Wayne Robbins played one season for the Pensacola Dons in 1958 when the league had just expanded back to 8 teams. Columbus, Georgia spent it's only season in the league and Dothan returned to the league after a one year absence. Wayne pitched well, going 6-2 with a 4.08 ERA. After his season with the Dons, Wayne went into education and eventually became the baseball coach at the University Of Arkansas. He graciously sent this remembrance of his experiences in the league.

The ace of our pitching staff was Jim Lehew, a right-handed submariner, who won 20 games that year (Lehew went 20-9, 3.11 ERA). He had a "cup of coffee" with the Baltimore Orioles a few years later. The Dothan Cardinals had the former Brooklyn Dodger pitcher, Karl Spooner, who was trying to make a come-back that year. Unfortunately, He wasn't successful and quit after only a few games. Another memorable name from the league that year was Neb Wilson. I think Neb was 39 years old that year. He began the season as the player-manager of the Fort Walton Beach Jets, then came to Pensacola and dominated the league with his big bat. He was poison to the umpires and stayed on them viciously. He was thrown out of several games and I marveled that he wasn't thrown out of more. I don't think he would survive very long with the umpires of today. Our manager in 1958 was Lou Fitzgerald. He was a great guy, and we all liked him very much. I believe he managed as high as Class AAA before retiring. Another memorable player was Frank Roland who pitched for Selma that year. He had a good record, going 19-7, and I have always wondered what happened to him after that. Frank and I were old rivals from way back. We played against each other in high school, American  Legion, college, and the pros. He was at Alabama while I was at Mississippi. I remember in my very last at bat for the Dons when I got a hit off him and knocked him out of the box. He passed me at first base on his way to the showers and grinned at me. That game put us back in first place where we were most of my time there. Sometime toward the end of the season I began to worry about some shoulder pain that I was experiencing. In what turned out to be a bad decision, I reported this to the manager and allowed him to send me to the team doctor. The doctor diagnosed bursitis, and I was released the very next day. I know today that I did not have bursitis, I had a partially torn rotator cuff. Of course no one knew anything about rotator cuffs in those days, and that was my bad luck. Actually, I had played with that pain since I was sixteen years old, and I could have gone on. My college coach chided me for not consulting my own doctor instead of the team physician, but what did I know at that age?

After being released, I went into education and I coached baseball at Riverside Military Academy in Gainesville, Georgia, in 1959. We won the Mid-South Conference (a military prep school conference) with an undefeated conference record. I left after only one year and returned to graduate school for three years. Then, I went to Bluefield College in Virginia as Dean of Men and revived that school's baseball program, which had been absent for fifteen years. In 1965, I coached the first season of their revived baseball team. Coincidentally, Bluefield, West Virginia was an Oriole farm team in the Rookie League. Baltimore almost sent me there as a first baseman after I was released by the Dons. I was a pretty good hitter and Lou Fitzgerald had used me for several games in the outfield at Pensacola. The state line between West Virginia and Virginia runs just beyond the pro team's right field fence, and our college was on the Virginia side. The ball park would have been visible from our campus except for a hill between us. We were able to play our games at the stadium because the Rookie League started late after we were through. I left Bluefield in the fall of 1965 and went to the University of Arkansas to pursue my doctorate in higher education. I was elated when the athletic director offered me the head coaching job for baseball. After a disastrous first season, we had a winning year the next year, winning more games in a season than Arkansas had won since 1911. I was there four seasons when I completed my graduate work and moved on to college administration positions here in Tennessee. My assistant coach who succeeded me, Norm DeBriyan, is still there, and has really taken Razorback baseball to new levels. He credits me with doing the groundwork for him, and I have been very proud of his record. In subsequent years, I have scouted some for the Yankees and Angels, but have been out of baseball for a number of years. I am now retired after serving sixteen years as president of an educational foundation.  I was certainly not a star for Pensacola, but I was thrilled to be there. I proved I could win at that level, and not many get a chance to play pro ball at all, so I look back with nothing but satisfaction.

I played for the Pensacola Dons in 1958 as a left-handed pitcher. I started in the AFL after graduating from Mississippi State and three years of baseball in the Southeastern Conference. I compiled a 6-2 record for the Dons that year. Pensacola was a Baltimore Orioles farm team then, and I had signed with the Orioles on the day I graduated. My first game was in Panama City and it was a disaster. I didn't last through the first inning and took the loss. It was an inauspicious beginning of my pro career. The next game, however, was better as I won 5-3 over Fort Walton Beach at Jets Stadium in Fort Walton. The opposing pitcher was Lee Stange who went on to the majors and compiled a pretty good record for the Cleveland Indians and Boston Red Sox before becoming their pitching coach. I think both of us went all nine innings--I know I did. In my first time at bat, Stange grooved one for me and I hit it over the right field fence, but the right fielder reached over and caught it. I still gnash my teeth over that one.

My most memorable game was played against the Cloumbus Foxes at Columbus, Georgia. We won in a fairly high scoring game, but I pitched all 14 innings and drove in five runs with my bat. Because of my performance, I got to sleep on our bus's only bed all the way back to Pensacola that night. The "bed" consisted of the rearmost two seats pulled together with a pillow and a couple of blankets added. I must admit that I didn't sleep much that night, but I enjoyed the "honor" of having the only bed, and basking in my temporary glory. We arrived after daylight the next day. Our schedule called for playing two games at home, followed by two games on the road. You can imagine how tiring the travel got with that schedule, but I didn't mind it at that age.

A gentleman named Fred Davis owned the Dons that year. He also owned one of Pensacola's radio stations--I believe it was the same station broadcasted the Dons games, but not sure of that. Because I had some announcing experience prior to my baseball career, Davis used to have me go up to the broadcast booth and do some play-by-play when I wasn't pitching.