The Designated Runner

With a team so stacked with few weaknesses and limited roster spots available, can the Dodgers actually be thinking about making the 26^th man a designated runner?  There doesn’t seem to be much difference between Herb Washington and Terrance Gore except that Washington was a better hitter.  OK, that was a cold shot.  My point is that I can’t fathom the Dodgers leaving one of the young core that deserves a shot at the bigs over a pinch-running specialist.  If this was September and the pennant stretch, it would have some merit, but not in late March at the season’s start.  Dave Roberts served the designated runner role with Boston in 2004, so there is some track road of success with the pinch-runner specialist being available as an option.

Gore certainly has the wheels.  You can’t help but be impressed with his blazing speed.  Hopefully, he is still in the organization by the time the pennant stretch run comes round.  That is if there is a pennant stretch this year.  I have never felt so confident going into a season with a team, which is probably why I should be worried. 

This Dodger team has it all.  Power, defense, on-base percentage prowess, relievers galore (long guys, short guys, closers, specialists), a promising starting staff of about eight guys, roster fodder with quality prospects in the minor leagues.  Then they have another rookie of the year candidate, multiple MVP candidates, Cy Young candidates.  Even players that could easily rebound and take Comeback Player of the Year honors.  Andrew Friedman must have been asking what the team is missing?  I guess it was the pinch-running specialist.

For those of you long in the tooth, I am reminded of Charles O. Finley’s experiment in 1974 with the World Champion Oakland A’s.  A team coming off consecutive championship seasons.  He too was attempting to fill a hole on a team that had few weaknesses.  They brought in the fastest man on the planet, Michigan State track star, Herb Washington, the World Record holder in the 50 and 100-yard dashes, two events that are no longer run on the track circuit with the world’s acceptance of the metric system.  Washington’s purpose was Finley’s latest new-fangled experiment to disrupt the game…the designated runner.  He had already introduced the designated hitter and night World Series baseball (with success), and the orange baseballs (a flop).  Herb Washington was his next innovation to the game.  Washington’s 1 1/3 season career created the one and only “Pinch Runner” Topps Baseball card.

Savvy old Charles O recruited Washington on his own at the recommendation of his manager Alvin Dark who had seen him sprint in a track and field event on T.V.   Herb, who at the time was working at a Michigan TV channel as the Sports anchor, demanded a guaranteed “no cut” contract from the old man.  Finley told him that Reggie Jackson and Catfish Hunter didn’t even have that, and Washington responded by asking him if they could run 50 yards in less than 5 seconds.  It was probably the only time Charlie was strapped for an answer.  Washington got his guaranteed $45,000 no-cut contract.

Finley brought in Maury Wills to teach him a crash course on stealing bags.  There was one problem though.  Washington could not get the hang of the feet first slide.  He resorted to the head-first slide instead.  There were a lot of bumps at the beginning.  Herb was thrown out in four of his first 5 attempts in the season.  The media scrutiny was growing.  It was a good thing he wasn’t playing in New York.

Washington was almost immediately ostracized by his teammates, who initially had little respect for him.  He was not a “baseball player” in their eyes.  He hadn’t paid his dues.  Reggie Jackson said he respected him as an athlete but not a baseball player.  Team captain Sal Bando ripped him after he was thrown out in a regular-season game.  Washington could have sulked, but he fought back.  “I thought a team captain was supposed to lead by example.”  He left it at that, and he worked harder.

Gradually some teammates came around.  Bill North took him under his wing, providing advice.  He sided with him even though he admitted that the idea of a designated runner was a bad one.  Most players were against anything Finley came up with.  They had their beefs with him for years, and this was another one of his crazy antics. 

Washington had a string of 17 bags stolen in 21 attempts in July and August.  He proved to be the winning run in a few games.  After that rough start, by September he had won over his teammates.  Gene Tenace, an initial critic of Washington said “He’s a tremendous person and he has done a tremendous job for us.  I’ll say this about him, he adjusted.  You have to give him credit for that, I know I do.  I really like the guy.”

Of course, there is a Dodger angle to all of this.  The A’s faced the up and coming Dodgers in the ’74 World Series and in Game two at Dodger Stadium, Washington was called upon in the 9^th inning as the potential tying run at first base with one out while trailing by a run.  Mike Marshall was on the mound at the conclusion of his Cy Young-winning season in Los Angeles.  Steve Garvey was at first base.  What resulted were three Michigan State Spartans in the mix. 

Marshall initially stepped off the rubber and faked a throw.  He then again stepped off the rubber again, twice, thrice.  No throw to first.  Then while playing possum, Marshall quickly fired a missile to Garvey and Washington leaned the wrong way.  The tag was applied, and Herb had to make what had to be the longest walk in his life as he stepped off the field to the dugout.  Baseball’s base running specialist had been embarrassed in the game’s largest stage.  Two pitches later, Marshall retired Angel Manguel and the Dodgers won their only game of that series.  This Youtube clip takes us down memory lane, with the call from Curt Gowdy and guest announcer Vin Scully.

“If I had a lever that would have dropped me out of the stadium at the moment, I’d have pulled it,” said Charlie Finley when being interviewed by L.A. Times reported Ross Newhan.  If there was one thing Finley hated, it was being proven wrong and the pinch runner idea was his from the start.  A few months before, he had predicted that Washington would be instrumental in winning him the Fall Classic.  Now he was an embarrassing failure.

The experiment continued into the next season, but by then Finley had acquired two speedy outfielders that could serve the same purpose and also respectfully field their position as well as handle the bat.  Washington was out of baseball for good in June 1975 and in the process lost his amateur status to be eligible for the Olympic games in 1976.

Riddle

A 90-year-old ex-schoolteacher from Nova Sciota, an attorney from Southern California, a Border Patrol Agent from San Francisco, a CPA from Sacramento, and a guy from Indianapolis with no discernable skills walk into a bar. What’s the punch line?

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OK, Kershaw sucks!