Greener fields await

After 24 seasons as FMU’s baseball coach, Art Inabinet is settling into retirement.

The life of a baseball coach has its ups and downs, just like the game itself. Some days are fair and some are foul. You win some, as the old saying goes, and you lose some.

Art Inabinet won a lot more than he lost in his 24 years as Francis Marion’s baseball coach, but as he ponders the first season of his adult life in which he will not be coaching college baseball – Inabinet retired last summer – that’s not where his mind turns first.

Instead, he thinks about the places he’s been, and the young men he coached, and …

… Maybe even the grass.

“My senior year as a player (at Winthrop), we lost an assistant coach right at the start of the season, so coach Horace Turbeville needed a little help and he knew I was interested (in coaching) so he asked me to help out,” says Inabinet. “So, I’d cut grass, do some field work, that kind of thing and, I don’t know why exactly, but I kind of enjoyed that. 

“Baseball moves at its own pace and there are those things – throwing batting practice, cutting grass, working on the field – that is just a part of it,” says Inabinet. “Baseball fields should look a certain way. You want to carry on the tradition. And you know, edging the field, adding some material to the warning track, some conditioner to the infield dirt, getting it all fixed up, making it right, it’s just … fun. I did that all the time I coached, right up to the end. I could have told one of my assistants to do it, but I wasn’t going to ask them to do something I wouldn’t do myself. That didn’t seem like good leadership. I guess I kind of had that thought, but to be honest I liked doing it. And when you make a field look spectacular, well, that’s a real feeling of accomplishment.”

Art Inabinet loved baseball from the time he first picked up a bat. Little League ball was a big deal in his hometown of St. Matthews, S.C., and he was a big deal in the local Little League, a terrific hitter with some pop.

He was a star there and then at Calhoun Academy and with the Orangeburg Post 4 Legion team. That attracted the attention of some local colleges. Both The Citadel and Winthrop offered him scholarships. He liked Turbeville, the future hall of famer, and decided to go there.

Hidden at third base 

Inabinet was a solid player for the Eagles, although his self-scouting report sounds like a cynical old coach who’s seen a lot of players in his time: “I could hit a little, could not field or run a bit. They hid me at third base.”

The Big South league’s all-conference selectors found him after a junior year in which he batted .386 with 11 homers. Then, the next year, his coaching career began with his emergency gig for Turbeville. That worked out pretty well and Turbeville apparently saw the sparkle of coaching passion in Inabinet’s eye, so he invited him back as a graduate assistant. Inabinet spent two years in that post, earning a masters and gaining valuable experience. 

There was an opening at North Greenville College, which was moving from a two-year school to a four-year school, and was looking to transition its athletic teams. Inabinet applied, and with some help from Turbeville and others, landed the job. 

He coached there for six seasons, leading the Trailblazers to a 155-122 mark, including an 84-54 record against four-year competition.

Inabinet was on a recruiting trip one day during what would turn out to be his last year at NGC, looking at some prospects  from Brookland-Cayce High in a state championship. Seats were scarce but a few had been saved for college scouts. Inabinet found himself sitting beside Gerald Griffin, the only baseball coach at FMU up to that point.

“During the course of our conversation, he asked me if I had any interest in being an assistant at FMU,” says Inabinet. “I told him that if they could meet my base salary I’d do it. Well, I forgot about it afterwards, and then August rolled around and one day (Griffin) called and said, ‘Okay, I’ve done it (matched the salary). You need to quit and get down here right away.’”

Great mentors

Inabinet worked under Griffin for two years, then took over as head coach. The promotion was not as planned as it sounds, although Inabinet says it was clear when he came to FMU that Griffin would be stepping down … at some point. 

Until this season, Griffin and Inabinet were the only coaches in FMU history. Inabinet coached 24 years and eventually surpassed the man who hired him, winning 704 games at FMU. 

Inabinet’s teams, powered by talent from the baseball-rich Pee Dee, were competitive and then some. He led the Patriots to seven berths in the NCAA Division II national tournament, including an appearance in the World Series in 2006. Nine of his teams appeared in the top 30 in the final season poll.

Inabinet says he did well because he was taught well. 

“I was fortunate at a young age, 23, 24, to be a head coach,” says Inabinet. “I knew for a long time I was going to coach, but I figured it would be in high school. But I got on a good path and wound up working with two great mentors in Griffin and Turbeville.

“Turbeville was really good on pitching and defense,” says Inabinet, “and Griffin was one of the best offensive minds I’ve been around. I caught both of them at the end of their careers when they’d been through a lot, knew a lot, and was able to get all the knowledge that they had, that they could share. That’s something like 60 or 70 years of experience. They knew a lot and they were both men of high character. You know, I learned real quick, that you have to be somebody who communicates with kids, have to be professional. It was a great lesson. I can’t be thankful enough.”

Back to the grass

Inabinet says he’ll always remember going to the World Series in ’06, and of course, beating the defending Division I national champions from the University of South Carolina in 2012, when FMU christened its new field (at the Gerald Griffin Athletic Complex). 

He’ll also revel in the associations with his players and coaches.

“I’m lucky,” he says. “I still have really good relationships with lots of players. Hopefully,  some of those will continue. Even since I retired, some of them have continued to reach out for references. I’ve written a bunch of those, for all kinds of jobs. I enjoy doing that.”

Retirement for the 60-year-old Inabinet will involve some fishing and hunting, and a lot of time spent with friends and family. His wife Kim, an assistant vice president at McLeod Health, still has a few years of work life remaining, but they’ll be on the go. Their son, Reese, just graduated from FMU and is, says Inabinet, “finally off the payroll.”

Inabinet says he will go to see some baseball games, at FMU and elsewhere. 

He has also started a small business, just something to keep him occupied.

He’s cutting grass.

“It’s something I still like to do,” he says. 

A Tall Order for Number 3

Jeff Jefferson is the third baseball coach in FMU history.

He’s facing a high career bar. His predecessors, Gerald Griffin and Art Inabinet, coached for 52 seasons and combined to win 1,359 games.

Jefferson says he’s “honored” to have the opportunity to build on that legacy.

Jefferson comes to Francis Marion after 10 seasons as an assistant coach at UNC Pembroke.  A native of Danville, Va., he played collegiate baseball at Liberty University, then served as an assistant coach at Concord University and then at Shepherd University. Both schools are in West Virginia. He came to Pembroke in 2015. Jefferson also coached two seasons of summer baseball in New Market, Va.