Hamilton had been

offered a $50,000 signing offer earlier from the New York Yankees. Sadly,

Hamilton injured his throwing arm in college and had to quit baseball.

Another highlight came one night in Anaheim when Newport’s potential

champion Bee basketball team, coached by Reed, was nearly caught by the

Colony and had to hold firm to win the title. Reed stressed the team

should hold the ball and keep Anaheim on defense.

Unfortunately, Newport’s guard, and optimistic athlete named Murray

Brown ignored Reed’s order and shot from half-court. The crowd went wild

as Brown’s long shot sailed through the basket.

Pinkley laughed as Reed quickly called a timeout and told the four

Newport starters while Brown could not hear, to “keep the ball away from

Murray till the game ends.�

Pinkley also enjoyed the time when Newport had to confront Anaheim

varsity and its 6-foot-8 center named Hugh Faulkner. The Tars had no one

that size. Its fabulous George Yardley was a slick player, but only stood

6-foot even in high school.

Yardley’s fine teammate, the 200-pound Ralph Freitag, who also starred

as a fullback in football, had a clever idea and told Yardley. Freitag

would continually get in front of Faulkner and step on his feet while in

the act of guarding. That would give Yardley better odds in reaching over

Faulkner’s shoulders to grab the basketball. It worked, much to their

amazement and laughter.