Dean of the baseball diamond

John Winkin, elder statesman of college baseball, has been dispensing old-school wisdom from dugouts since 1946.

from the May 7, 2007 edition

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Winkin approaches coaching with militaristic preparedness, which leaves little need to bark out instructions on the field. He writes out and xeroxes daily "practice sheets" for the players, detailing the exact number of pitches to be thrown, or the exact number of minutes to be spent bunting or turning double plays. "He's our general," says another pitcher, Jon Tefft, 21, "and the command filters all the way down."

The players respect Winkin's uncompromising work ethic and his reverence for the game's traditions. They know what the coach considers bush league and so play by his old-school rules: no facial hair, no jeweled piercings, no backward caps, no tobacco chewing, no spitting out sunflower hulls.

"I play awful hard to win," Winkin says of his hard-nosed coaching style. "I drive hard to make people overachieve because I drive myself hard to do that.... I'm not very tolerant of half-effort."

At a recent practice, Tefft showed up unshaven. Winkin didn't say a word, but stroked his own chin. If Tefft arrived like that for a game? "I wouldn't dress," he says.

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Last season, Winkin hit a coaching milestone: 1,000 wins. It was March 12, and Husson's Eagles took Drew University, 6-3, in a spring-break game in Tampa, Fla. A Louisville slugger signed by the players that day sits on a bookshelf alongside other baseball memorabilia in his office.

For Winkin, it was a sweet relief. He had been within striking distance of the record upon his separation from the University of Maine. But only victories as a head coach are tallied, so his seven years as a Husson assistant coach didn't count. How important is winning? "Why play if you don't want to win?" Winkin says.

Ninety-two of Winkin's former ballplayers have signed pro contracts and at least 17 reached the major leagues. "I owe just about everything to him, as far as what I took into my major-league career," says former Baltimore Orioles All-Star shortstop Mike Bordick. "He genuinely cares about the players he's had."

Winkin meets personally with promising high school prospects, while ex-players, many of whom became coaches themselves, recall fondly his handwritten recruitment letters.

Winkin, Bordick, and three partners are in negotiations to acquire a new franchise in a New England college summer league.

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