On the blog today, we have a 1977 "Traded" card for former outfielder Claudell Washington, who found himself heading to the Texas Rangers just before the 1977 season after a trade from the Oakland A's:
Washington,
who was still only 21 years of age, was traded for Rodney Scott and Jim
Umbarger after parts of three seasons with Oakland.
An
All-Star in 1975 at the age of only 20, Washington was certainly a
promising star in the game, hitting for average while stealing bases and
showing a little "pop" in his bat from time to time.
He
didn't disappoint in his first season as a Ranger, hitting .284 with 148
hits, 63 runs scored and 68 RBIs, with 12 homers and 21 stolen bases.
However
after only 12 games in 1978, he was on the move again, to the Chicago
White Sox where he'd play for parts of three years, with 1979 his only
full season there.
After finishing his 1980 season with 79
games for the New York Mets in 1980, he signed as a free agent with the
Atlanta Braves, where he would end up playing for the next five and a
half seasons, again, giving his team a consistent set of numbers that
generally hovered around .275 with 15 homers and 20 stolen bases.
After
the Braves he played with the New York Yankees from 1986 through the
1988 season before heading West as a member of the California Angels in
1989 & 1990, before one last hurrah with the Yanks at the end of
that 1990 season.
By the time he retired, Washington finished
with 1884 hits, 926 runs, 164 homers and 312 stolen bases, along with a
.278 batting average over 1912 games and 6787 at-bats.
Sadly, he passed away last year at the age of 65 from prostate cancer after being diagnosed with the disease in 2017.
