Tombstone
Born: 1978
Affiliation Change/Re-Branded: November 1978 (Paintsville Yankees)1Lane, Bill. “Paintsville’s Fyffe Appy’s Top Executive.” The Kingsport Times. (Kingsport, TN). November 13, 1978
First Game: June 22, 1978 (L 4-1 @ Bluefield Orioles)
Last Game: August 31, 1978 (W 9-5, L 2-0 @ Johnson City Cardinals)
Appalachian League Championships: None
Stadium
Johnson Central High School
Ownership & Affiliation
Major League Affiliation: Independent
Owner: Paul Fyffe, et al.
Attendance
Background
The Paintsville Hilanders were an independent (non-Major League affiliated) Minor League Baseball entry in the Rookie-level Appalachian League during the summer of 1978.
Beginning with a trip to the Baseball Winter Meetings in Houston, Texas in 1973, local WSIP radio station owner and baseball fanatic Paul Fyffe worked for five years to bring professional baseball to tiny Paintsville, Kentucky (pop. 3,800) during the 1970’s. In addition to travelling all of the U.S. networking at the Winter Meetings each year, Fyffe also bought a Class AA farm team of the Detroit Tigers in Montgomery, Alabama to gain experience in 1977. Fyffe also placed a national advertisement in The Sporting News in October 1977, lobbying Appalachian League officials on behalf of Paintsville. Finally, in late March 1978, Fyffe was accepted into the 6-team Appy League.
Paintsville had three months to prepare for Opening Day and would not have the benefit of a Major League affiliation to share costs or provide players.
Diamonds in the Rough
Fyffe and manager Ron Mihal cobbled together the 1978 Paintsville Hilanders from a mix of unwanted free agents and a few lightly-regarded prospects loaned out by Major League organizations.
Two of the most interesting finds came via the Chicago White Sox organization. 21-year old rookie outfielder Vince Bienek led the Appalachian League in hitting in 1978 at a .338 clip. Though Bienek would later develop some power, belting 21 homers for Chicago’s Class AA farm club in Glens Falls, New York in 1981, Baseball-Reference.com claims that Bienek did not hit a single round-tripper in 1978 in 249 plate appearances for Paintsville in 1978.
The Hilanders most preposterous and inspiring story was that of 22-year old pitcher Kevin Hickey. A South Side Chicago native who grew up not far from Comiskey Park and never played high school baseball, Hickey was a steelworker and beer league softball player who attended an open tryout for the White Sox in 1978. Incredibly, Hickey, alone among the tryout’s 250 attendees, earned a White Sox minor league contract and was dispatched the Paintsville.2Gonzalez, Mark. “Real underdog”. The Tribune (Chicago, IL). May 17, 2012
Hickey made nine appearances for the Hilanders in 1978. By 1981, he was in the Majors as a left-handed relief specialist with the White Sox. He was the only member of the Hilanders ever to make it to The Show. After three seasons with the White Sox, Hickey returned to the minors in 1984 and wandered around in the wilderness for five full years before making an utterly improbable return to the Majors with the Baltimore Orioles at age 33 in 1989. Hickey pitched 107 games for the O’s from 1989 to 1991. He would later appear as a ballplayer in Major League II (1994), acting alongside Charlie Sheen and Tom Berenger.
Yankees & Brewers Eras
In late 1978, Paintsville owner Paul Fyffe signed a Player Development Contract with the New York Yankees. The team played as the Paintsville Yankees from 1979 to 1982 and later became a Milwaukee Brewers farm club for the club’s final two seasons in 1983 and 1984.
Trivia
The actual name of the team was the “Hilanders”, but the club is referred to incorrectly as the “Highlanders” in some of the standard professional baseball references, such as Baseball-Reference.com and The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball published by Baseball America in 1993.3Van Meter, Jarrett. “Paintsville a part of minor league heyday”. The Herald-Leader (Lexington, KY). April 18, 2018
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Long-time Appy League beat writer Allen LaMountain wrote this exhaustive chronicle of the Rookie circuit in 2014, offering a history of each city in the circuit and profiles of dozens of the future Major League stars and Hall-of Famers who got their first taste of pro ball in places like Bluefield, Elizabethton, Johnson City and Kingsport.
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One Response
I was thinking that Otis Nixon and Greg Gagne played for Paintsville in the 80s.