Tuesday, June 7, 2016

#540 - Claudell Washington


What a card: Claudell Washington was coming off his first All-Star season since he was a 20-year-old All-Star in 1975 when this card was issued. But he was entering a difficult 1985 in which he'd be named in the Pittsburgh drug trials.

My observation on the front: There are no less than four people dressed in '80s road blue in this photo.

More opinion from me: I was continually surprised during Washington's career that he was still around. With the number of times he jumped from team to team I expected him to fade out, but he lasted 17 years.

Something you might know: Washington burst onto the baseball scene in 1975 when he batted .308 in 148 games at age 20 for the Oakland A's.

Something you might not know: According to an account in the Los Angeles Daily News when Washington was playing for the Angels in 1990, several witnessed said they saw Washington strike his wife in the parking lot after a loss to the A's. The article said Washington's wife called the police and filed a report. The two later got divorced. It's interesting there was nothing else on this that I could find. Different times.


My observation on the back: Regarding the bio write-up, Washington was quoted during the 1974 World Series as saying, "the summer I was 15, I didn't play any baseball at all. I just didn't feel like it."

The blog wants to speak now: The News category is updated with an earlier entry from Oct. 26.

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