A Las Cruces High School student made it to Major League Baseball

Many young baseball players dream of getting a taste of the show, but no Las Cruces local has ever achieved that goal. 

That is, except for Jerry Hinsley.

His eight-year long career as a pitcher started right out of high school when he was drafted in1963 and got his first Major League Baseball debut with the New York Mets the following year.

Originally born in Oklahoma, Hinsley and his family moved to Las Cruces before he could remember.

“I think my dad was just looking for some work. There was apparently nothing in Oklahoma,” Hinsley said. “He got a job here and this is where we stayed.”

Hinsley said he got his start in the sport by throwing a baseball with his brother in 100-degree heat when nobody else wanted to be outside. After little league and junior high, Hinsley played for Las Cruces High School. During his tenure, Las Cruces High won three consecutive state championships from 1961-1963, drawing MLB scouts to the then 30,000-person town of Las Cruces.

“You know the old saying is, ‘If you are good, they will find you.’”

And that team was good. Over the summer that same team ended up winning regionals and then made it to the finals of the American Legion tournament where they would take second to a New York team, missing out on first by only one run.

“I signed with the Mets, my brother signed with Pittsburg and a shortstop signed with Kansas City,” Hinsley recalled. “And that’s off of a high school team.”

Hinsley, his brother and the other Las Cruces High School teammate were drafted for the minor leagues. Only Hinsley made it to the major league. Once he got drafted, Hinsley had doubts during spring training.

“I just had no idea if I even belonged there on the same field as those guys,” Hinsley recalled. “I got into a couple of spring training games, and I did alright.”

Some of ‘those guys’ included Yogi Berra — who Hinsley said was just as funny of a guy as you expect — and Hall of Fame Manager Casey Stengel.

One of Hinsley’s favorite memories was striking out Pete Rose. The count was 3-2 and Hinsley threw a fastball. Unfortunately, the umpire called it a ball. “If it’s close, the umpire is going to call it a ball.” Hinsley explained. “You have to stay in the league a few years before you get the close calls.”

Th next day, Hinsley said that Pete Rose told him, “’You struck me out,’ but he said, ‘You’ll never do it again.’ Then I didn’t,” Hinsley said.

However, baseball was not the only job Hinsley had unlike today’s MLB players. In the offseason, Hinsley worked in road construction.

“I probably made just as much money working road construction in the winter as I did playing baseball in the summer,” he said.

Hinsley continued in construction once he retired from baseball.

In recent decades, discussion on how much money players like Hinsley get paid once they retire has been growing. In 1980, the Major League Baseball Players Association negotiated to lower the amount of time a player has to play in the MLB to be vested in a pension plan to just 43 days. Controversy has risen around this decision because it did not grandfather in pre-1980 players like Hinsley, leaving them without a pension and instead collecting a small yearly paycheck that only recently started.

Hinsley says that he does not “look at it as being unfair because that’s just the way it was.” He said that at that time it was great to just be able to get paid to play baseball.

“We were happy to get paid. I mean getting paid to play baseball? You gotta be kidding,” he said.

While Hinsley said that more money from the MLB would be nice, he also said that “I can’t even say we deserve it.”

“We got paid and not that much, but a lot of people did not make that much at that time but I’m happy,” Hinsley said.

Today, Hinsley said that he still receives his baseball cards in the mail from people hoping to get his signature and enjoys watching nearly any sport ranging from going to El Paso Rhino hockey games to the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“My wife has a plaque in the den that says, ‘We interrupt this marriage for the baseball season’ and that is pretty much true,” Hinsley said.