Sadly, two men from my baseball childhood passed away earlier this week. Ed Ott, a catcher who played the majority of his career with the Pittsburgh Pirates, died March 3rd at age 72. U.L. Washington, an infielder who played primarily with the Kansas City Royals, died the same day at age 70. I was sad to hear of their untimely passing as they were part of an era in which I came to love the game of baseball at a very young age.
Here is why they matter to me. Ed Ott was the starting catcher on the 1979 Word Series Champion Pirates. It was the first World Series that I remember watching, so long ago that one or two of the games were actually played during the day. “We Are Family” is more than a song by Sister Sledge, it was the anthem for that team. To this day, whenever I hear that tune, I am transformed back to more carefree days….and of course, baseball. As for U. L. Washington, he was an important part of the best rivalry in the game at that time, the Royals vs. the New York Yankees. One of his more famous moments occurred in 1983 when he was the runner on first base when George Brett hit his infamous “Pine Tar” home run. Of course, you can never picture Washington without that toothpick dangling from his mouth.
Neither man will make the Hall of Fame. That’s not the point. Any one of us would gladly take their accomplishments Ed Ott was the starting catcher on a World Series champion. He had nearly 1,800 at bats over an eight year career. U.L. Washington stole 132 bases over 11 seasons. They are examples of why I could never be a talk show host. I could never publicly say someone stinks or shouldn’t be on a team. They are men who reached the highest level of their profession with varying degrees of success. Those who reach the Major League level, no matter how they perform once they get there, are to be commended for their hard work and not the scorn that comes with each failure. We could only be so lucky as to reach Single A ball, never mind the Major Leagues.
Now that you got through this initial post, I will let you know that this will generally be a blog that will (mostly) have fun while touching on more serious topics such as the one you just read. As you may have gathered, I will not be in the business of bashing players for their performance. Privately, maybe. Publicly, no way. They hear it enough from fans fans and media. I am not interested in contributing to the negativity. Most topics will come right off the top of my head, drawing on all of my years of following the great game of baseball. I hope my love, passions and yes, nerdiness comes through each one of my posts!
Threeunassisted 