Pitching in the World Series was a dream come true for a young Bob Bolin. 1962 was his second year in the Big Leagues, his second year with the San Francisco Giants, managed by Alvin Dark.
        In those days, each league had only eight teams, Bolin explained, in an interview with The Christian View. In 1962, the Giants tied with the Los Angeles Dodgers for the pennant, and the teams had a three-game playoff. “We beat them, in Dodger Stadium, in the third game,” he said. “They were leading us, 4 to 2, in the ninth inning, and we scored four runs to beat them and win the pennant.
        “We had to start the World Series the next day against the Yankees. We got beat in the seventh game. But I got to pitch in two of the games, before more than 70,000 people. It was a thrill for this country boy."
        Playing Major League Baseball for 13 years offered great memories for Bolin. He felt like pinching himself when he put on his uniform and walked onto the field each day. “I couldn’t believe it,” he said. “God had blessed me so much, coming from my background, and standing in Big League ballparks across America. I was in awe.”
        Bolin was born in January, 1939 in Smyrna, South Carolina and went to school in nearby Hickory Grove.
        He has a brother, Joe, who now lives in Montana, and a sister, Peggy, who lives in Blacksburg, South Carolina. Another brother, Benny, passed away five years ago. 
        Bolin started playing baseball at an early age. “That’s all we had, when I grew up,” he said. “At school, we could play basketball, but we couldn’t play basketball at home, because it was tough to dribble a basketball on a dirt yard. But we could make our bats and balls and hit rocks. My brother, who was a year and a half older, was always my catcher, and I was the pitcher. By the time I got to age 15 or 16, I could throw the ball pretty hard. I was naturally wild. I didn’t even think about a career. I just enjoyed playing.”
        When he pitched four no-hitters in a row, at the age of 17, Bolin’s coach and Principal got in touch with the Washington Senators, who sent a scout to look at him. A photographer with The Charlotte Observer took photos of him. “All of the other scouts found out about it,” he said. “At the front door were 12 to 15 scouts a week, all of them wanting to sign me.”
        He signed with the Giants, which was ironic, because he hated the Giants, being a Dodger fan. He had grown up listening to the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants on the radio.
        He signed in September, 1956 and played four years in the Minor Leagues, from 1957 through 1960.
        Bolin went through spring training with the Giants in 1961. “I made the ball club,” he said. “I stayed there nine years.”
        Dark became the Giants’ Manager in 1961, the first year he began managing after playing his final year in 1960, with the Milwaukee Braves. Dark managed the Giants through 1964.
        Bolin was traded in the winter of 1970 to the Milwaukee Braves, then was traded to Boston, where he played until the spring of 1974, when he left Major League Baseball.
        “ Alvin was my manager the first four years,” he said of Dark. “He had an unbelievable influence on my life. I knew him, because I had read a lot of articles about his Christian belief. I was young, and I considered him a good, solid ‘rock’. I wanted to be acceptable to him in every way, in pitching and in the way I lived my life.”
        “When I first started managing in the Big Leagues in 1961, Bob Bolin was a rookie who came to spring training with the Giants,” Dark told The Christian View. “The first day the pitching coach and I saw him pitch in an exhibition game in spring training, the pitching coach said, ‘This fellow can really throw a ball.’ The more we saw him in the spring, the more I realized this guy was going to be a good pitcher. He pitched for me four years in San Francisco and was starting to hit his peak when I was no longer with the ball club. He could start, he could long relief, and he could short relief. He had a great career. Bob Bolin was not only a great pitcher, but he was a tremendous guy to have on your ball club. He is a man of faith. He really believes in Jesus as his personal Savior.”
        Bolin and Dark remain good friends.


                                   Bob and Irene Bolin

      Bolin and his wife, Irene, who met in high school and married in 1958, now live in Easley, South Carolina, as do the Darks. The Bolins have a son, Brett, and a daughter, Donna, and three grandsons, Jacob, Blake, and Nathan. 
        The Bolins and the Darks are members of the same church.
        Bolin is also a board member for the Alvin Dark Foundation, which supports Christian ministries. And he enjoys the sport of golf, of which Dark is also fond.
        Bolin began playing golf at the age of 20. He now plays about twice a month, on courses around the country. He and his wife have lived at Smithfields Country Club for the past 12 years.
        “Golf is a great game,” he said, adding, with a grin, “I never understood why you have to be quiet to play golf. I never had the bases loaded and had to get a hitter out, and had people saying, ‘Shhh.’ There would be 50,000 people hollering and calling you every name ‘in the book.’ I never figured out why, when a guy is playing golf, you can’t holler, ‘You’re going to miss it. You’re going to miss it.’”
        Sports have always played a prominent role in Bolin’s life.
        In high school, he played football and basketball as well as baseball. “Today, they have baseball, football, basketball, soccer, golf, tennis, volleyball, all a tremendous asset to bringing up kids, because they can give four-year, full-ride scholarships,” he said. “Also, I think sports develop character, discipline, commitment, and accountability.”
        Little League was not available for him when he was growing up in a small town. “I started organized ball at about 14, I guess,” he said. “The rest of the time, we’d just choose up sides and play. I like that better for the younger kids. I would rather that they choose up sides and play in the neighborhood yard, till they saw if they wanted to play or not.”
        Professional baseball is different today, as well, Bolin said. “I think I played in a good era, back in the 1960’s,” he said. “We had a lot more fun. Today, because of the pressure, their agents, the press, the players can’t kid with anybody. We used to pull pranks in the clubhouse.”
        Bolin advises young boys who may want to pursue a career in baseball to find the position they enjoy playing the most and work on that position. “Work on the fundamentals,” he said. “And always keep a good attitude,” he added. “Don’t get down. Don’t worry about failing, because you’re going to fail at least 70% of the time. You’re seldom going to get three hits out of 10 times, so don’t worry about failing 70 times out of 100. Just be thankful you can get 30 hits. In pitching, you know you’re going to give up some hits. Don’t worry about the negative part; work on the positive side. Walk off the field knowing that you’ve done your best.”
        Bolin described how lessons from baseball can be applied to life.
        “We knew we were going to lose some games, but we never went out to lose,” he said. “We never went out to give up a hit, even though they got hits. We never went out to give up a home run, even though they got home runs. But I never prayed to win a game. The other team may have been praying to win the game, too. I prayed to do well and for the Lord to protect me. Several times, I’ve had businesses that went bottom-up. I’d invest, and then they’d go down. I think that having a spiritual background, being a Christian, helped me to realize to question whether I had prayed enough about it or if I had made decisions on my own. 
        “It gives you peace of mind knowing that we know how the end comes. We’ve read the whole ‘script’ of life. As Christians, we need not get hung up on some of the parts being played. I used to wonder a lot of times, when a guy would hit a home run, ‘Lord, how did you let that heathen hit that ball so far?’ There are a lot of things I don’t understand about the scriptures, but that doesn’t bother me enough to not believe it.”
        Bolin grew up in Smyrna Baptist  Church, a small church by the railroad tracks. “It always seemed that, when the preacher was preaching good, here came the train,” he said. “I remember going to church in an old A-Model. Sometimes, we would have to stop twice on the side of the road to put water in the radiator, or it would steam and smoke by the time we’d get to church.”
        He was saved at the age of 13 at a revival. Their Pastor, Everett Chapman, from Inman, would preach at Smyrna Baptist Church at 2:00 on Sunday afternoons, and at other churches Sunday mornings and evenings. 
        Bolin recalled how he was able to financially help his small church after he began playing professional baseball. When he signed, he tithed on his bonus, and the church was able to have a well. “We had running water,” he said. “The rest of the time, we had to bring water in, because the church didn’t have a bathroom, but an outhouse. We drilled a well and had running water. The kids lined up to get a drink. That was the biggest thing in the community. Everybody came to see our faucet.”
        The Pastor was paid monetarily only on the fifth Sunday of each month, Bolin said. “The rest of the time, he got groceries. In the summer time, he got fresh vegetables. In the winter time, he got canned goods. On the fifth Sunday, he could have the offering. That’s the way they had it set up at our church. When I started playing ball, I would send my tithe to Mom. She would never put my tithe in till the fifth Sunday, so the preacher could get it all. I just found that out not too long ago.”
        Bolin said that his Christian faith has always been important to him. “I grew up in a Christian home,” he said. “I was always in church. I knew right from wrong. I said, ‘Yes, ma’am, no, ma’am, yes, sir, no, sir.’ I got saved at 13, but I really didn’t know that much about the Bible at that time, except to give your heart to Jesus and believe in Him, and that’s what I’ve done. When I went off to play baseball, I think the foundation I grew up with helped me a lot through my baseball career.”
        Bolin’s faith has led him to speak publicly, across the country, sharing his faith while sharing about baseball. “I speak at a lot of churches,” he said. “I work baseball stories into life stories. I speak at some FCA groups. I share that, no matter what we do, we should remember that, if we don’t have Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, we have lost our whole life.”
        Public speaking did not come easy to him at first. “I would consider myself probably one of the shiest, most backward, introverted kids that ever came out of the country,” he said. When around people, he would hang his head, he said. “I think that’s why God put me in baseball, to let me gradually grow where I would at least see people and talk to them and say hello.” People today can’t believe that about him, he said. “ Alvin can,” he added. “Because, when I got to the Big Leagues, I still wouldn’t say anything. I didn’t know what to say.”
        When he first entered the Major Leagues, a church back home had asked him to speak at a function for graduating seniors. “I laughed,” he said. He would later speak at Bible school. “That was all right,” he said. “They were three, four, five years old. They wouldn’t expect anybody to say anything. They wouldn’t even look at you when you spoke to them. My last few years in baseball, I started speaking in different places and sharing my testimony. At that time, the spiritual side of your life was left outside of the clubhouse. Things have changed a lot, thankfully, because now they have chapel services every Sunday morning. By my third year with the Boston Red Sox, I was helping to run the chapel service. 
        “In 1973, we had chapel services every Sunday on the road. We never did have it in the clubhouse, but always in a hotel room. In the spring of 1974, we had a new General Manager. We talked about having the bus leave early on Sunday, get to the park 30 minutes earlier, and have a 30-minute chapel service. They said, ‘No, we don’t want that in our clubhouse. That has nothing to do with playing ball.’
        “They kind of rushed me out the door. Two days later, I got released. I thought, ‘Lord, what else do you want me to do now?’
        “Now, all of them have chapel services on Sunday mornings. It has taken a long time. Some of them figured if there was anything that would help them to win, they’d try it.”
        Bolin said that the Lord has truly blessed his life. “I always look at where I was born and raised and how God had to have a plan to coordinate that whole thing. He gave me an opportunity to do something I enjoyed, and I got paid for it. I got to play for 17 years and never got hurt. He blessed me with a wonderful wife, two children, and grandkids. These last few years, He has blessed me with a good business. I speak to thousands of people all across the United States and get to share my life. As I said earlier, I was so shy and wouldn’t speak to anybody. Sometimes, God takes a long time to plan and get your life in order. It took Him a long time to work on me, to get me to say anything.”
        Bolin said that his favorite verse of scripture is Philippians 4:8, Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things. “When I speak to a group, I end up with that verse, to structure your life the way that verse says, apply it to everything you’ve done in your life,” he said.
        From the scriptures, Bolin said that he admires the apostle Paul. “If Paul were around today, you wonder how we would treat him,” he said. “He was killing the people who believed in Christ. All of a sudden, he’s converted. We expect Christians to come and hear him? Paul didn’t run to Jesus, but God found him, on the road to Damascus, and said, ‘You’re one of mine, even though I know you’ve been doing bad things.’ To me, Paul and his ministry should be something we can learn from."
        A modern-day preacher Bolin admires is Dr. Sam Cathey, whom Bolin met 43 years ago when Cathey pastored a church in Detroit, Michigan, where Bolin’s brother was a deacon. “I would speak with brother Sam when he was preaching, and I would give my testimony at churches,” he said.  “He preached my Dad’s funeral. We’ve done a lot of stuff together. He’s one of my greatest friends and a great spiritual influence. I’ve seen the guy ‘walk the walk’ all of the time.”
        Cathey spoke well of both Bolin and Dark. 
        “I met Bob Bolin in 1964, and we’ve had a close fellowship, both in sports and in the Lord,” he told The Christian View. “I have spent many hours with him, laughing, joking, praying, preaching, talking about God. Bob and Irene Bolin are sincere, dedicated Christians. Their heart is set on God, and God has blessed them richly. They understand that, and they give glory to God in everything that has happened in their lives. Their children, Brett and Donna, are wonderful young people and have a great life in front of them. I count it a privilege to have been a friend to Bob and Irene Bolin.”
        Cathey met Dark through Bolin, he said. “Of course, I knew who he was,” Cathey said of Dark. “I had heard him playing ball on the radio, watched him on television, and got to see him in person a time or two, when I’d go to St. Louis and he would be playing there. I’ve always admired him, and, when I got to know him personally, I found out that his love for Jesus Christ is greater than his love for baseball. He is a dear friend, and I love being around him and Jackie.”
        Bolin said that he would like to be remembered as an honest person who did not take advantage of anyone, and as a person that no one could remember anything bad about.
        He has fond memories of his parents, Joe and Blanche Bolin.
        “Dad passed away when he was 50, of scleroderma, which is an incurable circulatory disease,” he said. “Mom lived another 15 years after Dad passed away. She passed away in 1979.
        “We sharecropped mainly, and moved from farm to farm. After the boll weevils took the cotton from us, Dad had to go to work in a bleachery in Rock Hill, and he would drive out and back to work. His health got worse, so he had to go there full-time and quit the farming. 
        “He never saw me play baseball when I was in school, because he worked all of the time. He worked second shift at the bleachery, and all of my games would be in the afternoon. He never saw me play until I got to the Big Leagues. He got to see me play in the World Series.”
        While his parents never tried to stop him from playing baseball, he said that his uncle, whom he was helping at a sawmill at the time he signed, tried to dissuade him from that career.
        “He said, ‘Go ahead and try that for a year or two,’” Bolin recalled. “He said, ‘Nobody ever made any money out of that kind of stuff. Come on back, and I’ll give you a job at the sawmill at $1.25 an hour.’ 
        “Every time I’d get the bases loaded, with nobody out, I could hear that sawmill running, and that would make me throw harder. I didn’t want to go back to that sawmill.”
        Today, Bolin uses his baseball career to help do his part in sharing the Gospel.
        He advises those who are unsaved to take an inventory of their life. “Suppose someone says that there is no heaven or hell, but, when you die, you just die. If I die, then I haven’t lost anything. But suppose I’m right, and suppose the Bible is right, that the saved go to heaven and the unsaved go to hell? Who will be better off? I think people need to understand there is a consequence to everything. Your choices are your life. In pitching, you’ve got a choice – curve ball, fast ball, slider. When you throw it, you can’t take it back. It’s over. The choice has already been made. The outcome is already there. That’s kind of the way our life is. We’ve got to make our choice before eternity comes, because we can’t make it afterwards.”
        Bolin advises Christians to not worry about the world and struggles. “We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and powers in the world,” he said, quoting from Ephesians 6:12. “We need to understand that we’re not wrestling against what somebody does to us, because, if we’re a Christian, if we’re a believer, somebody is trying to interfere with our feelings and thinking. If we can understand that’s taking place, we’ll have an easier life, and not let things intimidate us and know that we are conquerors of the world through Jesus. The world is not going to conquer us. God conquers everything. When He comes back and takes us home, we’ll end up on top. We shouldn’t worry so much. We need to be self-assured that our eternity is taken care of. One thing in life we’ve got to take care of is eternity.”