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James Franklin Pankovits (born August 6, 1955 in Pennington Gap, Virginia) was a Major League Baseball player with the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox from 1984 to 1990. Pankovits was used primarily as a pinch hitter and occasional second baseman. In one instance, he even caught an inning of a 1986 game [1]. In his career, he hit .250 with 9 home runs and 55 RBI. His best season came in 1986 as a member of the National League Western Division champion Houston Astros. He hit .283 in 70 games as the primary back up to Bill Doran. He has since worked as a minor league baseball manager and is currently the manager of the Salem Avalanche, an Astros affiliate in the high class A Carolina League. The Avalanche is located in Pankovits' home state of Virginia.

[edit] PANKOVITS - THE SYSTEM

In 2007, the Astros introduced a player analysis formula in his honor. The brain child of General Manager Tim Purpura, PANKOVITS is an acronym for Player Analysis with Neutral Knowledge of Offensively Vital Information Tracking Statistics. It is credited in some circles with predicting the success of Hunter Pence and the failure of Woody Williams during the 2007 season.

[edit] External links

• 2001 interview with Jim Pankovits [[2]]