Читать книгу One Season in the Sun онлайн

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The next day, the Hollywood story ended.

The Cardinals sent him back to the minor leagues. Perhaps because he was disappointed that he had little chance in the major leagues, he pitched poorly for the rest of the year. He won only one game, lost six, and allowed more than five runs every time he was on the mound.

He did not play well in the next minor league season, but 1966, when he was a twenty-year-old in the class A Florida State League, he pitched as the professional scouts had expected he would. He finished the year with more victories than all but one other pitcher in the league and was among the league leaders in most other pitching categories.

It was not enough to help him get back to the major leagues. The Cardinals had other pitchers they were more interested in bringing along, like future Hall of Fame member Steve Carlton and future All Star Jerry Reuss.

Bakenhaster spent three more years in the minor leagues and then decided to retire as a player. The Cardinals offered him a job as a coach for the next year and he accepted. Less than a week after he agreed, however, he told the team he had changed his mind, citing “personal reasons.”