Bo Belinsky always felt at home in the Islands

By Ferd Lewis
Advertiser Columnist

When the then-Los Angeles Angels shipped Robert "Bo" Belinsky to the Hawaii Islanders in 1963, it took the repeated threat of suspensions and fines to finally get him here.

Pitcher Bo Belinsky first came from the Los Angeles Angels to the Hawai'i Islanders in 1963 and became a fan favorite. Associated Press

"Send me to Hawai'i where (I'll) be happy," Belinsky told general manager Fred Haney.

For nearly 40 years — through three stints with the Islanders and as many marriages and headline-making episodes — Hawai'i was where one of baseball's most flamboyant characters found happiness and acceptance.

When the glare of the Hollywood spotlight grew too bright or the roller-coaster that was his life wore him out, the waves on the North Shore and good times with friends beckoned.

"He had a lot of Hawai'i in his heart," Belinsky's long-time friend and former major league teammate, Dean Chance, said yesterday.

Right up until Belinsky's death Friday at age 64 in Las Vegas, where he had been battling bladder cancer, pancreas and heart problems, Hawai'i was never far from his thoughts.

"He called me just this past Wednesday, two days before he died," said retired reporter Gordon Sakamoto. "Usually when he called that meant he was coming back."

In the Islanders' 27-year (1961-87) existence, nobody arrived as more of a curiosity and few went on to be embraced as warmly or enduringly.

When the Angels recalled Belinsky in 1963, a crowd of 16,954, the largest in the Islanders' history to that point, showed up at Honolulu Stadium for his "aloha game."

Bo Belinsky pitched for the Islanders in 1963, 1968 and 1969. Advertiser library photo • April 29, 1969

In between, Belinsky came to appreciate, "the fans huddled in the Manoa mist, their friendliness and that certain quality of old Honolulu Stadium that we'll never see in Hawai'i again."

'A flake but good-hearted'

For their part, fans came to see the pitcher who arrived with the tabloid reputation and Playboy centerfolds and starlets on his arm, and stayed to see him mesmerize opposing hitters with his screwball.

A 25-20 Islander career in which his pitching — brilliant at times, erratic at others — mirrored his fast life away from the diamond was part of Belinsky's attraction.

"He was Hawai'i's first celebrity import but, more than that, he enjoyed being around people and people were quick to recognize that," said Ferd Borsch, who covered every home game of the Islanders for The Advertiser. "After games you'd find him sitting on a stool at the Columbia Inn eating dinner and talking with anybody that sat down."

"He had a magic; that special something," recalled Lew Matlin, the Islanders' general manager in 1963. "He was a flake but he was so good-hearted. He had an aura about him. I would say that, in my 40 years in baseball, the only one like him I saw was Mark Fidrych in Detroit."

A major attraction

Belinsky's headline-making arrival — complete with a dog collar around his ankle to symbolize his presence in the Angels' "dog house" — was providential for a struggling two-year-old franchise saddled with debt.

His nine appearances in 1963 helped hike Islander attendance 70 percent to nearly 250,000. The Pacific Coast League credited Belinsky for much of its 39 percent rise, a level not seen since the major leagues moved West in 1958.

When Belinsky returned to the mound in Mo'ili'ili in the '68 and '69 seasons, attendance spiked each time.

When he pitched the franchise's first no-hitter in '69, fans stayed through the rain to chant "Go, Bo! ...Go, Bo!..." for the final three innings of a 1-0 victory over Tacoma.

Though he had pitched a no-hitter against Baltimore in his major league rookie season of 1962 in the game that launched his notoriety, Belinsky allowed, "I enjoyed this no-hitter a lot more. I've always wanted to pitch a no-hitter here."