Aaron Elton Pointer (born April 19, 1942) is an American retired professional

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball sport played between two team sport, teams of nine players each, taking turns batting (baseball), batting and Fielding (baseball), fielding. The game occurs over the course of several Pitch ...

player. He played in the major leagues for the Houston Colt .45s/Astros in and again in –. After his baseball career, he was a

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

official. He is also known for being the brother of the four sisters who form the Pointer Sisters singing group.

Biography

Early life

Pointer is the eldest of six children of Rev. Elton and Sarah Elizabeth Pointer, pastors at the West Oakland Church of God. He is the older brother of Fritz Pointer, a college professor and author, and older brother of Ruth, Anita,

Bonnie Bonnie is a Scottish given name and is sometimes used as a descriptive reference, as in the Scottish folk song, My Bonnie Lies over the Ocean or Bonnie Dundee about John Graham, 7th Laird of Claverhouse. It comes from the Scots language word "bon ...

, and

June Pointer June Antoinette Pointer (November 30, 1953 – April 11, 2006) was an American singer, best known as the youngest of the founding members of the vocal group the Pointer Sisters. Early life and career Born the youngest of six children to minister ...

the Pointer Sisters The Pointer Sisters are an American female vocal group from Oakland, California, who achieved mainstream success during the 1970s and 1980s. They have had a repertoire with many genres, they have sold around 50 million records throughout their ...

.Aaron Pointer Baseball Stats
Baseball Almanac. Retrieved on 2008-06-09. Aaron Pointer grew up in

West Oakland, California West Oakland is a neighborhood situated in the northwestern corner of Oakland, California, United States, situated west of Downtown Oakland, south of Emeryville, and north of Alameda. The neighborhood is located along the waterfront at the ...

, and attended

McClymonds High School McClymonds High School is a public high school in the West Oakland neighborhood of Oakland, California, Oakland, California, United States. In addition to being the third oldest high school in Oakland, it is the only comprehensive high school ...

, where he became student body president. At McCymonds, Pointer was active in sports. Along with two future NBA players, Paul Silas (Pointer's cousin) and Joe Ellis, he played with McClymonds High's unbeaten 1959–60 team. He went to the

University of San Francisco The University of San Francisco (USF) is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit university in San Francisco, California, United States. Founded in 1855, it has nearly 9,000 students pursuing undergraduate and graduate degrees ...

on a full

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

scholarship. At USF, he met his wife, Leona.

Baseball career

In 1961, Pointer signed with Houston, a

National League National League often refers to: *National League (baseball), one of the two baseball leagues constituting Major League Baseball in the United States and Canada *National League (division), the fifth division of the English football (soccer) system ...

expansion team An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also ...

set to begin major league play the following season. In his debut 1961 campaign, Pointer became the last player to bat over .400 in a full summer season of organized professional baseball in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

(although several players have since done so in

Mexico Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...

.) Playing in 93 games for the Class D Salisbury Braves of the

Western Carolinas League The Western Carolinas League was a Class D level (1948–52; 1960–62) and a low Class A level (1963–79) full-season league in American minor league baseball. The Western Carolinas League changed its name prior to the 1980 season and has been ...

and four games for the Triple-A Houston Buffs of the American Association, he batted .402 with 132 total

hits Hits or H.I.T.S. may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Music * '' H.I.T.S.'', 1991 album by New Kids on the Block * ''...Hits'' (Phil Collins album), 1998 * ''Hits'' (compilation series), 1984–2006; 2014, a British compilation album s ...

. He led the Western Carolinas circuit in runs and

batting average Batting average is a statistic in cricket, baseball, and softball that measures the performance of batters. The development of the baseball statistic was influenced by the cricket statistic. Cricket In cricket, a player's batting average is ...

, and was named Most Valuable Player and an All-Star. Pointer made his debut in the major leagues during the last week of the season, appearing in two games for the Colt .45s, then spent the entirety of the 1964 and 1965 seasons in Houston's minor league system, as well as most of the 1966 and 1967 seasons. He did play 38 games for the renamed Astros in and . Over three seasons, Pointer had a .208 batting average with two

home run In baseball, a home run (abbreviated HR) is scored when the Baseball (ball), ball is hit in such a way that the batting (baseball), batter is able to circle the bases and reach home plate safe (baseball), safely in one play without any error ( ...

s and 15

runs batted in A run batted in or runs batted in (RBI) is a statistic in baseball and softball that credits a batter for making a play that allows a run to be scored (except in certain situations such as when an error is made on the play). For example, if th ...

. He was traded to the

Chicago Cubs The Chicago Cubs are an American professional baseball team based in Chicago. The Cubs compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (baseball), National League (NL) National League Central, Central Division. Th ...

during the 1968 season, but never made it back to the major leagues. He played for the Triple-A Tacoma Cubs in 1968 and 1969, and signed with the

Nishitetsu Lions The are a professional baseball team in Japan's Pacific League based north of Tokyo in Tokorozawa, Saitama, Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture. Before 1979, they were based in Fukuoka, Fukuoka Prefecture, in Kyushu. The team is owned by a subsidiar ...

Fukuoka is the List of Japanese cities by population, sixth-largest city in Japan and the capital city of Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. The city is built along the shores of Hakata Bay, and has been a center of international commerce since ancient times. ...

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

after the 1969 season. Pointer played three seasons in Japan from 1970 to 1972. He also played in Venezuela before retiring.Charles Aikens
"Aaron Pointer To Retire From Tacoma Recreation", ''Oakland Post'', November 12, 2000 (via HighBeam)
/ref>

After baseball

After retiring from baseball, Pointer settled in

Tacoma, Washington Tacoma ( ) is the county seat of Pierce County, Washington, United States. A port city, it is situated along Washington's Puget Sound, southwest of Seattle, southwest of Bellevue, Washington, Bellevue, northeast of the state capital, Olympia ...

, in 1973 and worked for Pierce County Parks and Recreation, scheduling and supervising athletic activities. He began officiating

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

games at the recreational level and later at the high school and college level. From 1978 to 1987, Pointer officiated for the

Pacific-10 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference in the Western United States. It participates at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I level for all sports, and its Co ...

, eventually becoming a head linesman. He is also the first

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

referee in the Pac-10. In 1987, Pointer joined the

as a head linesman wearing uniform number 79. He retired from the NFL after the 2003 season, but he continues to serve as a game-day observer for the NFL. He once worked a game in Los Angeles where his sisters sang the national anthem before kickoff. Pointer retired from Pierce County Parks and Recreation in 2000 after 29 years. He currently serves as president of the Metropolitan Park District of Tacoma board of commissioners, after being appointed to fill a vacancy in 2001. He also serves on the Executive Board of the Tacoma Athletic Commission. In June 2008, Pointer was inducted into the Tacoma Hall of Fame.

References

External links

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pointer, Aaron 1942 births 20th-century African-American sportsmen Living people 21st-century African-American sportsmen African-American baseball players Amarillo Sonics players American expatriate baseball players in Japan Baseball players from Oakland, California Baseball players from Tacoma, Washington Durham Bulls players Estrellas Orientales (VPBL) players Houston Astros players Houston Buffs players Houston Colt .45s players Industriales de Valencia players 20th-century American sportsmen Major League Baseball outfielders Nishitetsu Lions players Oklahoma City 89ers players

Aaron According to the Old Testament of the Bible, Aaron ( or ) was an Israelite prophet, a high priest, and the elder brother of Moses. Information about Aaron comes exclusively from religious texts, such as the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament ...

Salisbury Braves players San Francisco Dons baseball players San Francisco Dons men's basketball players San Antonio Bullets players Baseball players from Little Rock, Arkansas Tacoma Cubs players McClymonds High School alumni