Old days

 

U.L. Washington passed away Sunday.

It was a little distressing when I found that out, not because I had a firm connection to Washington, who was the shortstop for the 1980s Kansas City Royals teams that repeatedly made the postseason, but because it took a long time to find credible information on the news.

One big reason for that is the demise of traditional news sources, which ain't good, but also the immediacy of social media, which often doesn't place a lot of importance on how they discovered that information. But another reason is a lot of folks on earth now just don't remember the 1970s and 1980s. It's not important to them. Now that is more than a little distressing to me.

 

So Washington falls into that category of "incidental" baseball players of the past for many people. He wasn't George Brett or Tony Gwynn, someone who enters into fans' consciousness automatically whether they were around for that player's games or not. Washington's career ended before the '90s began.

 

Perhaps that's on my generation for not promoting players like this enough, I just assumed everyone knew about Washington and his toothpick.

 

I've written a handful of posts about Washington, including specific ones that displayed the two cards I've just shown. Washington was a past Brush With Greatness post as he's the first person with Major League experienced that I interviewed.

 

That's why I acquired the Welland Pirates card of him as a manager because that was the year I talked to him and he was working in that capacity. In fact I talked to him during Welland's first-ever game as a Class A franchise in the New York-Penn League.

 

I mentioned previously that I wrote a sidebar during that game (it was also the first game for our beat team, the Niagara Falls Rapids, and our main writer did the game story) and talked to Washington face-to-face on the field, just me and him. There was that toothpick.

 

 That's the quote I got from Washington in the middle column shown here.

What I didn't remember until going through the clips that I've long stored away is that I talked to Washington twice. I interviewed him in Welland, Ontario, the following day during the Rapids' first road game.

I remember the game, it was played in a public park where high school teams played because Welland's new stadium wasn't finished yet (I would later cover a game in that new stadium at the end of the season when Niagara Falls needed a win to clinch -- they didn't get it).

There are a couple of quotes in there from Washington, unsurprisingly mentioning speed as a key aspect of the team. Washington was known as a speedster during his career.

Those articles were written when I was very early in my pro journalist days (please excuse any newbie writing or typos). That was 35 years ago!

Also Washington was 70 when he passed. Just about everyone I followed in baseball as a youngster is in their 70s now. These are old days when these players played. Just about everything I collect is from the old days.

 

For example, this card.

No way, you're saying, that's a card from 1994 Fleer. That slickness is NEW.

No it's not. 1994 Fleer is 30 years old, you guys. It's OLD.

 

But that was almost the newest card that I landed in the latest Time Travel exchange I made with Matt at Diamond Jesters (I hope to get the return out the door this weekend). With a couple of notable exceptions, everything else was mad old. Like decades and decades ago. Ye Olden Tymes.

 

This awesome 1983 O-Pee-Chee card of Gator is 41 years old. That's right, it's not even my 40-year high school reunion year anymore.

These O-Pee-Chee cards are a little newer but nearing their 40th anniversary as well. I like how Schmidt and Kennedy seem to be speaking their transactions.

 

This card is as old as me and that's enough of that.

 

A little younger than me but still old as all heck. I already have this card but no one had claimed it at Diamond Jesters for months (what the hell) so I had to take it home.

 

Now for some newer stuff just so people under 40 can have something to relate to.

 

I snagged this autograph for Nick. I think Wade Jr. is wearing one of those City Connect precursors, remember those awful all-white and all-black uniforms MLB players were forced to wear that one year? A few years later, they lose all perspective and make this look like an unlicensed Topps card.

 

I added the two 2024 cards for the team collection. (I've since pulled the Graterol card, but no matter since I like the set so much).

 

I think Matt awesomely threw in this Blue Print Kershaw card to go with the others.

So NOT ALL of the cards that I want in my collection are Old As Dirt, just most of them. And if I still need some convincing that almost everything I collect a bunch of people think is archaic, there was this other thing I came across in another story I wrote back in 1989 regarding the Rapids baseball team, referencing Niagara Falls native Sal Maglie.

 

The story was about the Welland Pirates team that U.L. Washington managed. It mentioned that Maglie played in Welland in 1944.

 

I remember back in the '80s when 1944 felt like so damn long ago. Black & white pictures. World wars. The Andrew Sisters and Glenn Miller. Just completely unrelatable moments from my grandparents' time.

 

In 1989, 1944 was 45 years ago. Today, 45 years ago is ... 1979!

 

😮