Email a copy of 'This Date In Transactions History: Herb Washington' to a friend
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By Dan Mennella | at
Email a copy of 'This Date In Transactions History: Herb Washington' to a friend
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Blue387
Charlie Finley was a creative man.
EdinsonPickle
Great article. Very interesting as I have never heard of Herb Washington before.
johnsilver
The running A’s were great.. I remember Washington very well and he was replaced by another non talent otherwise named Matt Alexander as pinch runner for them.
Those running A’s teams stole ALL the time, even slugs like Sal Bando even stole 20 bases 1 season! Shows what being the ‘tail end” of a double steal will do for you! HAHA
Edit:
I forget if it was Chuck Tanner, or Billy Martin (later on A’s manager) who had this play devised on stolen bases, but here is how it went…
Runner on 1st and 3rd..
Runner on 1st would fall down between 1st and 2nd.. Runner on 3rd would break for home when whomever went to tag out the fallen down runner when the fielder who had the ball generally was caught off guard.. That actually worked a couple of times.. Am thinking it was a Tanner play…
Jay Rock
You have forgotten about Allen Lewis, aka the Panamanian Express. He was the A’s designated runner before Herb Washington, though Lewis did have 29 AB’s and 10 games in the outfield.
Justin 21
I would like to make it clear that I am not being aggressive or insulting, just commenting the first thing that came to mind when I read this post. It seems to have many backhanded slaps to the face of a man who was fortunate enough to play for the A’s, win the World Series, and otherwise have a better life than internet people who have no chance of ever playing professional baseball. The passive insults to Herb Washington are loaded with speech just soft enough to get by the policy against freedom of opinion. I hope he doesn’t see this memorial to his “underwhelming” career. I think this article might somehow be “newsworthy”. Its a good article, a “terribly” and embarassingly good article.
johnsilver
The man had no baseball skills. It wasn’t a slap at him. Finley got him only because he could run… He couldn’t even steal bases when the A’s signed the guy.. Billy North (A’s CF) worked with him unceasingly to TRY and teach him how to utilize his speed, but it is HARD to teach reads..
Finley would use ANY idea he could to get an upper hand in anyway he could.. He didn’t spend a dime more than he could, even before FA and if he thought stealing bases would work? He would use the speed route, so he went with the pinch runner scheme whenever his base slugs would come up, hence Washington and later Matty Alexander.. neither could hit, nor play any position on the field.. They were there because they could flat out run in a straight line and they had Billy North trying to teach them HOW to utilize their speed and read pitchers.. Something it took him years to do almost overnight.
Dan Mennella
I respect your opinion but disagree. I was merely trying to capture the absurdity of the situation.
johnsilver
I appreciate it.. Have brought up both Matty Alexander and Herb Washington here before in posts as base stealers..
Nice to see at least *1* get named in a prominent topic. HAHAHA
johnsmith4
Good job. I remember Herb Washington. Stealing A in Strat-O-Matic without a Strat card.
I was thinking of Herb Washington this spring when reviewing Toronto’s lineup. This year’s Blue Jays bench reminds me of 74 A’s bench. I equate Rajai Davis to Herb Washington along with Omar Vizquel=Dal Maxvill and Jeff Mathis=Ray Fosse/Larry Haney. Keep up the good work.
Justin 21
yeah, your observation of absurdity from about 40 years ago is a good trade rumor, so I respect that, good point. I’d like to call the appearance of this post an “oddity”. nice report.
venn177
“No fun allowed.”
Ian_Smell
I had fun once, it was terrible.
Patrick OKennedy
I remember Herb Washington. Growing up in Detroit, were were informed that he went to high school in Flint, went to Michigan State, and was a national track star with blinding speed.
He also has done quite a bit since his retirement from baseball.
He owned most of the McDonalds franchises in Youngstown, Ohio and was Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank in New York.
johnsilver
Glad he did well after baseball, not all players transform very well.
For those not familiar with “the wrath” of Finley.. It was common for
him to fire players..He released Mike Andrews in the middle of the ’73
series after making a key error.. Nope.. He wasn’t a very kind owner at
all..
johnsmith4
He wasn’t highly regarded as a hockey owner. The assessments from those who worked for him are too unkind to mention.
Dan Mennella
Thank you for sharing this here as a sort of post script (I’ve also seen it mentioned on Twitter). I’m genuinely happy that Washington led a productive life after baseball and considered including it in the post, but it’s not especially relevant to the story.
Patrick OKennedy
You’re right. Nothing really to do with baseball, or the eccentric Charles O. Finley. I just thought it was an interesting aside to note that a player who was pretty much laughed out of the game by some, went on to have a distinguished career.
Of course, there were many crazy-ish ideas that Mr. Finely had, from moving the A’s out of Kansas City, to orange baseballs to white cleats and staunch resistance to free agency.
johnsilver
Don’t forget the mule with the straw hat as the team mascot he would parade before many games onto the playing field…
It was almost as funny as ex Reds owner’s Marge Schott pet dog named “Schotzie” 🙂
hartvig
Don’t forget that many of the nicknames that those Oakland players had (Catfish Hunter,Blue Moon Odom) were also creations of Charlie O…
rashomon
Great post, Dan. And I don’t understand the criticism, since Herb never fielded or had a plate appearance. We assume every major league baseball player at one time “played ball”, but Herb only “played base”. I don’t think it’s disrespect to acknowledge the distinction. I think the unusual circumstances, and Herb’s contributions within those bounds, only add to why we love this odd little game.